Today I have read an interview in a newspaper with exactly this question. It was an interview with 2 psychiatrist. One of them was very religious.
When I have read the title I expected worse. The person was not that dogmatic. Still I would not like to be a patient of her.
I try to translate/mediate a part. "Doctors should not spread messages of salvation. But they could orient themselves more on Jesus. He is also described as healer of suffering and not only as an itinerant preacher."
Later the person said she already has discussed stories from the bible with her patients.
To be honest I would be pretty annoyed as a patient. I am not religious and I am really annoyed how religious people judge on suicidal people. Now I will tell about my expierences with religion in therapy.
I had a very very compassionate and friendly therapist in clinic. She was very relgious. But her religion caused problems between us. I was acute suicidal and I asked her if she thinks whether I would go to hell if I killed myself. She agreed on that. I talked pejoratively about religions because I was angry about that. I regret that but I was mentally extremely fucked during that time. She also asked if maybe relgious faith could give me strenth. I denied that.
I have told that recently but I repeat myself now. I was raised somewhat religious and when I had my first severe depression I suffered a lot also due to my fear of hell. I had horrible nightmares because of that but when I read more about atheism this was a relief for me. Losing my faith imrpoved my mental state.
Though I know some people can find strength and communion in relgious faith and I try to respect that.
Another time a religious staff in clinic made a pejorative comment when I tried a little bit of partial during my clinic stay. I think she had the opinion people who commit suicide are crazy. (Yeah that is slightly contarian to her religion. I mean if the people who ctb are crazy why should they go to hell for that. I mean if you consider them as insane they are not responsible for their actions)
Moreover I had a very bad religious therapist. Though this had nothing to do with her religion. She was just a very incompetent therapist. But she also said things like everything has a reason and she thought that God had a plan for all of us. Though this did not prevent her of giving up on me and she also stopped the treatment due to my label as treatment resistant severely depressed person who will kill himself. She did not use these terms but I also won't elaborate on that more. I have done this too often.
When I told one therapist I was in a suicide forum in order to speak about my suicidality he asked me if I was religious. He thought maybe a religious self-help group would be a good substitute. Yeah I had to chuckle about that. (due to my hell nightmares)
This is also my current therapist. He is a good one. We talked later about it and he agreed that it is okay to be in a suicide forum. We talked openly about it and I opened up hon ow much it helps to talk about my thoughts without getting stigmatized.
I don't want to say with that thread therapy was bad. Therapy has helped me a lot. And not all of these people who I mentioned here were bad therapists. But I just wanted to emphasize that I have often made negative experiences with religion in the context of therapy. I know it can help some people. But for people like me please let the therapy be secular. I don't want to be confronted with religious stories in order to deal with my problems better.
To add one last thing. I sometimes think it is too easy for me to mock religion in this forum. I know that 95% on here agree with me on this. It feels too easy to score some points. I don't know.
When I have read the title I expected worse. The person was not that dogmatic. Still I would not like to be a patient of her.
I try to translate/mediate a part. "Doctors should not spread messages of salvation. But they could orient themselves more on Jesus. He is also described as healer of suffering and not only as an itinerant preacher."
Later the person said she already has discussed stories from the bible with her patients.
To be honest I would be pretty annoyed as a patient. I am not religious and I am really annoyed how religious people judge on suicidal people. Now I will tell about my expierences with religion in therapy.
I had a very very compassionate and friendly therapist in clinic. She was very relgious. But her religion caused problems between us. I was acute suicidal and I asked her if she thinks whether I would go to hell if I killed myself. She agreed on that. I talked pejoratively about religions because I was angry about that. I regret that but I was mentally extremely fucked during that time. She also asked if maybe relgious faith could give me strenth. I denied that.
I have told that recently but I repeat myself now. I was raised somewhat religious and when I had my first severe depression I suffered a lot also due to my fear of hell. I had horrible nightmares because of that but when I read more about atheism this was a relief for me. Losing my faith imrpoved my mental state.
Though I know some people can find strength and communion in relgious faith and I try to respect that.
Another time a religious staff in clinic made a pejorative comment when I tried a little bit of partial during my clinic stay. I think she had the opinion people who commit suicide are crazy. (Yeah that is slightly contarian to her religion. I mean if the people who ctb are crazy why should they go to hell for that. I mean if you consider them as insane they are not responsible for their actions)
Moreover I had a very bad religious therapist. Though this had nothing to do with her religion. She was just a very incompetent therapist. But she also said things like everything has a reason and she thought that God had a plan for all of us. Though this did not prevent her of giving up on me and she also stopped the treatment due to my label as treatment resistant severely depressed person who will kill himself. She did not use these terms but I also won't elaborate on that more. I have done this too often.
When I told one therapist I was in a suicide forum in order to speak about my suicidality he asked me if I was religious. He thought maybe a religious self-help group would be a good substitute. Yeah I had to chuckle about that. (due to my hell nightmares)
This is also my current therapist. He is a good one. We talked later about it and he agreed that it is okay to be in a suicide forum. We talked openly about it and I opened up hon ow much it helps to talk about my thoughts without getting stigmatized.
I don't want to say with that thread therapy was bad. Therapy has helped me a lot. And not all of these people who I mentioned here were bad therapists. But I just wanted to emphasize that I have often made negative experiences with religion in the context of therapy. I know it can help some people. But for people like me please let the therapy be secular. I don't want to be confronted with religious stories in order to deal with my problems better.
To add one last thing. I sometimes think it is too easy for me to mock religion in this forum. I know that 95% on here agree with me on this. It feels too easy to score some points. I don't know.
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