The Gift of Spirituality

Consequences of spiritual activity for mental health
2.3 Spirituality and PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a delayed reaction to an abnormal, traumatic life experience,
such as war, terrorism, a car or aircraft accident, a natural disaster, or physical, sexual, emotional or
psychological abuse 62 . Anecdotal evidence suggests that religion and spirituality are highly valuable to
people in times of crisis, trauma and grief, and a recent systematic review of articles in the Journal of
Traumatic Stress reached similar conclusions 35 .
There is not a wealth of research examining the association between spirituality and PTSD in the
UK, but there is an emerging literature from America. For example, Shaw et al’s 2005 review of the
literature found 11 studies that reported links between religion, spirituality, and trauma-based mental
health problems. A review of these 11 studies produced three main findings. First, these studies show
that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the
aftermath of trauma. Second, they show that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion
or spirituality. Third, that positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential
questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with improved
post-traumatic recovery 63 .
One spiritual pathway that has been shown to reduce stress and related symptoms in war survivors is
meditation on a word or phrase with spiritual significance (sometimes called a mantra) 64 . Researchers in
one study asked 62 service users to engage in this type of meditation for 90 minutes per week, for five
weeks. They concluded that mantra repetition significantly reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and
anger, as well as improving quality of life and spiritual wellbeing 64 . Although the authors recognized
that a larger sample and a control group were necessary “in order to substansiate the benefits of this
type of meditation”, possible mechanisms that may underlie this effect were not fully explored.
One strand of research suggests that the effects of trauma on mental health may be better
understood by taking a broader perspective that includes resilience and recovery as well as damage
and symptomatology 13 . This broader view allows for the possibility of positive outcomes following
the experience of trauma, such as self-discovery, renewed sense of meaning in life and increased
inner strength 13 . This shift of including positive outcomes of trauma has led to research that explores
factors that allow or encourage this growth to occur. For example, one study used structural
equation modelling (a statistical test that enables the contribution of many variables to be explored
simultaneously) to test a model for understanding post-traumatic growth 65 . A sample of 174 bereaved
caregivers for people with HIV/AIDS completed questionnaires that explored which factors had a
positive relationship with personal growth. Spirituality and social support were linked with posttraumatic
growth, although a lack of qualitative data means it was hard to understand precisely the
ways in which these factors interacted.
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The impact of spirituality upon mental health