Inklings of the World – the Sue Bradley Archives

Mysticism of some sort is an enduring theme throughout history, a staple of most civilizations over thousands of years. — Lawrence R. Samuel Ph.D.

With the recent advancements in technology, it has become easier for a lot of people to disseminate information. The rise of social networking sites has contributed to the convenience of spreading news, findings, and other theories. Nowadays, people all over the world can share anything with one click of a button.

This can be dangerous since many individuals keep on sharing different information online without verifying whether these are true or fake. At the same time, there are also many persons who share what they believe in even if their belief is baseless. Most of the time, they end up convincing their friends in the online world. The most widespread conspiracy theories are linked to mental health.

In this article, our primary focus is to pinpoint the top reasons why people believe conspiracy theories on mental health.

1.Anxiety

A recent study reveals that there is actually a connection between anxiety and inclination to conspiracy theories. According to this research, people who are always anxious are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. Anxious individuals often experience a loss of control or focus on a particular subject matter. This is the reason why they prefer to think baseless theories compared to those already clearly established.

 It is about engaging in a variety of activities that are understood as this-worldly, and to identify with, or be a member of, non-religious groupings or associations. — Phil Zuckerman Ph.D.

2. Suspicions

Having suspicions about a particular thing is actually necessary. It can protect an individual from coming across unreliable information or belief. However, being too suspicious can also be detrimental to the persons involved. For example, one may not easily believe in a published scientific finding because he is doubtful about it. In this case, there is no longer need to

3. Fear

People who promote conspiracy theories about mental health claim that following the theories would make people live longer and become healthier. Otherwise, those who do not accept the theories will end up suffering from medical problems. This is the main reason why a lot of people find it convenient to believe the theories easily.

They would just simply accept the conspiracy theories because of fear of harm or even death.

 

4. Paranoia

One of the common traits among conspiracy theorists is paranoia. They consider many threats to their existence, which is why they do not accept recent medical findings concerning mental health. They would rather believe something that they are comfortable with even if experts have already disproved the theories. For these
people, it is more important to consider what they feel than what is the truth.

Hindsight bias is the human tendency to believe that we knew something was going to happen, but only after hearing about the event’s occurrence.  Hindsight bias makes us think that we (or others) can actually tell the future. — Ronald E Riggio Ph.D.

5. Supremacy

A large number of conspiracy theorists have too much confidence in what they do or study. They do not accept the findings of other experts or professionals. They believe that it is impossible for other people to be more superior to them. These individuals also enjoy giving critics about medical findings all for the purpose of increasing their self-worth or superiority.

When it comes to the discipline of the mind, theories were formed left and right, influencing today’s psychological evaluations and applications.  Theories, by definition, are based on statements of possibilities for some natural occurrence and are usually supported by evidence. Theories relating to science are most likely based on a certain framework with multiple probabilities and explanations. When a theory is presented, it becomes a concept to be tested.

…just a bit of historical perspective reminds us of how far we have come and how important our increasingly person-centered values are and continue to be as we work together to shape the future of health care delivery for generations to come. — Blake Griffin Edwards LMFT

The theoretical foundation for psychological interpretations is currently used as standards for comprehending manifestations of human emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. Mental health theories usually have two basic components – the behavioral description and prognosis for subsequent actions.   Since the discovery of psychology, there have been several theories that were proposed in order to elaborate and surmise different facets of individual behavior. While other theories were dismissed due to its weak premise and presented evidence, some were able to pull through and are currently being used by medical practitioners, and some were reconditioned by researchers.

1. Grand mental health theories

There are six types of grand theories formulated by a few renowned, historic personalities like Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Sigmund Freud.The development proposed by grand mental health theories often contain the learning, cognitive, and psychoanalytic theories that collectively explain the entirety of a human’s behavior towards oneself and the society. Currently, researchers and psychologists continually use these grand mental health theories to expand the basis of examination.

2. Developmental mental health theories

Considered as one of the more popular theories, the developmental mental health theories have is said to have a high influence on our present-day psychology. A lot of relevant psychological studies applied as of this date has derived much of their explorations through the concepts and principles devised by developmental mental health theories. This mostly describes human development in such a way that focuses on growth and formation throughout the years like in Erik Erikson’s case, the psychosocial development theory.

Since 1985, we have since learned that psychosocial skills and insider knowledge interact with ability to enhance the likelihood of progress to the next level of talent development, and we do have some ideas about which psychosocial skills matter broadly across domains. — Jonathan Wai Ph.D.

3. Behavioral mental health theories

Behaviorism, an approach that is aimed at understanding human and animal behavior through systematic mechanisms and experiments, theorizes that behaviors can be learned through the process of conditioning. Through people’s interaction with their environment, conditioning happens. Behaviorists somehow believed that people’s responses to any form of environmental stimulant trigger their actions.

4. Social mental health theories

This is mainly based on the interpretation, perception, and explanation of a person’s social behavior. These are paradigms created to broaden social phenomena encompassing certain ideas involving the changes in the society and the influence of ethnicity, love and relationships, gender, social structure and behavior, civilization, and modernization.

5. Humanistic mental health theories

Emerged in the 1950s, humanistic mental health theories are popularized by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers as those theories emphasizing the fundamental morality of humans. Humanistic theorists believed that individuals are mainly defined by their perception of their surroundings and are motivated to become successful in gaining maximum potentials.

All moral disengagement techniques are tricks to get people to accept behaviors that they would otherwise immediately recognize as unethical and unfair. — Sherry Hamby Ph.D.

6. Cognitive mental health theories

Mainly centered on how human minds think, cognitive mental health theories is considered as one of the most modern theories being used by psychologists. While other theories consider other factors like chemical imbalances in the brain and genetics, the cognitive psychological theory assumes that humans behave accordingly on how they think and can also be explained by the stimuli responses.

7. Personality mental health theories

Governed by the idea that a person’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings, personality psychology is aimed at examining these patterns and correlating them to what makes an individual stand out. By highlighting the uniqueness of a person, theorists have devoted their time to study the traits and characteristics that others lack or do not possess. In a broader perspective, theories revolving with personality psychology tend to address a broader concern of how it is to be a real person.   Answers are built on theories   Having a deeper sense of understanding and differentiating one theory from another improves your general view of psychology. Theories may seem insignificant but one must take into consideration that, treatments and therapies revolving around mental health are derived from these theories; making them as solid foundations for the modern psychology.

Religious, superstitious, and magical thinking clearly represent an encroachment of the mental world on the real one in the form of belief in divine creation, miracles, the power of prayers and spells, and so on. — Christopher Badcock Ph.D.

When it comes to the issue of mental health, the first thing that you need to take into consideration is the belief on the supernatural. Some studies show that adherence to the false reality or existence of devils and demons can lead to the development of mental illness. For the experts, especially the professionals, this finding is entirely absurd. They believe that the causes for having mental health problems arise to some reasons other than demonic influences.

Continue reading Linking Influence of Supernatural Beliefs to Mental Health

A study finds that 7- to 9-year-old children that have an idea/concept of a supernatural force are more likely to allow a “sign” to influence their behavior. — Stephanie A. Sarkis Ph.D.

In the field of science and technology, professionals and experts only believe something after conducting thorough research or study on it. They always want to consider specific facts and circumstances to test the hypothesis. As such, experimentations are always necessary. Most of them will only accept a particular set of principles or new learning after a careful experiment has been conducted.

On the other hand, some conspiracy theorists only believe what they think is convenient. They are the ones who have a firm conviction on certain doctrines that they believe are true. Because of this, they reject any other concept or idea that is different from what they believe is right or superior. In a recent study conducted by medical practitioners who specialized in mental health, most of these theorists suffer from paranoia and delusional disorder.

 I’m not here to tell you what you should believe in—some of my friends and family members believe in ghosts, astrology, and fortune-telling—but it does concern me when people ignore natural, often-psychological explanations for happenings and immediately believe they are supernatural. — Ronald E Riggio Ph.D. Continue reading Is There A Link Between Paranoia and Conspiracy Theorists?

 

Know The Implications These Beliefs HaveForOne’s Health

Health brouhahas with little to no scientific basis crowd our Facebook newsfeeds all the time. Tips like “Eat This Fruit To Lose Weight Fast” or “The Cell Phone Health Dangers Nobody Told You About” are just a norm on social media platforms that most of us have learned to just ignore them…or have we?

Participants were MORE likely to use supernatural explanations for these sorts of events with age, rather than less likely. — Jacqueline Woolley Ph.D.

One study confirmed that about 50% of the American population believes these seemingly-authentic-but-at-most-crazy conspiracy theories on health and medicine. Know why this is a valid cause for alarm.

The Study’s Premise

Researchers polled over a thousand people online asking them about the most commonly known health and medicine-related conspiracy theories and what’s their standing on each – believe, don’t accept it as authentic or is at a crossroads. Then, their health habits were taken into account along with their answers to see if their beliefs affected how they managed theirs and their families’ healthcare.

These were the following health and medicine-related conspiracy theories the researchers used for the study:

• The FDA covers the truth about effective herbal remedies for physical maladies because the market doesn’t generate as much money as synthetic drugs do.

• Doctors fully know that vaccines cause disorders such as autism but administer them anyway because the government obligates them to do so.

• Adding fluoride to water is just the big corporations’ way to dump other harmful chemicals into the people’s tap water.

• Cell phones are cancer-causing agents. However, cell phone companies pay health officials so they won’t let this out to the masses.

• The CIA infected a large percentage of the African-American population with HIV covering it up as vaccinations for hepatitis.

• GMOs (Genetically Modified Foods) are part of a government-sanctioned global-scale genocide to control world population.

To be secular is to maintain a naturalistic worldview in which belief in anything is always proportioned to the evidence available. — Phil Zuckerman Ph.D.

Through the said undertaking, the group found out that:

• 49% of the respondents believed in at least one of the health conspiracy theories mentioned above.

 

• 18% of the polled individuals believed three of the abovementioned medical-related schemes to be true (dubbed by the researchers as the high conspiracists).

 

• The FDA’s cover-up of potent herbal supplements for disease eradication gets the highest percentage of believers at 37% followed by doctors’ knowledge on vaccines and cell phones causing cancer which both got 20%. Lastly, the fluoride-big corporations’ scheme and GMOs for population culling both received 12% shares of the truth votes.

• One interesting note about the results is that the conspiracy believers cover both ends of the political spectrum (35% said they were liberals while 41% were conservatives).

 

80% of those who said they believed at least one of the theories mentioned above were most likely to favor health diagnosis and advice dished out by celebrity doctors and herbal medicine practitioners like Dr. Mehmet Oz. They also prefer consulting these people or the Internet than going to medical professionals when looking for treatments for themselves and their families.Furthermore, they’re very likely to forego regular physical check-ups, sunscreen use and traditional shots like those for the flu as well as vaccinations. They’re also local, and organic produce consumers and use alternative natural-herbal medicines.

The desire to explain the unexplainable and recognize the presence of a different and possibly higher plane of existence or consciousness is a universal dimension of the human experience, proof that the supernatural offers something of value to people and should be taken seriously. — Lawrence R. Samuel Ph.D.

For its conclusion, the study was able to prove that belief in pseudoscience ideals directly affects how a person takes care of his health and that of his family. And while there’s nothing wrong with going organic or using alternative medicine, health-related conspiracy theories, at times, promote some very dangerous principles.

For one, there’s a recent hype about raw, untreated water consumption with every bottle sold at $60.99. These bottles of water are peddled as “all natural, so they’re good” drinks but at the cost of the drinker’s health. Raw and untreated water is unsafe and carries germs. These microorganisms could cause a wide range of maladies from diarrhea to typhoid to even polio. Not only that! Shunning vaccines could bring harm to unvaccinated kids in the long run.

But as one of the researchers pointed out, correcting conspiracy theory believers is difficult.

“They strongly believe what they know is better and more reliable than the information traditional medicine offers,” he said. “And correcting them is quite a complicated process. Most of these pseudoscience ideas and their peddlers can be very convincing.”

 

Belief in the supernatural obviously serves an important purpose, part of our never-ending quest to solve the mystery that is life itself. — Lawrence R. Samuel Ph.D.

Conspiracy theories are everywhere. Despite the technological advancements and access to reliable material, many people still believe in theories without basis. These individuals rely on what they have learned from the previous generation. Because of this, they often forget to verify whether what they believe in is true or not.

Common Conspiracy Theories

Even in the medical field, a large number of individuals still believe and promote certain conspiracy theories. These are some of it:

• Most health officials are aware of the fact that the use of mobile phones and other gadgets may lead to cancer. However, they choose to conceal this information to protect the interests of large corporations.
• The government is responsible for the widespread of HIV all over the world. It is a form of genocide, developed by public officials, in order to eliminate gay people.
• Companies dump dangerous elements, substances, and chemicals in the environment through the fluoridation of tap water.
• The vaccines that the government provides to the public cause autism and other related mental problems or disorders.
• The government does everything it can to prevent the discovery for the cure of cancer. This theory supports the claim that pharmaceuticals companies or corporations are putting pressure on the government. If there is already an antidote for cancer, then these firms would die down which is why they try to suppress the experiments.

So how do these conspiracy theories develop? Where do they come from? Who started it? According to experts, these theories are really false statements that are without proper medical basis. Moreover, the dissemination of these theories are supported by a particular set of individuals who share the same agenda.

Specifically, adults spontaneously appealed to supernatural explanations more frequently than did children, and this tendency increased with age. — Jacqueline Woolley Ph.D.

How Theories Affect Health

• The existence of these theories often leads to the refusal of certain patients to administer medications or seek medical consultation.
• The more these conspiracy theories spread out in the community, the easier it is to debunk established scientific principles.
• Believers may often think that they are better individuals than other people. As a result, they have this false sense of arrogance to the point that they will just accept any information they want to believe in. This can be dangerous to their health.
• People who believe in medical conspiracy theories are found to develop low self-esteem. They may keep on spreading the statements they believe in but at some point, they somehow begin to lose confidence in themselves. This usually happens when someone can logically point out the mistakes in the theories.

Even worse, it is our desire to believe in the supernatural that can make us victims of charlatans and con artists, and we need to be able to defend ourselves. — Ronald E Riggio Ph.D.

These medical conspiracy theories are absolutely baseless. There are no scientific findings or studies that will support its concept. As such, it is important for everyone to avoid spreading these theories. As much as possible, always go to a professional for a consultation. Avoid believing in the theories that you have heard from other individuals.

Take note that your health is on the line. Blindly following the conspiracy theories will only place your life in danger. Most of the conspiracy theories in the medical community talk about how alternative medicine is better than the traditional medicine. Because of this wrong notion, their medical conditions may get worst. While it may be good to become skeptical at times, always keep in mind that there are some established medical truths that you have to strictly adhere to.