Prayer and Mental Health

Is Prayer Good for Your Mental Health?

In the early years of psychology, particularly during the era of Freud, prayer and other spiritual disciplines were viewed negatively and were largely scoffed at by people in the field of mental health.

Freud, inside the well known work, The way forward for an Illusion, described religion as a “universal obsessional neurosis” which includes a “psychopathologic phenomena.” However, within the last decade we have seen a plethora of studies that have proved Freud wrong; these studies demonstrate that spiritual disciplines are not liabilities but assets where emotional welbeing is being evaluated.

In this sort study In 2008, Claire Hollywell and Jan Walker critically analyzed 26 published studies more than a use of personal prayer, and came towards the following positive conclusions about prayer:

1. “Prayer, measured by frequency, frequently associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety.”

The study showed men and women who prayed and had existing faith in God, tended attain lower varieties of depression and anxiety than those who did not make use of prayer.

2. “Prayer is a coping action that mediates between religious faith and welbeing.”

Researchers found that prayer was an effective coping mechanism and that religious that used prayer when confronted with adversity for failing health, coped better than those who did not make use of prayer.

3. “Prayer takes different forms, some beneficial, others possibly but not.

(a) Devotional prayers that take the form of an intimate dialogue having a supportive God are together with improved optimism, welbeing and function.

(b) Prayers that involve only pleas for help in extremis may, in the lack of a pre-existing faith, be associated with an increase of distress and possibly poorer function.”

The study found that prayers which are devotional, and involved intimate conversations with God about one’s circumstances, seemed to enjoy to improved wellbeing and much better coping.However researchers also determined that people who did to not have preexisting faith in God, and used prayer as being a plea when highly stressful events entered their lives, did not benefit from prayer and tended currently being even more distressed.

From previously mentioned scientific research by Hollywell and Walker, one can conclude that devotional prayer is an useful coping mechanism when used by those with “pre-existing faith” towards God, and there is strong evidence that devotional prayer can and should be used by people of faith when faced with the challenges of everyday.

Hollywell, Claire and Walker, Jan.(2008). Private Prayer as the Suitable Intervention for Hospitalized Patient: A fundamental Review of your Literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing. Vol. 18, 635-651.

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