For many years I have heard it stated that religion can be a insulator for believers, helping them to cope with depression and preventing them from becoming depressed. On a fluke I decided to Google 'depression rates by religion" hoping to have the search results return a quick, easy statistic in answer to my query. Instead I found myself looking through pages of information.
The information I found confirmed ideas that I had already suspected, but thought no one had acknowledged. Religion does not prevent people from becoming depressed, it does not act like an insulator for believers, because religious believers are still human and therefore, susceptible to depression just like anyone else. Religious beliefs don't inoculate believers to prevent depression. To hold to that idea grew increasingly flawed as I read through the articles in the search results.
Unfortunately, the majority of the articles and research papers I found reached a conclusion yet stopped just short of offering any form of explanation, solution, or even valuable insight. They were filled with factual data pulled from studies, research, and experiments. However, they offered no helpful solutions nor conclusions. What's more is that these studies appear grossly outdated with no further research or attempts to understand the problem. It was as if the researchers came to the results and then deemed further investigation unworthy of pursuing. The information, while cold and factual, left me puzzling as to the CAUSE of the higher rates of depression among religious believers.
CBC News practically attempted to portray the information as a reasoning for the conversion to atheism. Drawing upon scientific research from done in a psychiatric study done in 2013. While the article attempted to offer a conclusion the results of that conclusion come across as biased and predisposed in opinion.
The further I read through everything the more I realized the lack of conclusion, or rather the lack of helpful solutions. It began to appear to me that the researchers and authors all recognized a problem, yet offer no solutions or even attempts at helping those who are religious and suffering from depression. As I puzzled through this I began to form my own hypothesis. In an attempt to test if my hypothesis was correct I turned to the Pinterest to test my ideas, very scientific, right?
The more I scrolled through ideas posted by real people the more it seemed to confirm my hypothesis. My theory being that the increased rates of depression among believers is highly due to the discriminatory way that they are allowed, or rather disallowed to draw boundaries to protect their mental health without being attacked by accusations of being intolerant. This regulation of healthy boundaries creates a dynamic in which unhealthy relationships and abuse can be perpetuated unchecked. Should a believer attempt to draw boundaries in order to protect their mental health they are accused of being unforgiving and unreligious; thereby, manipulating them into being in toxic relationships or worse abused. Cries of intolerance go up without allowance for the persons wellbeing or mental health.
Religious believers are faced with demands that they be tolerant in the face of toxic behaviors and treatment. Society as a whole demands that they allow themselves to be subject to mistreatment under the guise of religious observance. Should the person draw boundaries for their own mental health they are then faced with demands to cease practicing their religion or accusations that they are not truly religious. This demand doesn't seem limited to the restraints of their religious peers, and instead seems to be reenforced by society as a whole. I have observed that when the non-religious set up boundaries in the name of preserving their own mental health, wellbeing, and self care they are applauded and encouraged; however, the same reaction is not given as response to religious people setting up the same boundaries for the same reason.
Society seems to have created or is in the process of creating a caste system as to which groups are allowed to care for their own mental health, and wellbeing through the drawing of boundaries. This caste system cannot help but to cause people to remain stuck in unhealthy patterns, and toxic, or abusive relationships through the abuse and manipulation of that persons religious beliefs. It is also demanding that religious beliefs be used as a license to abuse people, and keep them from drawing boundaries to escape toxic relationships or abuse. This discrimination is, perhaps, the largest reason I believe that the statistics show higher rates of depression among religious believers.
This discriminatory behavior seems to scream that if the person not allow themselves to be abused or remain in a toxic relationship they cannot practice the religion of their choice. As if allowing oneself to be abused were a merit badge, or pass required to allow the practice of that religion. Not only does this set up a system solely beneficiary to the abusers but it also creates a culture that, if carried out to it's extreme, denies mental health care to those deemed of the "wrong caste", offering the full benefits of mental healthcare to only parts of that society.
This manipulation of beliefs must stop. Everyone should be allowed to draw boundaries for their own mental health, and wellbeing, irregardless of beliefs or religion. If we are to have an equal society, with equal access to mental healthcare, and equal allowance for the creation of healthy boundaries we cannot allow the perpetual abuse and manipulation of religions as a whole to entangle people in toxic situations and relationships. We also must do everything necessary to stop abuses wherever we can, including learning and teaching the difference between intolerance and boundaries.
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