DOES NOT BEING RELIGIOUS MAKE YOU ANXIOUS? A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIFFERENCE IN ANXIETY LEVELS OF BELIEVERS AND NON-BELIEVERS

This study tries to find a relationship between religiosity of a person and his/her anxiety levels. A sample of 20 people within the range of 18 to 50 years were taken to represent the larger demographic. Among these, 10 participants identified as religious, while the remaining 10 did not. The questionnaire presented to them, examines their religiosity as well as the levels of anxiety they are prone to, in order to determine whether the former has an impact on the latter. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the information received. Various aspects such as how much a person worries, what he thinks of the world, whether he experiences physical symptoms related to anxiety like headaches, heart palpitations, and others, were studied. It was also seen as to how a person regularly practices his/her religion. The intent of this paper is to prove that people who identified as religious and actively practiced their faith, experience lower levels of anxiety in comparison to non-religious people.