A new study says so. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is one of the religion’s meanings: to help people. To give them purpose and strength. To fight the demons that tempt them to deviate from the right path.
And it seems that religion is keeping its promise. The study reveals that people that are active in religious communities are less likely to end up drinking, using drugs, and become victims of despair death.
66,492 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II and 43,141 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study were examined for two decades. The results say that women that attended religious services were 68% less likely to commit suicide than those who didn’t. For men, it was 33%.
The study reached this data by keeping into consideration other factors too, such as age, race, geographic region, income, health status, health behaviors, smoking, mental health, and other forms of social support.
The study observed a chain reaction of despair. Poor financial means, due to job losses or poor payment lead to frustration and hopelessness. The three lead to impaired social ability. When feeling constantly frustrated and no hope, people end up changing their behavior.
They can’t adapt and society ends up rejecting them. Families end up rejecting them. Despair thrives under those circumstances. The only rapid way out of this painful carousel is alcohol or/and drugs. But they can only “help” as long as you can increase the dose. Then, one can only overdose.
Financial difficulties aren’t the “privilege” of poor people. Even billionaires encounter financial troubles. They can’t live otherwise than a certain standard. They too can end on the same path as poor people.
Religion has its ways. And people who turn their hearts towards it can find what they need if they find in themselves the power to believe. The patience to wait for better days to come. The strength to let a painful experience to build your character instead of demolishing it.
There are other reasons for despair. Clinician burnout is another form of despair. When you can’t see the way out from feeling frustrated and out of hope, you experience despair. Health-care professionals are currently experiencing it. Fighting with this deadly virus puts physicians and nurses under a lot of emotional and physical stress. And they can’t see the end of it. the authors of the study expressed their concern towards this category.
