Why is religion an enduring theme in psychosis?

Religion is an enduring theme in psychotic disorders. Why? When I got ill God was a prominent theme in my delusional thoughts and hallucinations, even though I am not nor have ever been religious.

I have been thinking about this for the last three days and may have found an answer for my own experience: culture and world view or how one sees reality. Religion is deeply embedded in culture. It is so pervasive references to it are everywhere in mainstream society. Western culture is built on Christian values, so it is very hard to separate ourselves from it, even for the non-religious. World view is influenced by culture and our life experiences. Both orient the world and influence how we think.

A non-religious individual with psychosis needs to make sense of what they are going through, and will use their culture and world view to orient their new reality. Religion provides an apparent logical explanation for the 'out of the ordinary' experiences.

Does anyone have anything to add?

God or gods are the ultimate beings in all cultures imbued with power, and perhaps... I'm thinking out loud here .... feelings of powerlessness are a major trigger for a person with mental illness. (I talked with a friend who has had chronic anxiety and times when she felt unable to cope definitely seemed to be triggered by feelings of powerlessness)

In my own past experiences I had life events that were traumatising and as a child I was largely powerless to control them or fundamentally change them. So perhaps somehow in trying to make sense of the emotions and thoughts that were happening at the time or feelings/memories were later triggered in stressful events I turned to the idea of powerful supernatural beings to make sense of them.

I did not know others had the same kinds of delusions I do- good to know. I am with roseblossom- traumatic events in childhood trigger them. When I was young ( too young for it) I seen a play where the people died and either went to heaven or hell and it was terrifying. 20 years later I still have delusions and fears about it. I don't know if it caused it but it sure didn't help.

Thank you roseblossom and adj2013.

Early life experiences and feeling powerless are things I never considered. Both make a lot of sense. Now, I have a lot of questions. Before I post them, I need to think about this.

I'm sorry that you were exposed to something so scary while you were young.

My experience was that I briefly went to Sunday school while I was trying to make sense of an abusive situation at home, and then later at a young age I was exposed to a lot of horror movies including ones about devil worship and possession.

Religious themes can certainly be very frightening for children, especially because they are presented as truth and so many adults follow a religion.

I was in the same situation as well, and the horror movies didn't help. I saw an "exorcism" that was pretty scary as well.

Sorry you had to go through it too.

All I can do is protect my kids from it.

Religion is tied to psychosis because only the mentally ill could actually believe in the big teapot in the sky. It goes without saying, if you believe in the teapot, you're not quite all there. Your question is redundant. Religion itself is a psychotic disorder.

Not for me. The government is my enduring theme.

Are you a fellow atheist? Nice to meet you.

So is a ton of science and no one is touting that.

Someone should though. so much of it including this psychiatric stuff is crap.

i believe in religion to a great degree. i believe in forms of science. but so what? the government wants to tell me something because SCIENCE said so? really? nah man.

In my opinion, I feel like people who are deemed as "psychotic" or "delusional" tend to be much closer to the truth, and those around them do not understand it, and therefore they pin the label "psychotic" and "delusional" on them.

I often think about this and wonder. My background is science so I tend to think that way, but it does not eliminate the ambivalence I feel. The problem is my Indigenous heritage, because it is the culture I grew up in. I need to incorporate those beliefs into the explanation of the psychosis I went through.

Back to the topic...

Arthur Dent made a good point.

Perhaps, psychosis is not a illness but a person's inability to focus their "gift". Medicine men/women have visions and hear voices. In their training, they learn how to make sense of these experiences, so they can live a disability free life.

For me, my manic/psychotic break came with a lot of religious themes. I think that the experience itself was so unbelievable that God was the only one I thought powerful enough to do that to me.

Dylanzmama, your reply helped me sort out my thoughts. It made me realize culture (religion is a component) cannot be separated from the manifestation of psychosis. It also helped me understand why my psychiatrist is interested in my Indigenous heritage.

Thank you.

I think its because of the nature of schizophrenia , you probably suffer hallucinations and with diminished amounts of insight and the effects of the condition itself , you can not explain or rationalise these experiences. Religion is easy to fall back on as its themes often describe events and entities that are outside of reality and all rational thought.

There are other reasons , desperation and loneliness are up their. The overwhelming desire to connect with something anything at all.

The need to feel loved , and the need to find an 'explanation' for it all.

I presume in psychosis people are experiencing the contents of their mind/imagination rather than the ordinary world with its agreed-upon range of explanations. The mind is full of mythic stories as explained by Jung, Joseph Campbell in numerous writings and visionary experiences as explained by Huxley in "The Perennial Philosophy." These stories and patterns run through all cultures and so come out of the mind when it is producing more than receiving.

because it goes deep down to the core of who you are.

paulycoll, you made some good points. I never considered the need to mitigate loneliness. This makes a lot of sense, since psychosis is socially isolating.

I did wonder if religion was used as a default explanation for 'out of the ordinary' experiences.

H3rmit, I never considered mythic stories and their role in the manifestation of psychosis. It makes me wonder about psychosis in culture.