Question

Think about and reflect upon particular ways that religion could add to one or more of the anxiety disorders we have identified.

Answer 1

Anxiety symptoms and disorders are thought to be due to multiple genetic and environmental factors, which means that heredity has an influence as well as early life experiences and adult situations and circumstances. Religious factors may also play a role.   Sigmund Freud argued that because religion focuses on punishment for wrong or sinful thoughts or deeds, leading to excessive guilt and thus increased anxiety (see Obsessive Acts and Religious Practices, 1907, and Future of an Illusion, 1927).   Other mental health professionals in the latter half of the twentieth century believed that religious beliefs and practices could help relieve stress and anxiety by enabling people to cope better with life’s stressors.

In the systematic review of the research conducted over the past 130 years in the Handbook of Religion and Health, Second Edition (2012, forthcoming), we identified 299 quantitative studies that had examined the relationship between religious beliefs and behaviors and anxiety. Of those research reports, 147 (49%) found inverse relationships between religiosity and anxiety or a decrease in anxiety in response to religious/spiritual interventions.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by unwanted, intrusive thoughts and anxiety (obsessions) about something and the behaviors (compulsions) that people who suffer from the condition use to relieve the anxiety. This particular anxiety disorder represents a very serious condition that often grips the victim’s mind with fear and, in a very real way, controls their lives.

OCD is a broad disorder that encompasses many subgroups: in the case of religious OCD (also known as scrupulosity), the person is fixated on obsessions that are based in religion and/or religious beliefs, or around beliefs concerning morality. People who experience this form of OCD suffer from obsessive religious doubts and fears, unwanted blasphemous thoughts and images, as well as compulsive religious rituals, reassurance seeking, and avoidance.

People with religious OCD strongly believe in and fear punishment from a divine being or deity. Experts estimate that anywhere between 5% and 33% of people with OCD may experience scrupulosity and the number likely rises to between 50% and 60% in OCD sufferers who come from within very strict religious cultures. Even people who are not particularly religious can suffer from scrupulosity because they worry about being morally compromised or unintentionally offending others. A common thread throughout the spectrum is the linking of thoughts and actions: people with scrupulosity believe their thoughts are the same as actions, so they worry not just about what they have done, but also about what they have thought.