Does Religion Cause Mental Illness?

[Taverner]

Stay with me for a moment...

I just read a LTTE in some rag about how 'Mental Illness is a result of sin, and not repenting.' I wrote a reply:


You see, this kind of magical and goofy thinking is why we stopped going to church for cures when we were sick. Whether its a Shaman, A Priest, Witch Doctor or Minister, these folks know NOTHING about the real reasons why someone is sick. The Doctor, however, has a much better idea. That is because the Doctor uses the SCIENTIFIC METHOD, a proven method that, given the evidence, can solve any problem we have. The Minister will pray (which does nothing) and make the sick person feel bad (which does nothing except make this person worse) and maybe chant some mumbo jumbo and roll on the floor a lot. Guess who's method works?

This got me thinking: how much mental illness is caused by the delusion brought on by religion?

In Storage Systems, there is an error called a 'Cyclical Redundancy Error.' This can be caused by many things, but is usually caused by two reads of the same data set, and getting different results. A 1 is where a 0 should be, or vice versa. Being as our brains function a great deal like computers, could it be some forms of mental illness arise from a 'Religious Redundancy Error'? That would be they get one piece of information (say 'the Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River over hundreds of thousands of years') and it conflicts with another ('the Earth is only 6000 years old') If you let a CRE persist, it can bring the whole disk, and possibly the entire storage system down, by propagation of this bad data.

Also, think about how many rituals, prayers, crossings, thoughts to think and so on - and how can this NOT lead to OCD? The parishioner thinks 'If I didn't pray in Jesus' name just right, something horrible will happen.' Churches even reinforce this kind of OCD. They want the follower to be worried about these inconsequential things.

Anyway, your thoughts?

[TZ]

1. Uh correlation does not mean causation

Mental illness has to do with two things a) traumatic experiences/brain injuries b) chemical imbalances in the brain. You can't make yourself mentally ill by being religious, ugh. Are there things in certain religions that are ATTRACTIVE to some illnesses, absolutely.
But your whole premise is based on some assumption that mental illness is like an infectious disease that one can "catch" by behaving in certain ways, and thats completely wrong.

[Taverner]

2. Some may view religion AS a traumatic experience

[Warpy]

3. That's what I was going to say. I've dealt with religious crazy people

and secular crazy people. Religious crazy people live in worlds populated by gods, angels, devils, and the rest of the religious panoply. Secular crazy people live in worlds populated by aliens, talking animals, messages from the CIA coming in on antennas in their heads, whatever. Both varieties are personifying all the craziness in their heads in an attempt to explain it and externalize it.

Religious people who aren't crazy can still do some really crazy things, especially if they're following some sort of charismatic psychopath. Overriding their usual good sense will come to haunt them, though.

[backscatter712]

4. I think I like Richard Dawkins' explanations better.

As he explains it, human beings' propensity for religious belief itself comes from a side-effect of an evolved survival trait - the propensity of children to trust anything that adults (especially parents) tell them - after all, it's best for kids to take their parents word for it when they say "Stay away from the river, or the crocodile will get you!"

So while religion itself isn't so much a mental illness as much as it is a side-effect of human psychology, he also does mention how religious indoctrination can cause mental illness - when parents, religious authority figures, etc. indoctrinate kids with the fear of Hell if they don't obey. There are lots of adults who have psychological trauma from that shit.

It's all in The God Delusion.

[Taverner]

5. I read God Delusion but I don't have it any more

Which means I don't get to read it over and over like I wish i could...

[Odin2005]

6. No, mental illness causes religious craziness.

Many religious loonies and unstable woo-woos probably have Schizotypal Personality Disorder, a kid of mild Schizophrenia without the debilitating aspects of the full-blown disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypal_personality_disorder

A disorder characterized by eccentric behaviour and anomalies of thinking and affect which resemble those seen in schizophrenia, though no definite and characteristic schizophrenic anomalies have occurred at any stage. There is no dominant or typical disturbance, but any of the following may be present:

* Inappropriate or constricted affect (the individual appears cold and aloof);
* Behaviour or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar;
* Poor rapport with others and a tendency to social withdrawal;
* Odd beliefs or magical thinking, influencing behaviour and inconsistent with subcultural norms;
* Suspiciousness or paranoid ideas;
* Obsessive ruminations without inner resistance, often with dysmorphophobic, sexual or aggressive contents;
* Unusual perceptual experiences including somatosensory (bodily) or other illusions, depersonalization or derealization;
* Vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped thinking, manifested by odd speech or in other ways, without gross incoherence;
* Occasional transient quasi-psychotic episodes with intense illusions, auditory or other hallucinations, and delusion-like ideas, usually occurring without external provocation.

The disorder runs a chronic course with fluctuations of intensity. Occasionally it evolves into overt schizophrenia. There is no definite onset and its evolution and course are usually those of a personality disorder. It is more common in individuals related to schizophrenics and is believed to be part of the genetic "spectrum" of schizophrenia.

[amyrose2712]

7. All I know is the extreme fundamentalism

my sister believes came after her onset of mental illness. Unfortunately, even though the meds have leveled her out the fundie part remains.