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This paper examines suicide prevalence among Nigerian youth struggling to find meaning in life. Frustrated by unattainable ideals, they experience despair. The study explores religion's role in providing support for meaning-seeking individuals. Utilizing an explorative approach, the paper highlights how religion can play a role in offering solidarity, morality, and hope as vital resources for creating a meaningful life. It introduces "Pastrotherapy" as a pastoral care approach to addressing existential questions. Findings emphasize the importance of religious communities and leaders in promoting resilience and addressing underlying causes of despair. This study reveals how religious beliefs and practices support Nigerian youth facing existential challenges, shedding light on the intersection of religion, meaning-making, and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over 70 years, studies have reported lower rates of completed suicide in Muslim-majority countries and individuals who identify as Muslim. To this point, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between Islam and lower risk of suicide remain understudied. In an effort to advance our understanding, we convened a bilingual international interdisciplinary panel of experts for a discussion of the current state and future directions of the field. In this paper, we present an exploratory qualitative analysis of the core themes that emerged from the group interviews. We also derive a general theoretical model of the association between Islam and suicide risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is a critical public health issue in the United States, recognized as the tenth leading cause of death across all age groups (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Despite the Islamic prohibition on suicide, suicidal ideation and suicide mortality persist among Muslim populations. Recent data suggest that U.S. Muslim adults are particularly vulnerable, with a higher attempt history compared to respondents from other faith traditions. While the underlying reasons for this vulnerability are unclear, it is evident that culturally and religiously congruent mental health services can be utilized to steer suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention in Muslim communities across the United States. However, the development of Suicide Response toolkits specific to Muslim populations is currently limited. As a result, Muslim communities lack a detailed framework to appropriately respond in the event of a suicide tragedy. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by providing structured guidelines for the formation of a Crisis Response Team (CRT) through an Islamic lens. The CRT comprises of a group of individuals who are strategically positioned to respond to a suicide tragedy. Ideally, the team will include religious leaders, mental health professionals, healthcare providers, social workers, and community leaders. The proposed guidelines are designed to be culturally and religiously congruent and take into account the unique cultural and religious factors that influence Muslim communities' responses to suicide. By equipping key personnel in Muslim communities with the resources to intervene in an emergent situation, provide support to those affected, and mobilize community members to assist in prevention efforts, this model can help save lives and prevent future suicide tragedies in Muslim communities across the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide among American Muslims is understudied, despite recent research highlighting increased suicide attempts among this population. While suicide is forbidden in Islam, formal guidelines for addressing and responding to suicide within Muslim communities did not exist until recently. The Stanford Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab has responded to a number of suicides in Muslim communities across North America and implemented an original model for suicide response and community healing. This approach incorporates Islamic principles and values to create a culturally and religiously congruent response to suicide that can support loss survivors and steer impacted communities toward healing. The Muslim Postvention Community Healing session described in this paper aims to provide a safe space for individuals impacted by suicide to come together and process their emotions, while also using Islamic teachings to guide the healing process. This unique model has the potential to serve as a valuable resource for Muslim communities across North America, and beyond, in addressing and responding to suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study to support the hypothesis that religiosity and spirituality (R/S), as mood balancing factors, could facilitate the recovery process for patients suffering from bipolar disorder (BD) once they have been stabilized and are receiving appropriate support (e.g., in a residential rehabilitative center). After a succinct review of BD and R/S, the patient's medical history and rehabilitation pathway are described, with a particular focus on the role played by R/S. The authors found that in this case, once the patient was stabilized, R/S helped to consolidate her feelings of well-being, increasing her positive perception of social support services and ultimately her self-confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]