Psychology

University Abstract
Religious beliefs and practices are increasingly gaining more and more attention in the mental healthcare circles. A number of factors work in a concerted manner to cause a healthy working mind. The psychological and physiological factors are some of the measurable factors which alter the functioning of the human mind. Another development has been proposed and spirituality and religious beliefs have come to be implicated in the mental status of an individual (Mathews et al, 1998).The paper will discuss some of the ways in which religious beliefs and commitments can help improve mental health.

Spirituality has increasingly become a hot topic in mental healthcare disciplines over the past couple of decades. A rich library of books and journals is now available that explicitly expresses the relevance of religious beliefs in mental healthcare. Spirituality refers to the unique subjective and personal experiences about God while religion can be used to mean the concrete and specific expression of spirituality (Mathews et al, 1998).Studies have shown that there is a link between various religious beliefs and commitment in the improvement mental health. This link needs to be understood in order to achieve a healthy society.

Religious beliefs do contribute greatly to human health in the sense that they promote both the physical and social life. A positive change to human behavior is also another factor since religious people tend to be less stressed when faced with problems. They also experience less depression. Religious practices do play a very important role in the long-term or terminal diseases by instilling hope to those who are already discouraged and have already given up in life. By so doing, the mentally affected persons will improve even if for only awhile (Crossley, 1995).

Religious people tend to adhere and acquaint themselves with certain rules, beliefs and acts. All religions for instance have rules and regulations and ethics they adhere to, religious people rarely get engaged in drug and substance abuse. Some drugs like marijuana cause mental disability. Religions like Muslim and Christians prohibit the use of such hard drugs (Crossley, 1995). This protects the mental capacity and health of the believers.

Other ethics of the church like marriage of one wife by some religions like Christianity reduces family related stress as compared to marrying of many wives in traditional societies especially in Africa or some religions like Muslims. When people are in a stable family, they are likely to be less prone to getting stress and depression which would cause mental illness. A monogamous marriage is more stable than a polygamous one and in any stable families there is peace and tranquility (Crossley, 1995).

Religion is also perceived as a big family in the society taking fellow members as part of their family, they assist a member of their religion as their own members of the family this helps reduce stress and depression amongst them. This in turn helps in reducing mental illness cases as opposed to situation where there were no family to assist. Therefore this togetherness shares the burden and makes them cope with life and reduce chances of mental illness (Brown, 2002).

Our religious background also enhances the way parents bring up their children, some mental illness are as a result of poor upbringing during growth and maturity. Religious people are more likely to observe care in the way they bring up they children, right from conception a child from a religious family is protected from effects of drugs (when the religion protects women or its people from taking drugs) for example marijuana whose smoking by the mother affects the brains of the mother (Brown, 2002).

Religious people also bring up their children with laws and rules set by their religion. This prevents their children from an external influence that might harm the mentality of a child. For example their children are protected from early pregnancies which would result to stress and depression. The abstinence which is preached in most religions avoids not only problems to do with early pregnancies but also dangers of contracting dangerous venereal diseases (Crossley, 1995).

Hope and self belief is enhanced in religious people. Stress is significantly reduced by the teachings of religions. Most religions teach about faith, hope and perseverance. This aspect encourages the members of some religion to endure the difficult situations without thinking much how unsuccessful they have become. This faith thus is a factor that enhances mental wellbeing of an individual (Crossley, 1995).

Religions have great influences in the way marriage is conducted, there are certain guidelines that have to be followed before marriage can take place, and this includes some pre-wedding classes for people willing to marry. The people planning to marry are provided with guidelines on who is good for marriage. There is a correlation between planned marriage which is encouraged by religions and a peaceful mind. For example, when people marry at a young age and have no resources to take them through, they are likely to get depressed or stressed. At the same time, some religions like Hindu put emphasis on lineage marriage. This ensures that individuals will marry partners whose family background is very well known to them. This lineage marriage reduces chances of transmitting hereditary mental diseases (Brown, 2002).

Religions such as Muslim and Christianity emphasize on marrying people from the same religion, this ensures that there are no religion based conflicts.  Conflicts are a source of stress to a greater extend. People from the same faith will pray together and worship together. The praying and worshipping together helps maintain peace in the family hence mental stability.

Religious leaders offer guidance in the society and acts as councilors and dispute settlers in the society they live in. They also take the place of psychiatrists and help solve issues within the religion and individuals. Some of the cases they help to solve are marriage cases and disputes within members. Some religions have special courts to deal with their situations and this helps solve disputes faster that court processes in other instances. The process is also seen as fair for it is believed to be doctrine based and not how well one is able to argue their case. In this view, those who are counseled by these leaders are relieved off the problem of low self esteem and guilt (Mathews et al, 1998)

Religious beliefs and commitments can act as a pervasive and potentially important method which can help people to cope with persistent and severe mental illnesses. In our societies, the use of religious mental health improving coping strategies such as prayer and meditations has increasingly become common among the individuals who experience severe degrees of suffering (Mathews et al, 1998). The research on the link between religious coping mechanisms and the improvement of symptoms in mental health should be expanded and the principles explained. There should be an empirical evidence how the beliefs and practices will affect the mental health in the long-run.

In conclusion, I highly agree to the views that religious believes contribute to the improvement in mental health of a person positively. It guides human beings to do what is right and avoid that which is bad or that which will affect him or her negatively. All religious practices have governing rules that when one adheres to them then he or she is entitled to a better health and unconditional way of life. I believe also that religion gives a person the assurance of good life, for example in Christianity where believers believe in life even after death for those who had good deeds on earth The teaching of religion on human health has also promoted mental improvement by a higher degree.

It is through religious teachings that people get to know about faith. Faith has a significant connection to the way the human brain work. In fact, physicians and psychologists long ago suggested the case of placebos in medicine. Placebos, which are not medicines but just formulations having no active compounds have been seen to be working among the patients who belief that they are being given the real medicine. The similar thing happens when one practices or commits him or herself to a given religious group.