People who offer love, listening and help to others may be rewarded with better mental health themselves, according to a new study of churchgoers in the September/October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. The study is one of the first to track the positive health benefits of altruistic  behavior, says Carolyn Schwartz, Sc.D. of the University of prefix = st1 /MassachusettsMedicalSchool. "The findings really point up how helping others can help oneself," Schwartz says.  Schwartz and his workmates analyzed   the information collected by the Presbyterian Church for 2,016 church members. The members were asked about how often they "made others feel loved and cared for" and "listened to others", and how often they received this attention in return.  The members also answered the questions about their mental and physical health. Most of the church members were in good physical and mental health to begin with, experiencing only normal levels of anxiety and depression. While the researchers did not find any significant differences in physical health clearly related to giving and receiving help, they concluded that giving help was a better predictor of good mental health than receiving help. But feeling crushed   by others' demands can have negative psychological  effects, according to the researchers.  "Although our findings suggest that people who help others experience better mental health, our findings also suggest that giving beyond one's own resources is related with worse reported mental health," Schwartz says. Church leaders, older people, women and those who took satisfaction from prayer   were more likely to be helpers rather than receivers, according to the study. People who give help to others may be less likely to focus inward on their own anxieties and depression or more likely to see their own troubles in mind, leading to better mental health, say the researchers.  Alternatively, it may be that "people who are functioning well psychologically are better able and hence more likely to give help," Schwartz says. What conclusion can we draw from the passage?
It's more blessed to give than to receive. Well begun, half done. Where there is a will, there is a way. Every advantage has its disadvantage.