How does iman help with depression and anxiety?
Not too long ago, I sat in a session where a group of us were given information about mental health. We were being told about the different mental illnesses and how they could impact a person. We were also told about certain thoughts that a person might have if they have an illness like depression or anxiety.
At the end of all of it I was quite surprised. Because I have those exact thoughts that were described in the session every now and then. But for some reason, I didn’t happen to have the behaviours that would usually occur with those disorders. Despite those thoughts, I still manage to see the bright side of things. I refuse to see anything in a negative light and I can’t stand anyone saying that something is impossible.
And I thought to myself, why? Why wouldn’t my behaviours align with the negative thoughts that would go with those disorders? The answer to that was these words that would come to my mind with every negative thought I had.
حَسْبُنَا اللّه وَ نِعْمَ الْوَكِيْل
“Allah is enough for us and excellent is He is a Disposer of affairs.”
That was it! Allah is enough. No matter what happens in my life, no matter what I lose, no my how tough of a situation I go through, Allah is always there for me. Allah will protect me if I seek His protection. Allah will guard me even in the most impossible situations. Allah Will heal my heart if I remember Him no matter how deep I think the scars are. Allah can change my entire life around with the blink of an eye and He is the One Who Loves me the most. So all I need to do is ask Him. Though I cant comprehend any bad that happens in my life, I know for a fact that I’m headed to where I belong because He is the best of Planners. These are the thoughts that save me, every.single.time.
And interestingly, this is exactly how Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) works in the world of psychology. It works on the assumption that what we think is what we feel and we behave according what we feel. So the therapy works on changing what a person thinks (the negative thoughts) and therefore change the way they feel and behave.
Do you now realize the favour Allah has done upon us, with this faith?
Note: By no means am I saying that strengthening our iman is the ONLY solution to healing from our traumas. Our traumas require us to face our emotions and go through a process of healing with help of others and even professionals in some cases. But I will say that strengthening our iman makes the healing process a little easy. May Allah help all of us who are going through any kind of mental illnesses. Ameen!
