{"id":1677,"date":"2022-11-21T10:40:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T15:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2022-11-21T10:40:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T15:40:01","slug":"researcher-discusses-the-surprising-ways-religion-is-good-for-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2022\/11\/researcher-discusses-the-surprising-ways-religion-is-good-for-mental-health.html","title":{"rendered":"Researcher Discusses the Surprising Ways Religion is Good for Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Josh Packard, Executive Director of the Springtide Research Institute sat down with CBN Faithwire<\/a> and discussed some encouraging findings about the link between mental health and religion. The Institute focuses on 13-25 year-olds and Packard has spent many years researching the connections between faith and mental health. In sitting down with Faithwire, he insisted that studies have already determined that \u201creligion is good for you\u201d and, \u201cFaith and spirituality are good for you. If you\u2019re a person who believes in some kind of higher power and has a connection to that higher power, you\u2019re generally flourishing more than your peers.\u201d He went on to talk about the need to see more young people plugged into religious institutions and practices, saying, \u201cYoung people would be \u2026 better off if more of them had a connection to something bigger than themselves. But also, I think a lot of religious institutions and leaders would do well to take mental health into account, so that like faith and belief could be appropriately part of somebody\u2019s overall approach to health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The benefits of religion have been confirmed in secular studies as well. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) conducted a study<\/a> in 2016 and noted differences between the benefits of \u201creligion\u201d and \u201cspirituality.\u201d It defined religion as \u201can organized, community-based system of beliefs,\u201d whereas it defined spirituality as \u201cwithin the individual and what they personally believe.\u201d One participant of the study noted, \u201cThe idea of religion and spirituality is like a rectangle versus a square. Within religion there is spirituality, but if you have spirituality, it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you have religion.\u201d The study found that religion helped to reduce suicide rates, alcoholism, and drug use. Due to its communal nature, religion offers a sense of community, ritual, and teaching that increase a person\u2019s ability to forgive and how to handle challenging situations. Spirituality focuses more on a sense of a higher power and helping someone understand their interpretation of the meaning of life. It offered benefits in mindfulness, acceptance, and unity with surroundings. The Mayo Clinic noted similar findings<\/a> in its own research, including benefits to physical health, saying, \u201cMost studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide. Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packard did note the growing divide<\/a> between young people and organized religion. Many from Gen Z express themselves as being spiritual but are leaving the church in droves. Packard offered some hopefulness, however, saying, \u201cWe see lots of desire from Gen Z to embark on these conversations and explorations of meaning and purpose and, \u2018Why am I here on this Earth? So, the desire hasn\u2019t gone away. The exploration hasn\u2019t gone away.\u201d Packard will be speaking more about the church and caring for mental health on November 14 at an event hosted by Uncommon Pursuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Josh Packard, Executive Director of the Springtide Research Institute sat down with CBN Faithwire and discussed some encouraging findings about the link between mental health and religion. The Institute focuses on 13-25 year-olds and Packard has spent many years researching the connections between faith and mental health. In sitting down with Faithwire, he insisted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":1680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nResearcher Discusses the Surprising Ways Religion is Good for Mental Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Researcher, Dr. Josh Packard, discusses his findings of the benefits of religion and the positive impacts it has on mental health.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Researcher Discusses the Surprising Ways Religion is Good for Mental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" 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