Anxious?... Try a Dose of Spirituality

When was the last time you heard a shrink or mental health counselor advise you that you should go to church more often, read your Bible more frequently… meditate or listen to gospel music, volunteer, tithe or join a Bible study group?  For me, someone who has had more than her fair share of mental health counseling over the last decade—mostly in sextortive bad faith I might add, I must say that I cannot recall any of my shrinks ever once recommending improving my spiritual health to better my so-called mental health diagnoses of “paranoia and delusions.”  But this trend is not limited to my therapists, I cannot recall any psychiatrist on TV professing the same either.  Most counselors act like faith is an antiquated coping mechanism, not based in science but a delusion of the mind itself.  Instead of promoting religiosity, we are more likely to hear a psychotherapist advising us to change our genders to get peace of mind than to visit a local church and get active.  This is a shame because surprisingly your psychiatrist should know that, medically speaking, spirituality is inversely related to mental health issues like anxiety and depression, and that generally speaking improving your spirituality increases your mental health. Verghese, A., Spirituality and mental health, Indian J Psychiatry 50(4) (Oct-Dec 2008)(a medical article that after reviewing dozens of studies demonstrating that spirituality improves mental health and coping with stresses in life, advises that the profession needs to pay more attention to religion and spirituality)

"Sims [another researcher] makes a comment, “It is unfortunate that we as psychiatrists can be so crass as to neglect this area of life which is clearly important to many of our patients.” Andersen [another researcher], in an editorial, has pointed out that our civilization’s “loss of soul” may cause psychiatric symptoms such as depression, obsessions, addictions, and violence.  She has suggested that it is the responsibility of psychiatrists to remind the medical fraternity the necessity of putting back the soul in medical ethics and the fact that spirituality is of vital importance for the mental health of people."

at p235.  See also, Najafi, K. et al., Relationship between spiritual health with stress, anxiety and depression in patients with chronic diseases, Int’l J of Africa Nursing Sciences 17 (Aug 1, 2022)(a study finding that spiritual health decreased stress, anxiety and depression in chronically ill patients); Aggarwal, S. et al., Religiosity and spirituality in the prevention and management of depression and anxiety in young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis, BMC Psychiatry (Oct 10, 2023)(reviewing both long-term and intervention studies demonstrating that spirituality is not only inversely related to depression and/or anxiety in young people aged 10-24 years old but that in some studies spirituality proved to be “strongly protective” against depression); Roseman, D., Spirituality & Mental Health: What Clinicians Need to Know, YouTube.com, Anxiety & Depression Association of America (June 13, 2019)(based upon empirical, clinical evidence demonstrating that increased spirituality in patients decreased depression, advising that counselors need to become more familiar with spiritual teachings and how they affect patient perspectives); and Johnson, K. et al., Which Domains of Spirituality are Associated with Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Advanced Illness?, J Gen Intern Med 26(7) (Feb 19, 2011)(also finding that spirituality improves anxiety and depression in patients with advanced illnesses).

Even medically speaking, spiritual health bolsters our mental health.  So do not think that you are being naïve or unrealistic to believe that God and Faith can help you with your anxiety.  Neither the Church or “the couch” are our only recourse for help, mental health counseling should be augmented by spiritual development.

How Common is Anxiety?

This month I am focusing on anxiety—a modern epidemic.  The Anxiety & Depression Association of America (or ADAA) reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the country, anxiety affecting 40 million people, 19.1% of the adult population. Anxiety Disorders – Facts & Statistics, (Assessed 09-24-2024).  Anxiety is defined as being overly concerned about negative outcomes in the future.

"Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.

Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat."

American Psychology Association, Anxiety (Assessed 09-25-2024).  There are several different kinds of anxiety disorders, with the most common ones being social anxiety disorder (fear related to socializing), post-traumatic stress disorder (anxiety after experiencing a traumatic event) and generalized anxiety disorder (worry about a number of different things). ADAA, Anxiety Disorders – Facts & Statistics, supra. The latter two, post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder being five times and two times more likely to affect women.  Most people, more than 60%, are not getting medical treatment for anxiety disorders despite their high degree of treatability. Id.

Some of the signs and symptoms of anxiety include excessive worrying about everyday things, an inability to control worries, a feeling of restlessness or inability to fall and stay asleep, or a hard time concentrating. National Institute of Mental Health, Generalized Anxiety Disorder: When Worry Gets Out of Control (2022).  If your anxiety is too high, not only can it interfere with secular tasks like public speaking, exam taking or your concentration, but high levels of anxiety can cause spiritual impairment, challenges to hearing from the Holy Spirit. McClendon, D., ChurchofJesusChrist.org, Discerning Your Feelings: Anxiety or the Spirit?,  (Assessed 09-22-2024)(quoting President Boyd K. Packer in teaching that our bodies house delicate physical senses that enable spiritual communication and because high levels of anxiety causes our brains to release chemicals that create psychological responses that compete with hearing from the Spirit, anxiety can weaken our hearing from God).

Of course, if you have any of these symptoms or suspect that you may be overly anxious, you should talk to a psychotherapist and see what treatment they have for you, preferably psychotherapy over medication with recognition of the mental health benefits of spirituality.  In this article, I want to emphasize spiritual remedies to anxiety.

Spirituality Can Increase Anxiety When We Have a Negative Impression of God

First, as warning and additional insight, there are instances where religiosity can create or worsen a mental health issue and that is to be considered.  In researching how spirituality affects mental health in patients with advanced illnesses—those given a 50% chance of surviving a year—Johnson et al. found that religion can increase anxiety where the patient had a negative impression about God/religion. Which Domains of Spirituality are Associated with Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Advanced Illness?, supra.

"[N]egative religious coping (i.e., feeling abandoned or punished by God, spiritual discontent) has been associated with an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and poor quality of life.  Similarly, in this study, those with more past negative religious experiences, including the extent to which past religious life has caused stress, suffering, or conflict, reported more symptoms of anxiety and depression."

In this way, where there is a wall or large disconnect between us and God, we likely shun leaning on God to help us manage our mental health, potentially making our conditions worse.  To the extent that someone believes that spirituality and God are incredible or opposed to us, I would argue that not only are you inaccurate about that, but that you are hurting your feelings more than God’s feelings.  God does not give us everything that we want in this life, but it does not mean that God is uncool or unworthy of our association.  God is much greater in scope than humans and the entirety of our earthly lives.  We look up at the sky and it represents God… the oceans, the mountains, the galaxy and universe and we are amazed, thinking “this is how powerful God is!”  And you’re right, that is how powerful God is, so how do you reasonably expect to run from Him?  Our misbelief that God has it out for us puts us at odds with a Super Force.  If it is true that God hates you then you are doomed, you are hopeless and you are damned and you will likely feel that way or anxious about that “reality” every time you think about it.  So, we must find our peace with God in this life… our mental health and possibly our physical health depend upon it.

Despite our negative misimpressions about God, we must learn to trust God at least because there is no other realistic option when you consider it. Joshua 1:1-9 (“Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”).  We must push through our distrust and disappointments with God and know that we need a relationship with Her.  Even if we have had negative experiences with religion, know that those experiences are a small section of what spirituality has to offer, religious people are not perfect but on the balance, spirituality and the Faith Community are here to help us in this life.  To best help ourselves, we need to find a way to love God.

Spirituality Can Reduce Anxiety

There are several ways that spirituality can help us deal with stress. WebMD, Spirituality: How It Affects Mental Health (Assessed 09-10-2024).  It can give us a higher sense of purpose, peace, hope, and meaning; better confidence, self-esteem, and self-control; it can help us make sense of our experiences in life; when unwell, it can help us feel inner strength and result in a faster recovery; our spiritual communities may give us more support; it can cause us to have better relationships with ourselves and others; it can help us feel connected to something bigger than ourselves; and it can reduce our intuitive knee-jerk, emotional reactions to stress, responding instead with wisdom and contentment. Id.; Rethink.org, Fact Sheet: Spirituality, religion and mental illness, Rethink Mental Illness (Mar 2024); Markway, B., PsychologyToday.com, 4 Powerful Ways Spirituality Can Ease Anxiety and Depression (Mar 31, 2016)(reviewing a book by Edmund Bourne, The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook and Healing Fear describing four ways spirituality can help one recover from anxiety and depression). 

I would add that spirituality mitigates anxiety for other reasons as well.  Anxiety includes a pessimistic outlook on life, yet when we are at peace with God, religion provides an optimistic perspective on our lives.  Thus, Faith is very effective in reducing anxious thinking because when we think the way God wants us to think we replace fear with faith. 2 Timothy 1:1-7 (“For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”).  We must learn to trust God, to protect us and provide for us in the way She has promised, in the way She best sees fit. Proverbs 3:5-10.

Outside of spiritual practices, there are other decisions that we make in life that can make life more complicated, burdened.  We naturally want to be ambitious in our careers, in our finances, we want everyone to like us, we want to feel attractive, and we want our family lives to be perfect.  But as we strive for optimizing everything around us, realize that more is not always better.  The more we obtain, the more we have as compared to the average person (i.e., our friends and family) and the more envy we invite into our lives.  The higher we go up the bell curve of possessions, the fewer people we have there with us and the more people we have being jealous of us.

By vesting our worth in the things of this world, we heighten our insecurities and worries.  See e.g., John Mayer’s song Gravity,

Oh, gravity is working against me

And gravity wants to bring me down.

Oh, twice as much ain't twice as good

And can't sustain like one half could.

It's wanting more

That's gonna send me to my knees.

By wanting more material things, we inherently add more weight to our lives and that pulls down our mental health and spiritual health.  Instead, we should want more of what God wants for us, to love Him and other people. Ephesians 2:1-10.  We should look for God’s approval, not that of society. Matthew 10:27-31.  God’s affirmation elevates us as opposed to weighing us down; the more you obtain the more enlightened and less fearful you become. 

By that same token, being focused on carnal things attracts covetous people, typically the least moral on the planet.  Business sharks and shameless climbers make me nervous too.  Being around money and money-oriented people often will increase your nervousness, while being around morally centered people should reduce anxiety. Proverbs 13:20 (“He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.”).  Thus, being spiritually active helps add more principled, trustworthy people to your social network, giving you a more peaceful environment in which to dwell.

Finally, meditation has been shown to reduce fear and anxiety medically and spiritually. Aggarwal, S. et al., Religiosity and spirituality in the prevention and management of depression and anxiety in young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis, supra at p26 (citing two studies involving college students who experienced greater reductions in their anxiety by using spiritual based meditation rather than secular meditation and relaxation); see also, Matthew 6:1-15.  There are many different types of meditation, some secular, but also many are spiritual and even Christian, endorsed by major denominations, like Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer.com (Assessed 09-26-2024)

"Centering Prayer is a method of silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God's presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship."

Meditation clears the negativity out of our minds, replaces it with positivity and gives us a cleaner slate through which to view the day, which can reduce worrying and anxiety as well.

In sum, there are many ways that spirituality can help us manage anxiety.  And a competent shrink should be eager to tell you that… so ask them about it as well.

Other Resources

Here are some other books and resources that advise on reducing anxiety.

·        Rev. Habash, C. et al., Awakening from Anxiety, A Spiritual Guide to Living a More Calm, Confident and Courageous Life (2021), Ch. 3 (discussing several mistakes people of faith make that contribute to their anxiety, including being overly comparative and trying to be perfect yourself). 

·        Peters, C. et al., Overcoming Fear & Anxiety Through Spiritual Warfare (2017).

·        Nguyen, J., Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering (2022).

Until next time: God Bless & Namaste (or the spirit in me recognizes and greets the spirit in you)!