Brain V/S Religion

In recent years, psychological well-being has been the concentration of exceptional research consideration. Psychological well-being lives within the experience of the person. It might be characterized as the condition of feeling sound and cheerful, having fulfillment, unwinding, joy, and genuine feelings of serenity. It manages individuals' emotions about ordinary encounters in life exercises. Such sentiments may extend from negative mental states or mental strains, for example, uneasiness, sorrow, trouble, disappointment, passionate weariness, misery, and disappointment, to a state which has been distinguished as positive psychological well-being. There is currently generous writing which exhibits beneficial outcomes of religious convictions on mental prosperity in addition to the negative effects. Psychological well-being is profoundly identified with the person's religious belief, which offers a rich source of material to consider the connection between different measurements of religious inclusion and different aspects of mental prosperity. This research essay focuses on the effects of the religious belief on different dimensions of the life of human beings. It provides findings of the studies done on positive and negative effects of religious belief from different academic sources to state that religion is one of the determinants of human health and well-being focusing on mental health and will ultimately lead to stating that religion is such a big force that affects physical, mental, social, and overall well-being of a person but the effects depends on the way we perceive it.

Faith in our religion gives us enthusiastic security and improves our physical and emotional well-being. It changes the lives of individuals and gives us the case of awesome individuals who overcome their apprehensions because of religious confidence. In addition, it underpins the possibility that religion gives us trust in our troublesome time and that expectation gives us quality to manage our struggles. It expresses that once we locate our inside self, we will acknowledge our self as the way we are and subsequently be prompting help from uneasiness, misery, and other mental issues and this must be finished by having faith in the religion (Fischer, 2002).

In 2001, Koenig et al. performed a far-reaching, methodical review of research on religion and emotional wellness and recognized 724 quantitative examinations that inspected this association. The larger part of studies (478; 66 percent) announced factually noteworthy connections between religious contribution and better psychological wellness, more prominent social help, or less substance abuse. A large portion of the examinations was cross-sectional, however, a number have been longitudinal and there are a few clinical trials that have inspected the impacts of religious interventions on emotional wellness. Longitudinal investigations have additionally indicated quicker recovery from depression in group tests and more fast adjustment to upsetting life conditions in religious guardians (Cohen & Koenig, 2004).

Religious activities lead to positive effects on our emotional or mental health. Religious students feel less overwhelmed during college than non- religious students. For example, the outcomes drawn from a national investigation of 3,680 understudies, demonstrate that understudies who are not religious are more than twice as prone to state they have felt discouraged or had poorer enthusiastic well-being than understudies who habitually go to religious administrations (Coday, 2004).

Patients who are being treated for mental-health issues such as depression or anxiety responded better to treatment if they believed in God. People who are more involved in religious practices and who are more religiously committed seem to cope better with stress because [religion] gives people a sense of purpose and meaning in life, and that helps them to make sense of negative things that happen to them," Koenig (2004) said.

According to Newberg (2004), lessons like forgiveness, love, and empathy pushed by the religion wind up noticeably coordinated in the way the brain works. The more that specific neural associations in the mind are utilized, the more grounded they turn out to be, so if a religion advocates empathy, the neural circuits engaged with contemplating sympathy become stronger." So you keep coming back to these positive feelings and emotions, and that reduces stress, anxiety, and can lead to the reduction in stress hormones," Newberg said.

Every coin has two sides. There are some shreds of evidence that state religion can have negative effects on our brain leading to anxiety and depression. Fifth source: Religious convictions or exercises may at times be related with more awful psychological well-being or neurotic behavior. Most clinicians today know as a matter of fact that religion might be used in an unfortunate way or controlled to serve protective capacities that at last hinder psychological well-being and counteract sound development. For instance, religious concerns are basic among individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorders and even individuals in nonclinical tests, including fears of sin, fears of God, and review the ethical status of thoughts to be equivalent to that of activities.

I will again consider Newberg study on the brain. According to Newberg (2004), instead of advocating love and empathy, for example, in the event that as opposed to advocating adoration and empathy, a religion advocates hate of nonbelievers, these negative convictions would likewise turn out to be mostly the brain works, Newberg said. In principle, this would turn on ranges of the brain engaged with considering hateful thoughts, and could build and empower the arrival of stress hormones, Newberg said. Also, if a few people trust that a well-being condition, for example, dependence is a discipline from God, they might be less inclined to seek treatment, Newberg said.

A few people would need to qualify that religion has constructive mental results and different claims about the implied capacity of religion to act in the service of emotional well-being, while others would differ out and out with idea that religion constitutes mental "rescue". Spiro (1965) concluded that religion should be viewed as "absolute insanity" that fills in as well-being giving socially constituted guard system. Ellis (1975) depicted religion as a “mental sickness that must make you self-depreciating and dehumanized” (p.440).

A huge extent of scholars takes a very much contemplated center ground, keeping up that religion can possibly be either positive or negative in its consequences for emotional well-being. They guarantee that religion is a subject to unlimited varieties in structure, substance, and introduction, all of which serve to set up a specific religion as a mental resource or risk, or not one or the other. In this, Roberts (1953) composed that religion can be well-being giving and helpful, or occupying and neurotic (Koenig, 1998, p.5). Spika, Hood, and Gorsuch (1985) presumed that religion can serve a few distinct capacities (Koenig, 1998, p.5). It can defend psychological wellness by going about as a sanctuary from life's challenges, or it can be risked by mixing individuals with "abnormal mental content and abnormal motives" (Spika, et. Each of the, 1985, p.305). They include that religion can possibly be a "therapy" yet that religion itself can "sponsor the expression of psychological abnormality" (p.291). The purpose of this essay is not to resolve the argument about the effects of religion on mental health but to improve comprehension of the complex interface between religion and mental health. Thus, in the end, I would like to say that religion plays a huge role in determining the well-being of a person, especially mental health but effects depend on the way we perceive it. It leaves behind a big question why a few people take a constructive perspective of religion while others take a pessimistic one is still a mystery, and more investigations ought to be directed to look at this theme to learn more about the topic.

Reference:

Coday, D. (2004, November 5). Religion aids mental health. National Catholic Reporter, 41(3),4.

Cohen, A. B., & Koenig, H. G. (2004). Religion and mental health. In C. D. Spielberger

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied psychology. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Science & Technology.

Fischer, M.P. (2002). Living Religions, 5th edition, pages 19-23.

Koenig, H. G. (Ed.). (1998). Handbook of religion and mental health. Elsevier. Retrieved from

Rettner, R. (2015, September 23). God Help Us? How Religion is Good (And Bad) For Mental Health.