Lesson 5: Coping with Depression
Spirituality and Healing
A Columbia University research team was not prepared for what they found. They had been studying women in Korea undergoing in vitro fertilization. Half were being prayed for, unknown to the women, by prayer groups in North America and Australia. The rest represented a control group for whom no prayers were said. The women who were prayed for, it turned out, were twice as likely to get pregnant, with a 50 percent pregnancy rate vs 23 percent for women in the control group. According to lead author Dr Rogerio Lobo: "I didn't believe it, really. Because it stands out there as controversial, we wondered whether we should publish it, but our feeling was, it was significant."
To date, there have been about 1,200 studies on the healing power of faith and the health effects of spirituality, according to Dr Harold Koenig, founder of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality at Duke University. Four studies he has been involved in include:
- A 1998 study of nearly 4,000 people aged 65 years and older which found the risk of diastolic hypertension 40 percent lower among people who attended religious services at least once a week and prayed or studied the Bible at least daily.
- A 1997 study of more than 1,700 older adults from North Carolina which found that persons who attended church at least once a week were only half as likely as non-attenders to have elevated levels of interleukin-6, an immune system protein involved in a wide variety of age-related diseases.
- A study of 542 patients aged 60 or older admitted to Duke University Medical Center which found those who attended religious services weekly or more reduced hospital stays by more than half. People with no religious affiliation spent an average of 25 days in the hospital compared to 11 days for patients affiliated with some religious denomination. Patients who attended religious services weekly or more also were 43 percent less likely to have been hospitalized in the previous year.
One of his studies also included 87 depressed older adults, which found those who recovered from depression the fastest corresponded to the extent of their religious belief.
Skeptics cite the placebo effect as a probable cause of the benefits of spiritual belief, together with the fact that religious communities offer the kind of support networks that reduce stress and ease mental anguish. Additionally, those who attend religious services have better health habits, such as drinking and smoking less. Finally, religions encourage marriage, which is a reliable predictor of longer life.
Still, the medical community is being won over. Even though no one is certain how spiritual practice aids in recovery, it is apparent that a number of processes in the body are being enlisted in the cause, from the brain's relaxation response to the release of hormones to the strengthening of the body's immune system. A Yankelovich survey found 94 percent of HMO professionals and 99 percent of family physicians agreeing that personal prayer can enhance medical treatment. More surprising, 75 percent of the family physicians believed that prayers of others could promote a patient's recovery.
Of 125 medical schools in the US, 54 now require spirituality and healing classes for graduation, while 38 include body/mind as a component of a required class. In 1994, only four medical schools offered these classes. According to Dr Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Boston's Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School, cited in a 1996 Time cover story: "Anywhere from 60 percent to 90 percent of visits to doctors are in the mind-body, stress-related realm." In his book Timeless Healing (Scribner), Benson contends that humans are actually engineered for religious faith: "Our genetic blueprint has made believing in an Infinite Absolute part of our nature."
Needless to say, if you don't believe in a higher power or belong to a religious group, you may get depressed simply reading this. It's always difficult, after all, being left out. Be assured, the benefits of spiritual practice can still apply to you. You simply have to find a non-religious way of going about it. Meditation and yoga, for instance, is very atheist-friendly. It may be as simple as closing your eyes, and chanting, "Peace." And many religious works and services can evoke a strong inner response without the necessity of having to believe.
As well as attending services, a good daily practice is recommended. This can range from a five-minute Bible reading to an hour-long meditation. It is helpful to abide by a strict schedule and set aside a certain part of the house, lighting candles or incense, if necessary, to set the mood. If you have bipolar, bear in mind you are capable of inspiring yourself into a state of mania, and that retreats or seminars that have an all-night component should raise the yellow caution flag with you.
Finally, remember that spiritual practice should be regarded as a complement rather than a substitute for proper medical care. A 1998 University of California study reviewed the medical records of 172 children who died after their parents relied on faith healing instead of standard medicine. The majority of these children would have survived if they had received normal medical care.
Healing
Patricia Mulready MD runs a practice in Connecticut that combines conventional and complementary medicine. At an Advocacy Unlimited conference in Hartford soon after the Sept 11 tragedy, she talked about healing and spirituality. Healing, she said, is coming home into yourself as opposed to curing, which is about restoring your health back to baseline condition. There can be both healing and curing, of course. Similarly one can heal without being cured, as in someone peacefully dying. Dr Mulready is no disinterested expert. Two years ago she was diagnosed with a major physical illness.
The first thing we ask when something bad happens is why?, then why me? a useless question, she says, as the answer is more like why not me? Or, it just is. Spirituality focuses on personal meaning, a reason for living, for getting up in the morning. There is an interconnectedness with others and an emphasis on goodness. Sept 11 didn't seem to have anything good about it, yet we witnessed good people doing good things. We are seeing signs of a nation coming together and wounds healing over from the days of the Vietnam War. Moreover, Dr Mulready told the conference, the events of Sept 11 "renewed my determination I will be a force for good."
One of the most powerful forces on earth is fear. We know how paralyzing it is. Hope, on the other hand, activates us, gets us going. If that flicker of hope goes out so do you, but it is faith that is the ultimate conqueror of fear, trusting in things we can't see. What kept us going after Sept 11 is the belief that we will make it.
But do we put our faith in God? People uncomfortable with the idea of God need go no further, says Dr Mulready, than the unconscious mind. Here, you will find the seat of the creative process, intuition, the ability to know things in a different way, and ultimately a power greater than yourself.
We may turn to spirituality for comfort, but the process can be more like a trial by ordeal. A spiritual attitude doesn't ease the pain so much as enlists our hurt and suffering in a process that changes and transforms us. Says Dr Mulready, "I will get through this challenge, and I'll be better because of it." Somehow, in the end we emerge more in touch with our own humanity and closer to God. God may have yet more ordeals in store, but we're no longer the spiritual wimps we used to be. We are healing, as individuals, as a people.
