Comparison of religious beliefs and mental health, self esteem and anger in normal and drug-dependent people

Introduction: Religious beliefs have an important effect on all psychological aspects of human life and strengthening these beliefs increases self-esteem, mental health and also decrease addiction and anger. Objective: This study aimed to survey the relationship between religious beliefs and mental health, self -esteem and anger in normal and drug-dependent people in Rasht. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive-comparative study. Study population consists of 80 drug-dependent and normal people(n = 40 addicts, 40 non-addicted) in Rasht who were chosen by random sampling (October to March 2010) and responded to Allport religious beliefs, mental health (GHQ-12), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Buss and Perry anger questionnaire. After implementation and data collection, descriptive statistics methods (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-tests, regression and correlation) were used for data analysis. Results: The results of independent t-test parameters comparing the two groups showed a significant difference in terms of their religious beliefs (p<0.0001), mental health level (p<0.0001), self-esteem (p<0.0001) and anger (p<0.0001). Data analysis using regression showed the components surveyed predicted 60% of their religious beliefs. Also Pearson correlation findings indicated a relationship between religious beliefs and mental health in drug dependent people (p<0.01). Conclusion: This study emphasizes the importance of religious beliefs, self-esteem, anger and its effect on mental health of substance dependent and normal individuals. It is suggested that an important role in decreasing addiction can be taken through learning the normal stress and anger management skills and increasing self-esteem and also learning some of the interpersonal skills solutions which helps people expand their social support networks and social work.