How Faith Affects Mental Health

Studies consistently show a relationship between faith and better mental health.

But it doesn’t appear to be a simple cause-and-effect relationship, and some skeptics may acknowledge the relationship but say it’s a case of religion being an emotional crutch for believers.

Whatever the case – and we’ll come back to the observation about religion-as-crutch – the studies I’ve seen are pretty uniform, including a recent one called Attachment to God and Psychological Distress: Evidence of a Curvilinear Relationship, authored by Matthew Henderson and Blake Kent and appearing in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Newsweek magazine identified two important contributions of the research to the study of religion and health.

Better Psychological Well-Being

The first is confirming that people with a secure attachment to God are predicted to have better psychological well-being.

Says Blake Kent, the study’s co-author: “Attachment to God has emerged as one of the most significant, powerful influences of mental health and oftentimes more important than religious attendance.”

The second contribution relates to anxiety about one’s relationship with the divine and how it consistently predicted poorer psychological well-being. So when it comes to mental health, faith can be a two-edged sword.

Less Anxiety?

In my view, a person with a well-ordered relationship with God is bound to have less anxiety and generally, a more positive attitude. What do I mean by “well-ordered?” I mean a relationship between a believer and God as parent, the kind described in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s gospel. (“Prodigal,” by the way, means “wastefully extravagant,” which really applies more to the father in the story than the son.)

The fruits of a faith grounded in trust in God are peace and joy.

On the other hand, a person whose image of God is that of a harsh judge, a scorekeeper who keeps track of all our shortcomings, is bound to be more anxious and have a more negative attitude. The study also showed that people in a constant state of flux about their faith have more anxiety.

Now to the question of faith as an emotional crutch, an issue I’ve addressed many times in these blogs.

Opium of the People?

Karl Marx, the inventor of Marxism, is said to have called religion “the opium of the people.” For him, faith is similar to a drug that allows people to avoid acceptance of what he believed to be the human condition: residency in a cold, impersonal universe where a lifetime of struggle is followed by death and oblivion.

For some believers, faith is undoubtedly a crutch. But believers who take their faith seriously, at least in the Judeo-Christian tradition, acknowledge the commitments that faith requires and attempt to fulfill them. When that’s the case, faith results in a calm and trust that may appear to be reliance on a crutch.

The point of faith is not, of course, better mental health. It’s a matter of development of a loving relationship with our Creator and other human beings. Better mental health is a bonus.