Benefits Of Religion And Stress

Superior Essays
Religion and Stress
The benefits/drawbacks that faith can bring is based on person’s experience in there mental health. Stress affects a person’s life in many different ways and can influence their actions. Stress is the body’s response to any alteration that can require a person to adjust or respond accordingly. Religion on the other hand has helped many people find peace within themselves and able to find light to there anxiety or uncontrollable events. Religion and stress share a relationship and the benefits of religion can possibly help people with their everyday life.
In certain situations religion can be a poor predictor to help relieve stress. Rosmarin, D. H., Krumrei, E. J., & Andersson, G. (2009) examined that negative core beliefs
…show more content…
Rosmarin, D. H., Krumrei, E. J., & Andersson, G. (2009) showed that levels of general religiousness and religious practices were somewhat predictive of lower levels of distress overall. The idea that religious practices helps predict lower levels of stress shows that praying, going to church, reading of the scriptures, ect have helped people find peace within themselves. Ferriss, A. L. (2002) found that going to church has helped people lower stress and improved their general happiness. There general happiness might be associated with the fact that the people they associate with that impact them positively can help encourage their thoughts to going. They might feel the fact that going to church brings them closer to God and shows their continuous relationship that they share with their God. Mannheimer, A. H., & Hill, T. D. (2015) conducted a study that shows a different side that Conservative Protestants who are under the average attendance for attending religious services tend to exhibit higher levels of psychological distress, depression, and anxiety than those Conservative Protestants who frequently or attend religious services regularly. Religions that may be more conservative and put more an emphasize on attending religious services may feel more stress about not attending. They might feel they have let their God down and feel that people will look down on them. The pressure for some religions to over think …show more content…
Ferriss, A. L. (2002) showed in one his results that prayer deviance is unrelated to distress, depression, and anxiety in Conservative Protestants. Prayer has always been associated with positive communication with God because in Christianity, God wants his people to communicate and talk with him about your issues or life. He is always there for people whenever they need him. Prayer is also associated with meditation and/or relaxation techniques that become a part of a person’s routine. That routine to make time for relaxation allows people to take stress away from a person’s life and make sure that is manageable. Praying to God can help Christian dominations have a different perspective on the outlook in life and how to approach it. They can reconsider hurt someone or hurting themselves if they give themselves the opportunity to speak to God. Prayer in religion can help clarify people’s values, and make them focus on their goals that are important to them. It allows people to feel a sense of being a part of something greater than themselves who have the power to help you when you need it. The time people spend praying or mediating within their religion can create a moment that allows them to detach from any stressor, elevate their understanding that world is good, and give them time to thank everyone. Detaching from stressor will make them realize how to control their stress and make them more

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    There have been many different views concerning the roles that religion and spirituality play in both physical and mental health. These perspectives have been extreme from religion being blamed for mental health illnesses to relying on religion to help with physical health problems. Albert Ellis believed that religion and mental health were incompatible with one another. He thought religion could harm an individual’s mental health. Ellis had a viewpoint known as naturalistic metaphysical extremism, which refers to human nature as a naturalistic system that should not depend on religion.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There has been a lot of attention over the last few years on what role spirituality and religion have in health. When patients turn to spiritual or religious ways of coping, it can be associated with a decrease in both stress and depression, which in turn creates reduced rates of mortality in patients. When religious-accommodating approaches are merged with religious elements, the psychologist shows acceptance and respect for the religious client, and in turn, increases trust and elevates the therapeutic alliance. Religion and spirituality can be an invaluable factor in the process of imprinting and aiding in psychological well-being, positive coping skills, and resilience in religious clients. Integrating religion and spirituality into therapy and treatments can increase acceptability and accessibility among patients (Stanley, Bush, Camp, Jameson, Phillips, Barber & Cully,…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Based on academic research, the findings show that Latina/Latino groups utilize religion as a coping strategy to manage stress along with different cultural traditions that help to maintain identity and connection with the group they identify with. Other researchers affirm that Latina/Latino groups in the US develop a dual culture and them manage dual coping strategies that adjust to both cultures. It is unknown if this strategy result in more effective coping or could lead to overwhelming feelings and less effective…

    • 82 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This study is taking a look at the relationship psychological help seeking and religious coping and practices have on African American college students that may be embarked in psychological distress. Within finding the relationship, there has been studies done to find how psychological distress is first view. After empirical research, Galek et al. (2015) suggested that belief that there is meaning in life is inversely…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For thousands of years, care of the inner self was primarily the domain of religion. The advent of modern psychology in the late 1800s put this care in new hands; today, approaches to integrating the worlds of Christianity and psychology span a broad range (Entwhistle, 2010). Some individuals or factions in each field of expertise view the other with contempt, viewing spiritual doctrine and psychological research/practice as incompatible. Others pick and choose aspects to sprinkle into their own field, such as psychologists who see therapeutic merit in prayer & meditation apart from the beliefs that ground them, or Christian counselors who develop or borrow therapeutic methods based on similarity to Christian disciplines without attention to empirical methodology…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ellison, C. G. (1991). Religious involvement and subjective well-being. Journal of health and social behavior, 80-99.…

    • 3018 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There is countless evidence to suggest that religiosity and spirituality may play a significant role in the mental health and health outcomes related to Latinos (Applewhite, Biggs, & Herrera, 2009). In a survey of religious beliefs in approximately 2000 Latinos, the majority endorsed the Renewalist Christian belief that ‘‘God wills good health to all believers who have enough faith’’ (Pew Hispanic Center & the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2006). Hispanics were more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to believe that prayer or faith in God can help relieve depression (Cabassa, Lester, & Zayas, 2007; Givens, et al., 2007). Most Latinos will seek help from their church and clergy as opposed to a therapist as they truly believe that this method is the most helpful. As stated by Susman et al., (2008), clergy members expect and hope to see their congregants as often as possible through the course of their lives. Clergy become very close to their congregants and may know multiple generations within a single family if the families are devout churchgoers. When priests, pastors, etc. make such a connection with their congregants it makes it easy for individuals to seek help outside of their support…

    • 1593 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The DSM 5 (2013) points out that PTSD involves an individual being exposed to traumatic events and those events, in return, effecting behavior. Spirituality and resilience can have a positive, lasting impact on those experiencing PTSD. Peres, et al., (2007) state, “Hopelessness is a word often used by PTSD individuals to express their emotional state” (p. 346). Low levels of spirituality and resilience can increase levels of suicidal idealization and occurrences. Hourani, et al., (2012) found that high spirituality has a “protective effect” for depression and PTSD (p.7).…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Traumatic Experiences

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Spiritual development can ease and counter the effects of trauma. Developing spiritual beliefs and faith often gives people a sense of purpose. This is how many people are able to cope with hardships. Spirituality can have an effect on mental states (Dowshen 2014). Praying gives a sense of calm. There is a part of the brain often called the God part. Praying and the God part of the brain can calm an anxious mind (Brooks 2014).…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An advantage being that professionals incline toward the linkage between religion and sobriety; disadvantages of including religion involve the complexity and controversy of religion (Stinson,2013). Stinson also determined that the advantages of religion in substance abuse treatment outweighed the disadvantages (2013). This study has reason to believe that religion is acceptable in the process of treatment, although that might not be true with all religions. The results of a religious/spiritual scale taken to determine if patients of a Jewish residential substance abuse treatment center showed that patients were “unchanged” by the end of the treatment (Parhami,2014). The scale showed that patients religious or spiritual selves were not altered by the treatment of substance abuse under a religious basis treatment (Parhami,2014). The results determined that people that are religious or spiritual beings have a better chance of a positive treatment outcome in a religious based treatment center (Parhami,2014). Religion does not seem to have a great negative effect on substance abuse treatments. More analysis proves that religion based treatments tend to primarily effect those who are religious or spiritual to use their faith to overcome abusing substances. A religious aspect on treatment is not determined to be more successful than other…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the flip side, what if religion can have a negative impact on your mental health? What if religion isn’t all that it’s crack up to be, and can have a negative correlation with good mental health? There is research that shows that religion can do the adverse, and actually cause someone to have poor mental health. There are many reasons that religion can negatively affect our mental health, including: religion tends to spark a sense of guilt, anxiety and stress, people can develop avoidant coping methods and patients may rely on religion to help treat their illness.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A person’s belief about what is right and what is wrong values. Spirituality is a sense of connectedness with God (or some higher spiritual being). Religiosity incorporates this spirituality but includes the added dimension of living the faith. A person high in religiosity, however, has both this close relationship with God and acts on this belief by going to church and engaging in other sorts of religious activities. Gallup polls consistently find that most elderly Americans consider religion an important part of their life. In general, children and adolescents raised in families that value social responsibility and compassion internalize these values. Numerous research studies have examined the impact of religiosity on youth development (as an example, see Cotton et al., 2006; Fehring et al., 1998; King & Benson, 2005; Oser, Scarlett, & Butcher, 2006 Ream & Savin, Williams, 2003; Sinha, Cnaan, & Gelles, 2007; Youniss, McLellan, & Yates, 1999). Religiosity in adolescence is associated with many positive outcomes such as healthy coping skills, higher levels of community service and volunteer work, less depression, and greater empathy for those in need. As Flanagan (2004) points out, these children and adolescents engage in higher levels of volunteerism and show greater passion for those in need that children not raised in such…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    (Ragin, 2011, pg. 193) A person’s faith can help them manage stressful situations by giving them hope and a sense of purpose and, certain religious and spiritual practices support healthy eating and stress reducing coping skills such as prayer and meditation.…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Healthy Behavior Analysis

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages

    “Religion is a subject that we encounter daily either because we follow a specific faith and the rules established by it” (Zharku, 2011, pg. 1). Depending on the spiritual faith practiced, religions are based on different principles. It positively affects my health in many ways. Spiritual practices can reduce blood pressure, strengthen the immune system and help maintain a healthy life. Being a true Christian encourages healthy behavior, especially not smoking. Being a true believer, praying also helps motivate and make positive health decisions. Even though it is easy to sin, I can sometimes get side tracked, but it is my faith that keeps me grounded. Gods authority expands to the physical as well as the spiritual and has control over all things and my…

    • 1528 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Effects Of Prayer Essay

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages

    One of the studies was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology looked at how faith can actually help protect patients against the symptoms of depression ("Faith & Health"). Now it might not seem possible but the university has made several connections between prayer and depression. Yet the researchers from Rush University have conducted an extensive amount of research on depressions and its contributing factors. The university has applied some of these things to see if it would decrease depression. They also wanted to see what it would do to patients who did not have depression but were likely to get it. The test concluded that many of the patients who received prayer as treatment did not show any sign of forming depression. And the people who did have depression showed a substantial decreased. So not only does prayer improve mental health it also deflects depressed…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics