Spiritual health and mental health are closely related, and patients with higher spiritual health suffer less stress, anxiety, and depression. Spirituality influences many decisions that people make. It encourages people to have better relationships with themselves, with others, and with the unknown. Spirituality can help you deal with stress by providing a sense of peace, purpose, and forgiveness.
It often becomes more important during times of emotional stress or illness. Your personal concept of spirituality may change with age and life experiences, but it always forms the basis of your well-being, helps you cope with stressors, big and small, and affirms your purpose in life. With this information, you can focus your search for spirituality on the relationships and life activities that have helped define you as a person and those that continue to inspire your personal growth. Taking the road less traveled and exploring your spirituality can lead to a clearer life purpose, better personal relationships, and better stress management skills.
A variety of cultural factors, such as religious and spiritual beliefs, can have significant effects on the prevalence of stress, anxiety, and depression in patients with chronic illnesses. Some people may take advantage of emotionally vulnerable people while pretending to support their spirituality. Identifying the spiritual needs of patients and applying appropriate care methods can reduce the complications of mental disorders in chronic patients. Planning to improve the spiritual health of chronic patients from the onset of illness to the provision of care and treatment solutions, and even death, can prevent many mental disorders in these patients and provide them with a better prognosis.
The level of spiritual health was medium to high (80.6) and the average stress, anxiety, and depression scores were (10.5), (6.70), and (7.3), respectively. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between spiritual health and stress, anxiety and depression in patients with chronic diseases. Many people with mental illness feel hopeful when they talk to a religious or spiritual leader. It's important to understand the difference between a spiritual crisis and a mental illness to get to the root of the problem.
There was an inverse relationship between the overall score of the dimensions of spiritual health and stress, anxiety and depression. Mental health disorders can be treated with the help of spirituality through a psychotherapeutic method called spiritually augmented cognitive behavioral therapy. The data collection questionnaires included the demographic information form, the standard DASS-21 questionnaire on stress, anxiety, and depression, and a 20-item spiritual health questionnaire developed by Palutzian and Ellison. When taking steps to maintain a healthy mental state, it's important that you also take care of your spiritual health.
