Are religious people more mentally resilient?

[Sheermask]

I want hear the thoughts about the relationship between religiosity and anxiety/depression

[Sillysausage234]

In my humble opinion religion causes more mental problems and confusion….fear of upsetting whichever god it is that you’re following… bla blah …religious debates always end in tears tbh especially on here…..hope this helps

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

I agree Silly, ....Here we go again, another pot stirring post to rile up the troops... please... will this crap ever stop....

[Sillysausage234]

Hi think if I had to choose it would be the Buddhist approach in the hope maybe I’d be reincarnated as a snow leopard or something interesting….I think Jesus deffo was a real guy it’s documented a guy called Jesus claimed to be the son of god , but as for being the son of god and all the magic stuff like walking on water ….feeding 5.000 I’m not sure I can go for that but each to their own suppose it’s faith that’s helpful to people…..the belief in something/someone helps people so that’s good ….think on here people need to believe In themselves more ….gorgeous day ….peace 👍

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

In the original scriptures nowhere does Jesus claim to be the son of God. That was added later by the spin doctors. That's one of the few sticking points between Christians and devout Muslims who honour JC and say 'We are not complete without him'.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

Hello jeffrey thanks for the input …that’s true there is no evidence in the history of Jesus to prove he was the son of god ...it’s a bit like ufos some people really think e.t. was real and won’t see it any other way …I struggle with the far fetched b.s. miracles to be honest….I’m not a non believer just not yet seen any factual evidence to back up the bible stuff so still not convinced although would be good for someone to pull something out the bag that there is a god ……but then lots of other ppl would say ……our god is the one true god so wede be back at square 1…….jeffrey question…do you think Jesus really walked on water ?

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

Sillysausage, Miracles? Did you say miracles? I saw a miracle once when I was 12 at the Royal Albert Hall. Harry Edwards healed a man who'd been in a wheel chair since a child (polio). The man walked and even did a little jig of joy on realising he could walk once more.Reporters hoping to expose Harry as a fraud followed the man home but discovered his former disability was genuine. There were a dozen other healings at that meeting.

Harry was called 'the greatest healer since the time of Christ.' I never went to any more healing demos. There was no need.

P.S. I also saw the Beatles perform live at Hammersmith Odeon.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

Interesting Jeffrey …..but being 12 isn’t really an age where claims like that hold any weight ,…was probably like watching marvellous the magician pulling doves out of his hat ….or sawing someone in half…thought only fair to do a little due diligence on Harry ….spiritual healer ….still his work goes on today although they’ve moved with the times ….accepting donations online and offering telephone healing …got scam written all over it if you ask me Jeff

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

Sillysausage, Harry died in 1976, as you say, others continue his work today and do so online or through personal contact. And yes they do accept donations because they have families, mortgages and food bills to pay for. If you say this organisation today is a scam then I respect your opinion and you could well be right but it's surprising that they haven't been exposed by the media or prosecuted under criminal law. But I'm sure you don't make such denunciations without good reason.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

See I struggle with others continuing the great work of Harry edwards ….blessed spiritual healers miracle work …you now get Judith on FaceTime….a bit like derek acora ,scouse t.v.medium / celebrity …speaking to people from beyond the grave …all a bit fishy ….like some spiritual healers. In America I saw once flying around in private jets funded by donating poor people hoping for a miracle…..I’m not sold on this Jeff got anything better than Harry ?

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

Not really, sorry. Except for President Eisenhower's meeting with the aliens in 1952 and the deal they concluded.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

The Aliens?…for another day …entertaining story no doubt will check it out thanks

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

Very wise since NASA is entering the disclosure period.

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and William Shatner, all said they saw UFO's....

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

In the mid west and the south... it was common to have traveling 'Revival' tents and healers make a fortune off of the locals playing parlor tricks. Although some people have overcome the odds from a medical condition, it didn't happen in those tents, most of this was just a con job.

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

I always like the quotes of what Jesus said... how would you know what he said if you weren't there to hear what he said. A 2000-year-old story and a book written from hear say, of what someone interprets someone else said. Believing in your God is great, but like politics... there is no place for it here without offending those who don't believe the way someone else does... please will you people who preach stop.

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

I hear ya....Judaism, Christianity, and the Muslim sects all are Abrahamic based religions... so if they can't get along... how does anyone think spewing this religious dogma crap here helps people who were abused in the name of God. Kids put in re-assignment camps to de-gay them. Or girls getting their heads chopped off for having an affair. Or being baby machines for their faith. Judgement and war... it's all this kind of pot stirring ends up causing.

[Hb2003]

I do not know i wish i had an an answer . but i think religion can and cant help anxiety and depression .it depends on what or who you believe in and if you even have a belief at all .there are other methods that can help with anxiety and depression besides religion .

[Against_the_current]

Resilient yes, stable not

[Against_the_current in reply to Against_the_current]

Also some religions are really deprivating and abusive. Like praising rape culture blaming women for what they wear, putting all the blame on them, the "first sin" or whatever. Like making them wrap themselves in the heat and then blaming me for walking in shorts. Or telling someone you have anxiety and they tell you just pray. Or wars. Even wars between different types of same religion. Fasting, diets, judging other people, "witches". Like "woah, a woman does math, Burn her or kill her with stones". Or banning abortion. And this ever annoying pressure to marry. Religions were made for more ancient society. Probably need update. I mean yes the idea of Supreme Good and Light is what we need. And this idea of The Good can save you from anxiety and depression. But the twisted ideas will make you act like an ocd schizoid maniac. Yes, you won't suffer, but ppl around you will. With anxiety and depression the person Who suffer is you. And probably this is the idea of religion. What a paradox. Yes, the Good is somethimes good and needs to be believed in but not in a people deprivating way, not in killing and abusing women, not in making them marry, die with their husbands, die giving birth, forget being a human. Yes, being a human who can think is hard, it breeds anxiety and depression, but damn anxiety and depression are mental illness that requires thinking. Having a mental illness means you have mental. Yes, i might be anxious as hell but i'm not running around with a sword and a gun, screaming something in an ancient language and trying to get to after life, believing we should sacrifice this life for the after life or the next life (pretty suicidal huh). P. S. Didn't mean to sound like a heretic i'm just a byzantine student of humanitarian sciences and a pastel ghost and a really mentally sick person Who Loves anthropology

[Against_the_current in reply to Against_the_current]

Tho i can say some ancient religions were really violent, the life was violent, with violent gods. Like in ancient Greece. Gods there had flaws. And the sociaty sort of normalized agression. And Jesus brought the phylosophy of humanitarism. But then it was twisted a lot

[Jeff1943]

Claire Weekes, 'the woman who cracked the anxiety code', wrote that in her long experience of dealing with people with Anxiety Disorder she observed that those having religious belief found it to be a support in their recovery. But on its own not a cure. Weekes herself was an atheist.Jesus was a cool dude, he didn't just say "Do this! Do that!", instead he would tell a short story (parable) and at the end you would yourself put 2+2 together and come to the 'correct' conclusion.

Religion does not have a good track record but religion is different to spirituality.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

Don’t think Claire would handle modern day stuff very well ,might test that anxiety code ….not getting likes on Facebook ….not being able to get a doctors appointment ….no amount of floatation apps or hail marys would help

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

There is indeed a Claire Weekes Fans forum on Facebook and she gets lots of posthumous likes.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

That’s great …probably the people with health anxiety who actually did manage to get benzos off a doctor

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

If they regularly get benzos from their doctor they wouldn't need the Claire Weekes fan forum on Facebook.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

Maybe they just use the benzos for panic attacks…or really stressful days ,.but read Claire’s book as a hope for help with their nerves ….like yourself for example

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

I think trying to stereotype the Claire Weekes fans on their Facebook page produces a false view of them. They are all individuals and to suggest they all use benzos for panic attacks is an extremely unlikely generalisation.

Incidentally, I have only had one panic attack in my life which was in 1974 though you are right in saying that I occasionally indulge in the benefit of a diazepam if the grandsons are playing up.

[Sillysausage234 in reply to Jeff1943]

Ok so before I go up to bed …..food for thought …tell someone who’s at the end of their tether single mum 4 young kids to just read Claire’s book and crack the code …..only possible if you can actually get some quiet time to read the book

[Jeff1943 in reply to Sillysausage234]

You're putting words unhygienically into my mouth, Sillysausage. I would never tell the over stressed single mum you describe to just read a book. I think she would be better off on a course of meds to bring more immediate relief but suggest that as time allows she reads the book to prepare for the time when she comes off her medications.

[fauxartist in reply to Sillysausage234]

Your my hero Silly....

[Experiment1982739903 in reply to Jeff1943]

Hi Jeffrey, I'm not part of Claireweekes cult like you, I'm curious .....If she "cracked the anxiety code" as you proclaim, then anxiety rates would be decreasing somewhat right? But anxiety rates have only skyrocketed since the 1950s and onwards.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Experiment1982739903]

That's a very good question, Experiment626.

The phrase 'the woman who cracked the anxiety code' is in fact the title of the recent biography of Claire Weekes and seems a good summation for the tens of millions of people who have benefitted from her method.

Although she was nominated for a Nobel Prize for her contribution to psychiatry she remains relatively unknown to mainstream psychiatry and I think there are two reasons for this.

She was up against the giant pharmaceutical companies with there multi-billion dollar budgets persuading doctors that there was a pill for every ill and this was the best way to treat anxiety neurosis. Against this Weekes had a few books, a duplicated news letter and one telephone. Big Pharma prevailed.

She was also up against a conservative medical profession that weren't prepared to accept a radical new form of treatment from a woman doctor who was only qualified as a general practitioner.

But there were exceptions such as Doctor David Barlow, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry at Boston University who wrote:

"By thinking outside the box and exercising extraordinary clinical sensitivity the brilliant physician Claire Weekes created a treatment protocol to the unending benefit of tens of millions of patients over the years."

[Experiment1982739903 in reply to Jeff1943]

First of all, Claire weekes didn't crack the code. Eastern mystics cracked the code centuries and centuries ago. Face, accept, float and let time pass is her mantra. That's meditation 101. Her core philosophy of acceptance is the heart of meditation... She was just the first white person to culturally appropriate these techniques for wholesale self help books.

Secondly, Big Pharma is not the main cause to blame, sounds like every typical holistic cult's conspiracy to me. If she has tens of millions admirers as you say and on the best seller list then exposure is not a problem. People don't find her books the end all be all among the mountain of choices out there.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Experiment1982739903]

I doubt whether Claire Weekes was knowledgeable enough of eastern mystic cults to 'appropriate' their mystical beliefs.

You say that people don't find her books the be all and end all among the mountain of choices out there. If you go to the U.S. and U.K. versions of Amazon and look at the readers reviews of her books you will find that of 1,600 recent reviews 90% rated her books very good or excellent.

I didn't make up the claim that she cracked the anxiety code or that her protocols had benefitted tens of millions, that was the claim of the Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology of Boston University whom I quoted.

I think you had already made your mind up about Weekes' method long before you asked me the question.

The difference between you and the Boston University Professor is that he'd read at least one of her books. You haven't but still feel highly qualified to condemn a method that has brought more respite and recovery from anxiety disorder than you ever will.

[Experiment1982739903 in reply to Jeff1943]

Its uneccesary to read it as I've seen Jeff1949 rambling on about her method and nothing is new. It's all been said and done before her, so reading that is such a waste of my time.

[fauxartist in reply to Experiment1982739903]

... great stuff...

[fauxartist in reply to Experiment1982739903]

I've always thought the same when someone say's they have cured their depression or anxiety... then why do they need to be on this site talking about their stuff. I think most of us are hard-wired with our stuff, and outside factors like mental injury from PTSD, CPTSD, trauma, neglect, abuse, abandonment, all contribute to our existing conditions. If I could find Aladdin's lamp and could get three wishes... it wouldn't be just for world peace and a ton of cash....

[Jeff1943 in reply to fauxartist]

I'd like to think that if and when you recover from anxiety you would still return here with what you have learnt to help others still struggling.

[Dolphin14]

Sheermask

I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the subject? Why you picked the topic.

🐬

[fauxartist in reply to Dolphin14]

It's a great way to stir the pot and get lots of numbers of comments...good question my friend....hmmmmm

[Dolphin14 in reply to fauxartist]

That's what I thought. A new member. I was wondering if poster has been here before. Very controversial post. They must not know the site rules??

❤️🐬

[fauxartist in reply to Dolphin14]

Nobody in admin seems to care ...

[Dolphin14 in reply to fauxartist]

It's strange how things have gone unnoticed for days. I'm not sure what's going on

[fauxartist in reply to Dolphin14]

drama raises the numbers...the new currency is 'data'...this site isn't free, we pay for it by giving our comments and posts here to be observed and data used by those willing to pay for it.

[Dolphin14 in reply to fauxartist]

Well we certainly have our share of dramatic people here.

[fauxartist in reply to Dolphin14]

There would be no telenovelas or soap operas or com/rom movies... it goes back to the days of the gladiators... a spectator's sport on the internet now.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Dolphin14]

If religion was found to be helpful by some people then there is no ban on them mentioning this. If you find any mention of GOD traumatic then look away now or learn to be tolerant of others with views contrary to yours.

[Dolphin14 in reply to Jeff1943]

Jeff

We had made a public agreement not to bother each other.

Is your word not honorable?

🐬

[Jeff1943 in reply to Dolphin14]

Sorry, I blame my memory, I don't remember that at all but that doesn't mean the exchange didn't take place.

[Dolphin14 in reply to Jeff1943]

Well there is nothing wrong with my memory. So please honor your word and not address me in the future.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Dolphin14]

Will try harder, promise.

[Hidden]

I think it depends on the person. It can either aid or be a hindrance. Sometimes people will have depression and not understand why their God has forsaken them. Others might find a sense of comfort in the community of religion. Some might find that community insufferable and suffer. Some may find relief in nightly prays as an act of journaling or getting out their feelings. Others might feel their words are falling on deaf ears. It really depends on the person. In my own opinion religion does nothing but harm a person or individual. That is just what I believe regardless of whether it's eastern religion or western. It's all innately harmful to me. But again, as far as helping others, it really depends on the person and their own individual circumstances.

[fauxartist in reply to Hidden]

Agree completely.... wars start with words... and it's always about politics and religion.

[Hidden in reply to fauxartist]

Interestingly enough the majority of wars have not been religious based. However, religion has been the cause of some of the worst atrocities known to man. I personally just think religion harms the individual who believes in said religion. To me it's not just about how religion has impacted others but how religion corrupts the self. At least that is how I see it.

[Muirwoods]

I consider myself a spiritual person rather than a religious person. My faith has helped me through some very dark times in my life. I feel very close to my Higher Power and continue to work on this most powerful connection. I live the life of a monk. Sometimes I feel like I am a monk. I am an ongoing of the universe and I like me for that!Mw

[Hidden]

Mehhh…think not. Another taboo was invented, get relief then addiction till some screws got loose over time while the O.G. creator nowhere to be found to fix…cluck…cluck…headless chickens running around…You do you.✌️

[Xene]

Whatever happened to Common Sense?😂