Thursday, January 06, 2011

Anger Toward God and Mental Health

This is one article that was published about 2 days ago from the source, and it is still getting in those views from readers.

I am reposting here, and if you want to read readers' views, and join in the discussion yourself, please follow the source.

Read on...
-----

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology revealed that people are often angry with God in the face of difficult situations.

In the two-year study of 5,472 university students, two out of every three respondents reported being angry with the Judeo- Christian God. Anger against God was found both inside and outside of the religious community. The result of the study mirrors that of a 1988 General Social Survey which reported that 63 percent of Americans said that they sometimes felt anger towards God.

Julie Exline, the lead researcher of the 2010 study, entitled “Religious and Spiritual Struggle,” observed that 50 percent of those feeling resentment towards God said those feelings were prompted by a distressing event or an event resulting in poor adjustment.

The study also revealed distinctive differences in how certain people cope with anger.

“People who are more religious don't get as angry. They may be more likely to think God caused the troubling event, but they're also more likely to put good intentions on the event, saying things like, 'God is trying to strengthen me,'" Exline, also an associate professor of Ohio's Case Western Reserve University , told the Health Day news.

Exline reported that atheists and those questioning the existence of the divine are mostly likely to harbor more frequent, prolonged feelings of ill will towards God when compared to believers.

Youths are also more likely to experience more anger towards God than those who are older. Exline believes this finding is because older people were often taught not to question God’s power, compared to the younger generation.

Distressing events are now commonplace among Americans who are unemployed. November 2010 labor statistics revealed that there are nearly 2 million unemployed people in the United States who are dependent on unemployment benefits.

The inflation in the price of gas, predicted to reach prices of $100 a barrel this year, may also force many struggling financially to make hard adjustments.

John Piper of Desiring God ministries acknowledged that instances of great suffering and loss, be it financial, disease or death, can lead many to question and become angry with God.

However, he shared in a 2002 study that the appropriate response is to confess those feelings to God. Similarly, Exline’s research showed that therapeutic tools to rebuild trust in God include prayer and meditation on texts emphasizing the positive attributes of God.

"When people trust that God cares about them and has positive intentions toward them, even if they can’t understand what those intentions or meanings are, it tends to help to resolve anger," Exline found.

The research showed dire effects for those who continued to harbor anger against God. Those who harbored anger towards God were linked with poorer medical recovery, the study revealed. Anger at God was also associated with poor mental health.

Through her research, Exline recommended that those who are angry with God move towards forgiveness.

Similarly, Piper encourages those angry with God to seek forgiveness and trust in His goodness and wisdom to find relief from the hate.



Taken from below source:
Study: Anger Toward God Linked to Poor Mental Health




Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, January 03, 2011

Sex addicts afraid of getting close... isn't that an irony now?

Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: The Journal...
Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So there is a reason why they are addicts... did I get that right?
-----

Sex addicts fear intimacy: study
Posted: 17 December 2010 1201 hrs

WELLINGTON: Sex addicts feel threatened by intimacy and are more insecure about romantic relationships than the rest of the population, a New Zealand study has found.

The survey of more than 600 people found those who indulged in compulsive sexual behaviour felt anxious and insecure about relationships and tried to avoid becoming too emotionally attached to others.

Massey University said the study, conducted by psychology honours student Karen Faislander under the supervision of a practising clinical psychologist and an academic specialist, was the first of its type in New Zealand.

Faislander said sex addiction, which made headlines this year with revelations about Tiger Woods' love life, was a complex condition that had not been researched as thoroughly as areas such as substance abuse or depression.

She said the term "sex addict" first emerged in the early 1980s and there were 29 other terms in scientific literature that described the condition, including sexual compulsivity, excessive sexual desire disorder and hypersexuality.

The preferred contemporary term is out-of-control sexual behaviours (OOSCH).

"It's widely misunderstood and stigmatised," Faislander told AFP.

"There's no known effective treatment. We don't know what causes it or how we treat it."

Because of the embarrassment people feel discussing the subject, Faislander's study used an anonymous online survey to quiz 621 people about their sex lives. 407 identified themselves as sex addicts while 214 were not.

The survey asked if they engaged in online sex, prostitution, sex in public or with multiple partners, as well as examining areas such as alcohol use and feelings of self worth.

"The OOCSB group reported higher rates of insecure styles of attachment, characterised by a perspective of relationships as threatening, and feelings of either anxiety towards or avoidance of closeness or intimacy," the study found.

In contrast, non-sex addicts found intimacy desirable and rewarding, felt secure in relationships and regarded their partners as trustworthy.

Faislander said studies estimated three to six per cent of the population had the condition in the US, where sex addiction clinics have sprung up in recent years treating stars such as Woods, actor David Duchovny and comedian Russell Brand.

She said no such treatment was available in New Zealand, where self-help groups including Sex and Love Addicts and Sexaholics Anonymous use 12-step programmes based on those pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous.

While Faislander's study was not peer reviewed, she hopes to gain a doctorate in clinical psychology and conduct further research on treating out-of-control sexual behaviours.

-AFP/wk


How to read a man?

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Sex addicts fear intimacy: study