An interesting element has been found to be a factor in senior citizens' recovery from major depression. In a study at Duke University, the higher elderly patients measured on a test of intrinsic religiosity, the quicker they recovered from the debilitating condition. This was not the first study to show a correlation between good health and religious involvement.
To apply this knowledge to one's own life, it is important to understand that religiosity as measured for this study referred to the patient's internal religious commitment, not his outward activities. Intrinsically motivated spirituality has nothing to do with church membership, public worship, or private prayer. It has everything to do with a deep sense of commitment to and relationship with Deity; it is a feeling state that informs all other aspects of a person's life.
The nature of faith and its impact on people are of great interest to some researchers and therapists, and rightly so. Religious conviction affects physical and emotional health. It mediates the individual's experience of crisis and shapes her perspective on life. In short, it is a vital piece of a person's psyche.
According to Dr. Jorge W.F. Amaro, a Brazilian psychoanalyst, religious faith offers "the idea of an absolute, of a total and finished truth...". It offers certainty in a world where no guarantees exist.
Perhaps this need for a psychic anchor is the primary drive behind our unending need to understand why we're here and where we're going. Every religion offers doctrine that attempts to answer the "whys"; every religion gives believers a blueprint for fulfilling our purpose. These tenets remove some of the uncertainty from life and provide a framework within which to navigate the journey.
This may account for the positive effects of religious belief on the individual's health and well-being. If one's spiritual practices remove many of the questions about one's existence, then it follows that many of the stress factors associated with said uncertainty are also removed. One can elicit a great deal of emotional fortitude from the notion that an omnipotent being has a plan and is in control of one's state of affairs. Life's circumstances are no longer random occurrences, but intentional events that occur for a designated purpose. Understanding that purpose is secondary to enduring it - to fulfilling God's will in one's life - and thus, the guesswork is removed. All that remains to be done is to proceed as the doctrine of one's faith dictates.
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