Going to church could save your life

I’m willing to bet that either you’ve struggled with significant depression or you love someone who has. The new millennium has seen a surge in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation across the West.

Between 2015 and 2023 in the United States, the proportion of adults diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives went up by almost 10 percentage points to 29%. In the same period, the proportion of people who have been or are currently being treated for depression went up by 7 points to 17.8%. We’ve removed much of the shame and stigma once associated with mental health struggles. But we haven’t succeeded in reducing the struggles. Instead, they’ve spread like an oil spill, entrapping more and more of us like seagulls with our wings weighed down.

This mental health disaster has hit women hardest. We see ourselves as living in the most pro-woman culture in all human history. Yet women in our culture are increasingly unhappy. Thirty-seven percent of women now report being diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, compared with 20% of men. The mental health crisis has also been particularly hard on younger people. In 2023, 27.3 percent of girls and 9.4 percent of boys ages 12 to 17 reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year, more than double the rates in 2004. Likewise, between 2009 and 2021, the share of American high school students who said they had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent. Tragically, between 2007 and 2021, the suicide rate among ten-to-twenty-four-year-olds also increased by 62 percent.

So, what’s driving this depression and despair?

We might look to COVID to shoulder the blame. The effects of the social isolation bred by the pandemic are certainly profound. But as one 2022 report points out, depression was “an escalating public health crisis” in the United States before we had ever even heard of COVID.

One cause of the mental health crisis is the rise of smartphones and social media, which have driven isolation, negative comparison, and the social contagion of a host of mental health conditions. Again, women and young people have been most affected. By 2023, the evidence for the dangers of smartphone and social-media use for children and adolescents was so clear that the US surgeon general issued an official public health warning. But smartphones can’t take all the blame.

Another factor undermining mental health is the decline in marriage. Many nonreligious people think increased societal acceptance of sex outside marriage leads to better mental health and greater happiness. But the data tells a different tale. For women in particular, increased numbers of sexual partners correlate with more depression, sadness, and suicidal ideation, and increased likelihood of substance abuse. Marriage has the opposite effect. After analyzing data from a large-scale, long-term survey, University of Chicago Professor Sam Peltzman noted, “Being married is the most important differentiator with a 30 — percentage point happy—unhappy gap over the unmarried.” Likewise, research conducted by the Institute for Family Studies found that “married people are approximately 16% more likely than unmarried people to describe their mental health as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ within every category of formal education.” Marriage, it turns out, functions less like a restrictive straitjacket and more like a protective seat belt.

But alongside the astronomical growth in smartphone use and the decline in marriage, it’s increasingly clear that one major driver of the mental health crisis is the decline in church attendance.

Prescription

I clicked on link after link to articles with titles promising the “Top 10 Mental Health Hacks” or something similar. I wondered whether any would mention going to church. None did. You can try the exercise yourself.

Psychologists are keen to let us know how exercise, good sleep, and eating healthy foods can boost our mental health and happiness. They advocate yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. But like the awkward uncle we’re all trying to forget, we don’t talk about “organized religion.”

Church often has negative associations. We’ve all heard stories of people who at last felt free to be themselves when they left church behind. Maybe that was your experience. What’s more, in a culture that promotes self-love, unbounded freedom, and the good of always following our hearts, some Christian teachings — like the idea that many of our deep desires are sinful — seem like they’d be bad for mental health and happiness. Before she turned to Jesus, a friend had a mug that said, “Nobody’s perfect. I’m nobody.” But when she finally became convinced that Christianity is true, one thing that brought relief was the new understanding of herself that the Bible gives. Whereas she’d tried to believe she was basically good, the Christian message gave her tools to recognize the many ways she was, in fact, quite bad. At the same time, her newfound faith gave her deep confidence that she is loved by the creator God of all the universe, who sent his Son to die for her.

Many in our culture think prioritizing self-love and rejecting the uncomfortable beliefs that come with Christianity will lead to happiness. But the evidence is quite the opposite. Going to church weekly actually is one of the best protections against depression, sadness, and suicidal ideation anyone has found. A 2022 analysis of studies showed “a roughly 33% reduction in the odds of subsequent depression for those attending services at least weekly versus not at all.” In other words, if you aren’t currently a churchgoer and you start attending weekly, you reduce your chances of developing depression by a third.

A medication this effective would be widely prescribed. But while your therapist or doctor may encourage yoga, meditation, or more time outside in nature, he or she almost certainly won’t recommend you go to church. The benefits of “organized religion” don’t fit with the big story we are telling in the West about the goodness of abandoning traditional beliefs.

Not only do churchgoers cut their chances of depression by a third, but depressed people who attend church weekly also have a significantly better chance of recovering than those who don’t. Instead of dragging you still further down into depression, church could be just what you need to pull you out. But like any other medication, you’ll need to stay the course to see the positive effects.

You may read this and think, You just don’t get it. I’ve been hurt by the church. Maybe you’ve experienced hypocrisy, judgmental attitudes, or even terrible abuse. I know people who’ve been profoundly hurt in church and who bear scars of pain and disillusionment from the experience. Just as our families can be the places of greatest love and of most horrific pain, so the church can be a place of safety or of harm. But just as growing up in an unhealthy family wouldn’t lead you to give up on family for good, so the experience of an unhealthy church need not mean giving up on church.

A genuinely loving, healthy church may be just what you need to heal. Indeed, it can be literally lifesaving.

Originally published at The Worldview Bulletin Newsletter.