Anxiety (Panic Disorders, Phobias) – thirdAGE https://thirdage.com healthy living for women + their families Wed, 05 Dec 2018 22:06:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.2 The Unexpected Force Driving Medical Marijuana Legalization in the USA https://thirdage.com/the-unexpected-force-driving-medical-marijuana-legalization-in-the-u-s-a/ Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:12:02 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3059424 Read More]]> When you envision the movement to legalize marijuana, what do you see? Is it a band of hippies or college students? Free spirits of the American West with long hair and peace symbol bumper stickers? If so, you aren’t alone in your thinking. Though public perception of marijuana and marijuana users has shifted with the accelerating movement to legalize the drug, many still believe that the drug is reserved for the young, liberal, and reckless.

But an unexpected force is driving medical marijuana legalization in the United States: America’s armed forces veterans.

The push by U.S. veterans to legalize marijuana is largely tied to the drug’s proven efficacy in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain, two of the most common afflictions of active and non-active U.S. service members. According to the Veterans Cannabis Project, a non-profit organization with the mission of increasing the accessibility of medical marijuana for veterans, up to 20 percent of active service members suffer from post-traumatic stress. In many cases, this stress leads to significant self-harm or suicide. The numbers are staggering: each day, an average of 22 veterans commit suicide. Chronic pain affects an estimated 75% of female veterans and 50% of male veterans. The two disorders appear to be linked: according to researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, up to 80 percent of Vietnam veterans with PTSD reported chronic pain.

Traditional medical practitioners doled out prescription medications as an attempt to address this epidemic in veteran populations, but in turn created an even larger epidemic. Veterans became addicted to many of the drugs that were prescribed, most notably opioids. According to Reuters, veterans are twice as likely to die from an opioid overdose than non-veterans. This coincides with the national epidemic of opioid abuse sweeping the nation.

Reuters also reports that opioid drug abuse has claimed more American lives than the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam wars combined.

Veterans organizations have taken to lobbying for the legalization of medical marijuana to treat PTSD and coinciding chronic pain, in hopes of providing alternative, less addictive treatment options for suffering veterans. Their efforts have been fairly successful. 29 states list marijuana as an approved treatment for PTSD. Prominent political figures across parties have also endorsed the use of medical marijuana to treat PTSD and chronic pain in veterans, an unusual occurrence considering the drug’s controversial nature.

Among the most prominent groups lobbying for the legalization of marijuana to treat PTSD and coinciding disorders is the American Legion, a traditionally conservative organization.

The American Legion is pushing not only for legalization, but for insurance coverage for patients seeking marijuana treatment. The New York Times recently reported that many veterans who are eligible for medical marijuana treatment are not able to receive insurance coverage for the treatment. This is likely due to the fact that marijuana, while legal in 29 states, is still a federally classified Schedule 1 drug, placing it in the same group as heroin, LSD, and Ecstasy. This makes possession/consumption of methamphetamine, “meth,” and cocaine a lesser offense than possession/consumption of marijuana. While it might be hard to believe – both meth and cocaine are only Schedule 2 drugs – a lesser classification than Schedule 1.

Unfortunately, due to the complexity of legislation surrounding marijuana and the evolving perception of the drug, it might be many years before it is widely accessible and affordable for veterans in all states. This means that veterans organizations and other allies in the legalization of medical marijuana likely have their work cut out for them.

 

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People with Anxiety Show Fundamental Differences in Perception https://thirdage.com/people-with-anxiety-show-fundamental-differences-in-perception/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 04:00:57 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3046108 Read More]]> People suffering from anxiety perceive the world in a fundamentally different way than others do, according to a study done at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 3rd 2016. The research may help explain why certain people are more prone to anxiety.

A release from the institute report that the new study shows that people diagnosed with anxiety are less able to distinguish between a neutral, “safe” stimulus (in this case, the sound of a tone) and one that had earlier been associated with gaining or losing money. In other words, when it comes to emotionally-charged experiences, anxiety prone people show a behavioral phenomenon known as “over-generalization,” the researchers say.

The release quotes Prof. Rony Paz as saying, “We show that in patients with anxiety, emotional experience induces plasticity in brain circuits that lasts after the experience is over. Such plastic changes occur in primary circuits, and these later mediate the response to new stimuli. The result is an inability to discriminate between the experience of the original stimulus and that of a new, similar stimulus. Therefore anxiety patients respond emotionally to the new stimuli as well and exhibit anxiety symptoms even in apparently irrelevant situations. They cannot control this response: it is a perceptual inability to discriminate.” The study was a collaboration between psychiatrist Dr. David Israeli and Paz, and it was led by Dr. Offir Laufer, then a PhD student in Paz’s group.

Paz and his colleagues recruited anxiety patients to participate in the study. They trained the patients to associate three distinct tones with one of three outcomes: money loss, money gain, or no consequence. In the next phase, the participants were presented with one of several new tones and were asked whether the tone was one they had heard before while in training. If they were right, they were rewarded with money.

The best strategy would be to take care not to mistake (or over-generalize) a new tone for one they had heard in the training phase. But people with anxiety were more likely than healthy controls to think that a new tone was one they had heard earlier. That is, they were more likely to mistakenly associate a new tone with the earlier experience of money loss or gain. Those differences were not explained by differences in participants’ hearing or learning abilities. The research shows that they simply perceived sounds that were earlier linked to an emotional experience differently.

Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRIs) of the brains of people with anxiety and those of healthy controls revealed differences in the activity of several brain regions. These differences were mainly found in the amygdala, a region related to fear and anxiety, as well as in the primary sensory regions of the brain. These results strengthen the idea that emotional experiences induce long-term changes in sensory representations in anxiety patients’ brains.

The findings might help explain why some people are more prone to anxiety than others. The underlying brain plasticity that leads to anxiety isn’t in itself bad, Paz says. “Anxiety traits can be completely normal; there is evidence that they benefitted us in our evolutionary past. Yet an emotional event, sometimes even a minor one, can induce brain changes that can potentially lead to full-blown anxiety,” he says. Understanding how the process of perception operates in anxiety patients may help lead to better treatments for the disorder.

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Wage Gap Could Explain Why Women Are More Anxious and Depressed Than Men https://thirdage.com/wage-gap-could-explain-why-women-are-more-anxious-and-depressed-than-men/ Thu, 14 Jan 2016 05:00:29 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3022509 Read More]]> The odds of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder were markedly greater among women who earned less than their male counterparts, with whom they were matched on education and years of experience, according to research conducted at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Results of the study were published online in January 2016 in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

A release from the university reports that the odds that an American woman was diagnosed with depression in the past year are nearly twice that of men. However, this disparity looks very different when accounting for the wage gap: Among women whose income was lower than their male counterparts, the odds of major depression were nearly 2.5 times higher than men; but among women whose income equaled or exceeded their male counterparts, their odds of depression were no different than men.

Results were similar for generalized anxiety disorder. Overall, women’s odds of past-year anxiety were more than 2.5 times higher than men’s. Where women’s incomes were lower than their male counterparts, their odds of anxiety disorder were more than four times higher. For women whose income equaled or exceeded their male counterparts, their odds of anxiety disorder were greatly decreased.

The findings are based on data from a 2001-2002 U.S. population-representative sample of 22,581 working adults ages 30-65. Researchers tested the impact of structural wage disparities on depression and anxiety outcomes, according to criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, version IV (DSM-IV).

The release quotes first author Jonathan Platt, a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology, as saying, “Our results show that some of the gender disparities in depression and anxiety may be due to the effects of structural gender inequality in the workforce and beyond. The social processes that sort women into certain jobs, compensate them less than equivalent male counterparts, and create gender disparities in domestic labor have material and psychosocial consequences.”

While the U.S. has passed legislation to address some of the most overt forms of gender discrimination faced by working women, less conspicuous forms of structural discrimination persist. As examples, the researchers refer to the norms, expectations, and opportunities surrounding the types of jobs women occupy and the way those jobs are valued and compensated relative to men.

“If women internalize these negative experiences as reflective of inferior merit, rather than the result of discrimination, they may be at increased risk for depression and anxiety disorders,” says Platt.

“Our findings suggest that policies must go beyond prohibiting overt gender discrimination like sexual harassment,” said Katherine Keyes, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology and senior author. “Further, while it is commonly believed that gender differences in depression and anxiety are biologically rooted, these results suggest that such differences are much more socially constructed that previously thought, indicating that gender disparities in psychiatric disorders are malleable and arise from unfair treatment .”

According to Keyes, policies such as paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and flexible work schedules may ameliorate some of this burden, although more research into understanding the ways in which discrimination plays a role in mental health outcomes is needed.

“Structural forms of discrimination may explain a substantial proportion of gender disparities in mood and anxiety disorders in the U.S. adult population,” said Keyes. “Greater attention to the fundamental mechanisms that perpetuate wage disparities is needed, not only because it is unjust, but so that we may understand and be able to intervene to reduce subsequent health risks and disparities.”

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The “Sixth Sense” for Danger https://thirdage.com/the-sixth-sense-for-danger/ Tue, 12 Jan 2016 05:00:06 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3022488 Read More]]> Findings by French researchers show that the brain devotes more processing resources to social situations that signal threat than those that are benign. The results published in December 2015 in the journal eLife may help explain the apparent “sixth sense” we have for danger. This is the first time that specific regions of the brain have been identified to be involved in the phenomenon. The human brain is able to detect social threats in these regions in a fast, automatic fashion, within just 200 milliseconds.

A release from the publisher notes that even more surprising for the scientists was the discovery that anxious individuals detect threat in a different region of the brain from people who are more laid back. It was previously thought that anxiety could lead to oversensitivity to threat signals. However, the new study shows that the difference has a useful purpose. Anxious people process threats using regions of the brain responsible for action. On the other hand, “low anxious” people process threats in sensory circuits that are responsible for face recognition.

Facial displays of emotion can be ambiguous, but the researchers managed to identify what it is that makes a person particularly threatening. They found that the direction a person is looking in is key to enhancing our sensitivity to their emotions. Anger paired with a direct gaze produces a response in the brain in only 200 milliseconds, faster than if the angry person is looking elsewhere.

The release quotes lead author Marwa El Zein from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Ecole Normale Supérieurein Paris as saying, “In a crowd, you will be most sensitive to an angry face looking towards you, and will be less alert to an angry person looking somewhere else.”

Similarly, if a person displays fear and looks in a particular direction you will detect this more rapidly than positive emotions. Such quick reactions could have served an adaptive purpose for survival. For example, we evolved alongside predators that can attack, bite or sting. A rapid reaction to someone experiencing fear can help us avoid danger.

“In contrast to previous work, our findings demonstrate that the brain devotes more processing resources to negative emotions that signal threat, rather than to any display of negative emotion,” says El Zein.

Electrical signals measured in the brains of 24 volunteers were analyzed while they were asked to decide whether digitally altered faces expressed anger or fear. Some faces displayed exactly the same expression, but the direction of their gaze was altered. A total of 1080 trials were carried out.

It has often been theorized that elevated anxiety, even in a non-clinical range, could impair the brain’s processing of threats. However, El Zein and her co-authors instead found that non-clinical anxiety shifts the neural ‘coding” of threat to motor circuits, which produce action, from sensory circuits, which help us to recognize faces. The researchers note that it would be interesting to determine whether the same is true for people with anxiety scores in the clinical range.

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When Unwanted Thoughts Take Over: Recognizing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder https://thirdage.com/when-unwanted-thoughts-take-over-recognizing-obsessive-compulsive-disorder/ Fri, 18 Dec 2015 05:00:46 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3021392 Read More]]> Do you feel the need to check and re-check things over and over? Do you have the same thoughts constantly? Do you feel a very strong need to perform certain rituals repeatedly and feel like you have no control over what you are doing? If so, you may have a type of anxiety disorder called obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Here, from the experts at the National Institute of Mental Health, is what you should know about OCD:

What is OCD?

Everyone double checks things sometimes. For example, you might double check to make sure the stove or iron is turned off before leaving the house. But people with OCD feel the need to check things repeatedly, or have certain thoughts or perform routines and rituals over and over. The thoughts and rituals associated with OCD cause distress and get in the way of daily life.

The frequent upsetting thoughts are called obsessions. To try to control them, a person will feel an overwhelming urge to repeat certain rituals or behaviors called compulsions. People with OCD can’t control these obsessions and compulsions.

For many people, OCD starts during childhood or the teen years. Most people are diagnosed by about age 19. Symptoms of OCD may come and go and be better or worse at different times.

What causes OCD?

OCD sometimes runs in families, but no one knows for sure why some people have it, while others don’t. Researchers have found that several parts of the brain are involved in obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior, as well as fears and anxiety associated with them. By learning more about fear and anxiety in the brain, scientists may be able to create better treatments. Researchers are also looking for ways in which stress and environmental factors may play a role.

What are the signs and symptoms of OCD?

People with OCD generally:

Have repeated thoughts or images about many different things, such as fear of germs, dirt, or intruders; acts of violence; hurting loved ones; sexual acts; conflicts with religious beliefs; or being overly tidy

Do the same rituals over and over such as washing hands, locking and unlocking doors, counting, keeping unneeded items, or repeating the same steps again and again

Can’t control the unwanted thoughts and behaviors

Don’t get pleasure when performing the behaviors or rituals, but get brief relief from the anxiety the thoughts cause

Spend at least 1 hour a day on the thoughts and rituals, which cause distress and get in the way of daily life.

How is OCD treated?

First, talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Your doctor should do an exam to make sure that another physical problem isn’t causing the symptoms. The doctor may refer you to a mental health specialist.

OCD is generally treated with psychotherapy, medication, or both.

Psychotherapy. A type of psychotherapy called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is especially useful for treating OCD. It teaches a person different ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting to situations that help him or her better manage obsessive thoughts, reduce compulsive behavior, and feel less anxious. One specific form of CBT, exposure and response prevention, has been shown to be helpful in reducing the intrusive thoughts and behaviors associated with OCD.

Medication. Doctors may also prescribe medication to help treat OCD. The most commonly prescribed medications for OCD are antidepressants. Although antidepressants are used to treat depression, they are also particularly helpful for OCD. They may take several weeks—10 to 12 weeks for some—to start working. Some of these medications may cause side effects such as headache, nausea, or difficulty sleeping. These side effects are usually not severe for most people, especially if the dose starts off low and is increased slowly over time. Talk to your doctor about any side effects you may have.

It’s important to know that although antidepressants can be safe and effective for many people, they may be risky for some, especially children, teens, and young adults. A “black box”—the most serious type of warning that a prescription drug can have—has been added to the labels of antidepressant medications. These labels warn people that antidepressants may cause some people to have suicidal thoughts or make suicide attempts. Anyone taking antidepressants should be monitored closely, especially when they first start treatment with medications.

In addition to prescribing antidepressants, doctors may prescribe other medications such as benzodiazepines to address the anxiety and distress that accompany OCD. Not all medications are effective for everyone. Talk to your doctor about the best treatment choice for you.

Combination. Some people with OCD do better with CBT, especially exposure and response prevention. Others do better with medication. Still others do best with a combination of the two. Many studies have shown that combining CBT with medication is the best approach for treating OCD, particularly in children and adolescents. Talk with your doctor about the best treatment for you.

For more information on OCD and other mental-health issues, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov.

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5 Steps to De-Stress Holiday Travel https://thirdage.com/5-steps-to-de-stress-holiday-travel/ Wed, 09 Dec 2015 05:00:00 +0000 https://thirdage.com/?p=3021067 Read More]]> The holiday traveling season is here, complete with long lines and unforeseen delays. This can test even the most experienced traveler, and have even more of an effect on those of us who aren’t so enthusiastic about the prospect of getting on a plan. Not everyone has an intense fear of flying that leaves them paralyzed, but most people experience some level of discomfort when it comes to air travel.  If you’re one of them, here are some simple steps from my program, FlyHome LLC, that will prepare mentally and physically for your next flight!

  1. Anticipatory Anxiety is the number one issue with most fearful flyers. The only way to overcome this is by gradually learning to feel more comfortable during flight, so before hand, you will have less to worry about.
  2. Don¹t check the weather more than two days out from your trip; this causes a substantial amount of anxiety should the flyer see a percentage for rain or storms. The truth is, it is not that accurate that far out anyway.
  3. Pack a few days early. Rushing around packing the night before while you are already anxious will only fuel the fire.
  4. Exercise, and avoid caffeine. Exercising can help minimize the effects of anxiety, while caffeine can increase the effects.
  5. At the airport, the TSA security check is an anxiety increaser, but not if you¹re prepared. Take off all jewelry, remove all items from your pocket, take your belt off, all prior to getting in line. Put all of the items in your carry on, and this way, you¹re not rushing to remove everything while everyone behind you is waiting on you. It¹s the little things that alleviate stress!

 

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Myths and Facts About Mental Illness https://thirdage.com/myths-and-facts-about-mental-illness/ Fri, 17 Apr 2015 04:00:00 +0000 Read More]]> Although most of us are perfectly fine with discussing physical health, mental health is another matter. The truth about mental health is often lost in a fog of fear, anger and ignorance. Here, the experts at www.mentalhealth.gov , a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, separate mental-health facts from myths:

Myth: Mental health problems don’t affect me.

Fact: According to the mentalhealth.gov experts, such problems are very common. The experts estimate that in 2011, about one in five American adults had a mental health issues. One in ten young people had suffered an episode of major depression. Five percent of the population – one in 20 Americans – lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, with more than 38,000 victims per year. According to mentalhealth.gov, that’s more than twice the number of lives lost to homicide. It accounts for the loss of more than 38,000 American lives each year, more than double the number of lives lost to homicide.

Myth: Children don’t experience mental health problems.

Fact: Even very young children may show early warning signs, according to the mentalhealth.gov experts. Half of all mental health disorders show first signs before a person turns 14 years old, and three quarters of mental health disorders begin before age 24.

However, the mentalhealth.gov experts say, fewer than 20% of children and adolescents with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need. Early mental health support can help a child before problems get worse.

The problems can often be diagnosed by an appropriate health-care practitioner. As in adults, these issues can be a product of a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Myth: People with mental health problems are violent and unpredictable.

Fact: According to mentalhealth.gov, the vast majority of people with mental health problems are no likelier to be violent than anyone else. Only 3 to 5 percent of violent acts are committed by people living with a serious mental illness. In fact, the experts say, people with mental health issues are more than 10 times likelier to be the victim of a violence crime than those who aren’t mentally ill.

Myth: People with mental-health issues can’t take the stress of a job, even if they are managing their illness.

Fact: According to the mentalhealth.gov experts, people with mental health problems are as productive as other employees. Employers who hire people with mental health problems, the experts say, report good attendance as well as motivation, good work, and job tenure on the same or a higher level than other employees.

The mentalhealth.gov experts emphasize that when employees with mental health problems receive effective treatment, that can result in lower total medical costs; increased productivity; a lower rate of absenteeism; and lower disability costs.

Myth: Personality weakness or character flaws cause mental health problems. People with mental health problems can snap out of it if they try hard enough.

Fact: Mental health problems have nothing to do with being lazy or weak, the experts say, and many people need help to get better. The cause of mental health problems can be traced to a number of causes, including biological factors, such as genes, physical illness, injury, or brain chemistry; life  experiences, such as trauma or abuse; or a family history of mental health problems.

Myth: There is no hope for people with mental health problems. They will never get better.

Fact: Studies show that people with mental health problems get better, and many recover completely, the mentalhealth.gov experts say. Recovery refers to the process in which people are able to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities.

Myth: Therapy and self-help don’t do any good. Why shouldn’t you just take a pill?

Fact: Treatment for mental health problems vary from person to person and can include medication, therapy, or both

Myth: I can’t do anything for a person with a mental health problem.

Fact: Friends and loved ones can make a big difference, experts say. They can help someone get needed treatment. Some things you can do: reaching out and letting them know you are available to help, including assisting them in accessing mental-health service; learning and sharing facts about mental health, especially if you hear something that isn’t true; refusing to call people “crazy” or to define them by their condition.

Myth: It is impossible to prevent mental illnesses.

Fact: The mentalhealth.gov experts say that prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders focuses on addressing known risk factors such as exposure to trauma that can affect the chances that children, youth, and young adults will develop mental health problems.

For more information on mental health issues, visit www.mentalhealth.gov.

 

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A New Clue to Anxiety https://thirdage.com/new-clue-anxiety/ Tue, 27 Jan 2015 05:00:00 +0000 Read More]]> Researchers have discovered a new pathway in the brain that controls “fear memories and behavior” – and that may be good news for the nearly 40 million adults who suffer from anxiety disorder.

Scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory had already discovered that “fear learning and memory are orchestrated by neurons in the central amygdala,” a region of the brain, explains CSHL Associate Professor Bo Li, who led the team of researchers who conducted the latest study.

For this study, the scientists turned to the question of what controls the central amygdala? They found the link to be a cluster of neurons that form the region of the brain known as PVT, or paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus. PVT is sensitive to both physical and psychological stress.

As the scientists studied mouse models, Li said, “we found that the PVT is specifically activated as animals learn to fear or as they recall fear memories.” And disrupting that connection meant a reduction in fear learning.

The scientists also found that a molecule called BDNF, which has been linked to anxiety disorders, is a messenger between PVT and the central amygdala.

The discovery of these connections represents “an ideal target for potential drugs to treat anxiety disorders,” according to a CHSL news release.

“Our work provides mechanistic insight into a novel circuit that controls fear in the brain, and provides a target for the future treatment of anxiety disorders,” Li said.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

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Watch: Taking the Steps to Control Anxiety Disorder https://thirdage.com/watch-taking-steps-control-anxiety-disorder-0/ Mon, 08 Sep 2014 19:47:58 +0000 Here’s another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!

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Prayer Eases Anxiety for Some, But Not All https://thirdage.com/prayer-eases-anxiety-some-not-all/ Thu, 14 Aug 2014 20:35:34 +0000 For many people with anxiety-related disorders, prayer doesn’t ease the symptoms. That’s the finding of research done at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. What seems to matter is the type of attachment a person feels toward God. According to the Baylor study, those who prayed to a loving and supportive God whom they thought would be there to comfort and protect them in times of need were less likely to show symptoms of anxiety-related disorders such as irrational worry, fear, self-consciousness, dread in social situations, and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Those who prayed but did not expect God to comfort or protect them did not experience any relief. The study was published in the journal Sociology of Religion in August 2014.

A release from the university notes that although previous research has shown that people who have a secure attachment to God are more satisfied with life and less depressed and lonely, little attention has been paid to psychiatric symptoms. The release quotes researcher Matt Bradshaw, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, as saying, “For many individuals, God is a major source of comfort and strength that makes the world seem less threatening and dangerous. Through prayer, individuals seek to develop an intimate relationship with God. Those who achieve this goal, and believe that God will be there to protect and support them during times of need, develop a secure attachment to God. For them, prayer appears to confer emotional comfort, which results in fewer symptoms of anxiety-related disorders.

“But other people form avoidant or insecure attachments to God — meaning that they do not necessarily believe God will be there when they need Him. For them, prayer may feel like an unsuccessful attempt to cultivate and maintain an intimate relationship with God. Rejected, unanswered or otherwise unsuccessful experiences of prayer may be disturbing and debilitating and lead to more frequent and severe symptoms of anxiety-related disorders.”

The research focused on data from 1,714 of the people who participated in the most recent wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, completed in November 2010 by the Gallup Organization and analyzed by sociologist researchers at Baylor. The current study focused on general anxiety, social anxiety, obsession and compulsion.

Teachings of Christianity and some other faiths use the parent-child imagery to depict the relationship between God and an individual, with one researcher describing God as “the ultimate attachment figure.” The Baylor study findings are consistent with a growing body of research indicating that a person’s perceived relationship with God can play an important role in shaping mental health.

In theory, people who pray regularly may be inclined to live out their religion more faithfully, which may lead to less stress, such as marriage and family conflicts, researchers wrote. People who pray often may have more of a sense of purpose in life or have more supportive personal relations. And many people use prayer as a coping strategy.

When it comes to personal prayer outside of religious organizations, however, findings by previous researchers have been inconsistent — and puzzling. Some studies indicate frequent praying has positive effects on mental health; others report no effect — or even that people who pray more often have poorer mental health than those who pray less frequently.

“At the present, we don’t know exactly why the findings have been so inconsistent,” Bradshaw said. “Prayer is complex.”

Some possible explanations for varying findings:

• Individual expectations. Some scholars suggest that “if you expect prayer to matter, it just might,” Bradshaw said. In several studies of older adults, people who believe that only God knows when and how to respond to prayer fare well when it comes to mental health; those who think their prayers are not being answered do not.

• Style of prayer. In general, meditative and colloquial prayers have been linked with desirable outcomes, including emotional well-being, while ritualistic prayer actually has been associated with poor mental health outcomes. Meditative prayer is concerned with closeness and intimacy during reflection and communication with a loving, supportive God; colloquial prayer takes that a step further by also asking for help, such as guidance in decision-making or less widespread suffering in the world. “These requests tend to be broad and are aimed at making the world a better place instead of personal enrichment,” Bradshaw said. Ritualistic prayer, in contrast, is less intimate and usually involves reciting common prayers or lines from sacred texts.

• Perceived characteristics of God — such as loving, remote or judgmental — affect the relationship between prayer and mental health.

“Our previous work has found that prayer is associated with desirable mental health outcomes among individuals who believe that they are praying to a God who is close as opposed to remote, and the results from the current study are largely consistent with this finding,” Bradshaw said. “These are all important considerations, but a comprehensive understanding of the connection between prayer and mental health remains elusive.”

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Co-researchers were Christopher Ellison, Ph.D., Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the department of sociology at The University of Texas at San Antonio; Kevin J. Flannelly, Ph.D., Senior Researcher at the Center for Psychosocial Research in Massapequa, N.Y.; and Kathleen C. Galek, Ph.D., Research Associate with The HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York City.

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