'Spiritual' people at higher risk of mental health problems

From Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent at The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The researchers concluded that there is increasing evidence that people who profess spiritual beliefs in the absence of a religious framework are more vulnerable to mental disorders and the nature of this association needs greater examination in qualitative and in prospective quantitative research.

People who claim to be ‘spiritual’ but not religious are often struggling to cope mentally, according to a study.

People who said said they had spiritual beliefs but did not adhere to a particular religion were 77 per cent more likely than the others to be dependent on drugs, 72 per cent more likely to suffer from a phobia, and 50 per cent more likely to have a generalised anxiety disorder

They are more likely to suffer from a range of mental health problems than either the conventionally religious or those who are agnostic or atheists, found researchers at University College London.

They are more disposed towards anxiety disorders, phobias and neuroses, have eating disorders and drug problems.
In addition, they are more likely than others to be taking medication for mental health problems.

Professor Michael King, from University College London, and his fellow researchers wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry: "Our main finding is that people who had a spiritual understanding of life had worse mental health than those with an understanding that was neither religious nor spiritual."

The study was based on a survey of 7,403 randomly selected men and women in England who were questioned about their spiritual and religious beliefs, and mental state.

The way I understand this is that it is not the beliefs which case the disorders, but the underlying disorders which leads to the acceptance of unlikely beliefs.

As in it leads back to our theory that cults such as the BKWSU prey on vulnerable people, or people at a vulnerable unsure time of their lives.

Of course, one could say that the Brahma Kumaris offer a very tight and rigid framework for those who accept the whole package of disciplines but they do largely make a point of promoting themselves as "spiritual" rather than a religion ... whatever that means.