Well what do you know? The letter below was published word for word except for the last sentence, with its mention of God and (pardon me! the Catholic Church.
“What drives the increased demand for mental health services” is patently obvious.
In our materialistic society, with its dire predictions of climate
change and without faith in God, mental illness or at the very least unhappiness
would seem inevitable.
I’d say the demand for beds in mental health units grows in inverse
proportion to the demand for places in church pews. Higher levels of religious
belief and practice (known, unflatteringly, to social scientists as
‘religiosity’) is associated with better mental health – specifically lower
rates of depression, anxiety, disordered substance use and suicidal behaviours.
Religiosity even means better phyical health. Recovery from severe mental
disease such as schizophrenia is faster in countries with higher levels of
religiosity (not, obviously and unfortunately, New Zealand).
The churches should be on to this. They should be advertising their
doctrines and practice as preventing and healing mental illness.
I know myself
that with my family history of mental illness and without my faith in God and
the Catholic Church, by now I’d be in a strait-jacket.
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