People with Strong Faith Have Better Mental Health

First of all, we must give credit when credit is due. President Duterte must be commended not only for having immediately signed the Philippine Law on Mental Health or the Law of the Republic 11036, but for openly supporting it.

This law will certainly help to erase the stigma of people with mental illness. It provides better access to professional care for people with depression, severe anxiety and more serious cases, such as schizophrenia.

Once this law promulgated – hopefully soon, because I think we have recently had a wave of anxiety cases. health services will become available up to the barangay level. Public hospitals will also be invited to integrate mental health into their core programs to increase awareness and ensure the availability of psychological or psychiatric services in all cases.

The law also aims to improve mental health facilities and promote mental health education in schools and workplaces. People will not be ashamed to admit that they see a psychologist or psychiatrist.

In the United States and Europe, very accomplished people and celebrities openly admit that they see a psychiatrist for a mental health professional. . The new law now gives PhilHealth, the government's health insurance provider, the mandate to subsidize ambulatory consultations and psychiatric treatment, not just hospitalization for serious psychiatric illness.

Stressors

A psychiatrist friend once said to me, "The more an individual climbs the ladder of success, the more stressors are important, and the more the need for them." obtain "emergency" support from a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. I fully agree with that, and the new Mental Health Act should broaden everyone's horizons and consider mental issues from a different angle – such as a disease that does not differ from physical illnesses such as heart disease or the cancer. If it is neglected and left untreated – because "it's only in the mind" – it can snowball into something serious and potentially tragic.

This brings us to the next point. It seems ironic that President Duterte is a strong advocate of mental health and yet it causes so much damage to the collective mental health of the nation.

In a way, in the last two years, people have tried to adapt and insensitive. But nothing has prepared us for what he said about the God that all Christians worship.

I am not a religious person, but if the statement made me lose sleep, I think that anxiety should be over

For many Christians, faith in God is a Strong anchoring that can prevent someone from getting angry amid the various crises of life. Our faith has allowed us to overcome all the storms, and there is scientific evidence showing the effect of lightening faith.

Although faith and spirituality are abstract concepts, we can not concretely concretize President Duterte's dilemma. The mystery of creation with its logical mind – a strong spirituality brings tangible benefits by improving mental health and making stress manageable.
Faith and spirituality offer solace and comfort when one feels depressed. They activate the psychological compensatory mechanisms that we have in our body, so more beneficial hormones like endorphins (the "happy hormones") are secreted.

Personal Relationship

A strong personal relationship with God is also badociated with optimism, enriched interpersonal relationships, strengthened support systems, and a better quality of life. The net result is a positive impact on mental health.

There is now fairly strong scientific evidence establishing a scientific connection between faith and mental health. In most of these scientific studies and journals, the authors' conclusion is that the stronger the faith, the greater the positive effects on their mental health.

A review of 148 studies published in 2002, involving over 98,000 subjects, sought to determine whether a person's amount of religiosity had an effect on depression. The authors' conclusion showed a promising inverse link between the two; the more religious the person was, the fewer depressive symptoms there were

Buffer effect

This advantage was also noted as being more marked during periods of high stress. This phenomenon is now known as the buffering effect of faith and spirituality.

In another meta-badysis or review of the scientific literature published in 2008, researchers badyzed 115 articles to determine the relationship between religiosity or spirituality. depression, delinquency and suicidality (serious thoughts about the possibility of suicide). The authors reported that nine out of 10 articles showed a significant relationship between religiosity and improved mental health.

Another study published in the Journal of Aging and Health in 2009 examined the relationship between church attendance and marital status. in the mood, as seen in the elderly.

Nearly 800 adults enrolled in the study were followed for eight years. The authors concluded that regular church attendance had a protective effect on the overall health of the elderly. The researchers theorized that being religious and having a strong faith gave people a stronger sense of purpose and meaning in life.

Offspring

The last landmark study that I will cite was published in American Journal of Psychiatry in 2012. This is a long-term study that has studied the relationship between religiosity and major depression.

This study is more interesting because it concerned the offspring of parents with depression. The hypothesis was that these children were considered at high risk of also developing depression.

After 10 years of follow-up, the descendants of depressed parents – who are members of Catholic or Protestant denominations, and described religion as very important in their lives – were 76% less likely to experience an episode of major depression. . This suggests that faith and spirituality can have a protective effect on people who may have genetic or familial tendencies to develop depression.

When faith is violently attacked by the most powerful and influential man in the country, inevitable that the balance of mental health of many will be shaken terribly. People are now afraid that divine punishment may happen to the president, and many are worried about what will happen to our country. In biblical times, the curse could extend to people who do nothing to correct the lack of respect for God or blasphemy, as some people describe what the president has done.

I believe that our faith and our spirituality have made us resilient as a nation through all the crises we have gone through. That the president himself flips our "spiritual boat" makes me realize how much I am incapable of understanding the minds of other people.

My finite mind, however, badures me that we have an infinite, loving, and always patient God who remains in full control, even though some of his disciples do not give him the respect and love that is his due.

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