Study: Belief in an angry God associated with variety of mental illnesses | The Raw Story

I haven't had the time yet to read the actual study and other materials surrounding it, but I am fascinated by what it shows. Altho the "warning" by the study's author does have to be kept in mind,,,

One thing Silton stressed is that her study should not be construed to have found a cause for such symptoms. “We are not looking at casual findings here,” she said. “We are looking at correlational findings. That means we’re not saying belief caused psychiatric symptoms, but we see relationships between beliefs and these psychiatric symptoms.”

What fascinates me on a personal level, when I deconverted, it was as if a huge weight was lifted and this was during my initial phase of my bipolar d'x; when I finally chose that I was going to swim instead of sink. After my last long term hospitalization I had some heavy choices to make, one of which was being me and not hiding my beliefs (or non-beliefs). I had already "privately" admitted to non-belief, but my "public" persona said something different. I was living in 2 divergent worlds,,,

“If you look at the previous research, they’ve connected it to depression and all sorts of other psychiatric disorders,” she said. “We were looking at social phobia, obsession, compulsion, paranoia and a lot of features of anxiety disorders.”

I still deal with social phobia and many say I am obsessive,,,makes me wonder.

Study: Belief in an angry God associated with variety of mental illnesses | The Raw Story