Is Religion type of Mental Illness?

My late mother and sister were both hyper-religious Holy Rollers who were eventually diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenics. They were both committed to a variety of state mental hospitals a number of times and I visited them both as frequently as I could force myself.

The day rooms of most psych wards are filled with people who have serious religious issues and If you ask a psychiatrist "on the record" he'll tell you excessive religiosity is not officially recognized in the Diagnostic Manual. On the other hand, if you make a point of actually getting to know any psychiatrist and speak "off the record" he'll admit that confusing subjective mental experiences with perceptual reality is the root of schizophrenia in most sufferers. According to one of my favorite shrinks, confusing beliefs for facts can become habitual, leading to "sloppy thinking" and eventually, in extreme cases, even schizophrenia.

One evening, Mom's shrink and I walked out to the parking lot together to see his brand new Jaguar XKE. After he started the engine, while we were appreciating its throaty exhaust note, the shrink suddenly turned and said to me, "I suppose I should be grateful for religion, it's certainly made me a wealthy man."**

You seem to expect that "religion" have to check with the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, not all faiths subscribe to these scriptures, and even to any. As a Pagan I feel that the Gods created the Universe and the ordinary legal guidelines in which it runs, these laws incorporate chance and good fortune. Mental diseases, like every other kind, or, for that subject normal disasters, occurs by way of risk not design and dealing with them is a part of the human situation. The Gods additionally gave us free will, so we are in charge for voluntary movements founded on what we know or consider, that means that intellectual sickness is a element within the consequences of these moves. Science is a software for figuring out how the universe works, spirituality is a means of exploring your relationship with the Gods, the two can't in any respect conflict seeing that they deal with two separate issues.

If it is, then the majority of the world has it.

The problem is that because some people really do have spiritual experiences, those of you who claim that religion is a mental illness are the ones in trouble. You may need to seek professional help with your delusion that the rest of the world (except for a very few people) are deluded.

You're an idiot.

I would tend to say yes it is a mental illness. The symptoms are clear, delusions, talking to an invisible friend and all that. And let's not forget the supremacism.

First off, I am a Christian and have always wondered where the boundaries of a certain religion might overlap the boundaries of what modern psychology defines as mental illness. The field of psychology itself is highly sensitive to common religious beliefs/associative characteristics. For example, a psychiatrist may diagnose someone who routinely converses with another--whose existence is only apparent to them--they call "Bob", with Depression, general Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder, to name a few. However, this is only(and not always) a mere sign of such disorders and such a diagnosis would require a number of other significant signs. But if this person's name is God or Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Lord Vishnu, Shangdi, etc., experts in the Psychology field would find these "conversations" to be acceptable, after considering the circumstances and context of them. In fact, even having frequent hallucinations does not itself warrant any kind of diagnosis or medications/therapy. The current DSM defines a mental illness as "a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual [which] is associated with present distress...or disability...or with a significant increased risk of suffering." Those who consider themselves religious would largely be unable to relate themselves to any aspect of this definition. Developing research suggests that those most involved in their religion are less likely to suffer a mental breakdown, be diagnosed with a mental disorder, be hospitalized due to a mental crisis, and be driven to commit a harmful act (which indicates a better functioning of brain regions such as the limbic system, prefrontal cortex, temporal lobes, etc., that help interpret wrongful stimulants and control how we react to them). Also, those who meet the current DSM qualifications of being sociopaths (aka "psychos") not only make up an infinitesimal percentage of those most active in their religion, most of them do not conform to any religion and consider themselves unbelievers. Brain activity in sociopaths is most similar to an atheist's, and thus accounts for the larger presence of sociopathic tendencies in those who do not affiliate with any religion.

The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!

Yes. Pathological insecurity.

Yes I used to be Catholic it made my OCD and depression worse. Its a mental illness to be religious especially Catholic or possibly Muslim.

No, it's not a mental illness in the same way other mental illnesses are described in the DSM IV. However, religion can be USED as a way to induce a mental illness.

Shared Delusion, Folie à deux. Needn't be just for two, any number can play.