ReasonRules

I'm curious. Does anyone know if there exists any stats on whether modern drugs, especially anti-depressant drugs like Prozac, have had any noticeable affect upon popular religious belief? The reason I ask is that my wife suffered from bad depression for years. A few years back, she 'got religion' and became heavily involved in a church, and remained so for a couple years. Though I am an atheist, I did not try to stop her because it seemed to help her depression, at least a little, and I also feel we must each discover our own path tp wisdom. Anyway, about a year ago she started on anti-depressant drugs and it worked wonders on her. It really cleared up the depression and made her a much sunnier, more fun person. But a funny thing happened. She started going to church less and less, and has since withdrawn from it completely. She hasn't turned into an atheist, but religion has definitely moved to the back burner for her.

This made me curious... Are modern anti-depressant drugs robbing the church of some noticeable fraction of its faithful? I tend to think a lot of depressed people in the past had turned to religion for support and relief. Now that there are other options, I wonder if this will prove to be a significant drain on believers?

Also, I think I read somewhere that a certain percentage of men who join celibate religious orders do so because they are impotent, and thus would have an 'excuse' not to have sexual contact which might result in embarrassing failures. I wonder if Viagra has put a dent in their ranks? Just curious...

HelenM

This is an interesting question.

I think most people who know anything about depression would recommend people who suffer from it (serious, clinical, depression) to look for medication that helps (this might mean trying a few different ones until you find one that works) AND being in some sort of counseling AND, as far as possible, seeking supportive relationships.

Church could provide a supportive environment for some. It depends on who is there and whether the doctrines tend to help the depressed person set aside unhealthy ways of thinking or tend to push them further into those unhealthy ways of thinking. I.e. if you beat yourself up continually "I am stupid; I am bad; I am worthless" and you take church teachings as confirmation of those things then that wouldn't help your mental health at all; it might make it worse. However, if "God loves you" is powerful in overcoming your feelings of being unloved, it might help a lot.

Also, I do know quite a few people who have a strong Christian faith AND are on anti-depressants. I see no signs of them leaving their churches.

Perhaps for your wife, she went in search of something specific from the church, didn't get it there, did get it from medication and having realized that, is withdrawing from church.

It's probably not something one can generalize about. But I'm very glad that the medication has been such a help to your wife! I hope it keeps working for her as well as it has been, so far!

love
Helen

HelenM

double post due to connection problems this a.m. - please delete!

[ June 22, 2002: Message edited by: HelenSL ]</p>

yahwehyadayada

I have suffered from chronic, at times severe, depression for most of my life. I've never really believed in gawd, although my husband & I went through a phase when we REALLY tried. It didn't work. The trying phase occurred during a time when I was not taking any medication, mainly because we had inadequate medical insurance. About a year after the trying phase, my depression became severe, again, & I underwent seven electro-convulsive therapy sessions, tried 17 different drugs in different combinations, & two suicide attempts. (My body has an unbelievable capacity to metabolize drugs in a quantity that would do most other people in!)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't see any correlation between depression meds & belief in a gawd or gawds, or church attendance, at least in my case.