Religious trauma is any trauma that takes place in a religious setting, often through psychological or emotional distress or emotionally manipulative practices.
Religion can play an essential role in a person’s life, and many may find incredible fulfillment in exploring their religious beliefs and practices. Many may also utilize these spiritual beliefs and communities for personal healing.
However, others experience negative religious experiences that can create religious trauma.
Religious trauma occurs when a religious official or religious community uses a person’s spiritual beliefs against them to impact a person’s actions, decision-making, and well-being.
Causes of religious trauma include:
Using a person’s belief system against them to pursue personal gain or to actively cause damage to a person’s self-esteem or feelings of self-worth is the main cause of religious trauma.
Religious communities that are overly strict or controlling, such as authoritarian religions, can increase the risk of traumatic experiences.
Religious trauma can be intimately connected and share many similarities with the development of post-traumatic stress disorder and complex PTSD, or c-PTSD.
This kind of trauma is characterized by prolonged, continuous exposure to traumatic events. Religious trauma syndrome, or RTS, often manifests over a long period, with religious groups slowly affecting a person’s mental health, decision-making, critical thinking, and more.
The cycle of religious abuse describes the continuous and unending belief systems of some religious groups, where a person is inherently guilty of sin and simultaneously reliant on religious leaders to access forgiveness.
An individual may be asked to confess their sins, or their particular religious doctrine may assume inherent sin or wrongdoing or be held accountable for things they cannot control. Such a cycle creates a feeling of admitting guilt and relying on religious leaders to absolve their sin.
Statistics and studies around religious trauma are still relatively new, and religious trauma or RTS is not yet represented in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5.) This makes it impossible to get a firm percentage of how many people have religious trauma.
While RTS is not represented in the DSM-5 yet, it is still important to address how these traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder may continue to affect people, especially in a religious context.
Religious trauma can affect people differently, and each person will have their own unique experiences with religious trauma.
Individuals and their friends and families should all be aware of potential signs of religious trauma. This can empower each person to identify toxic religious communities and best address RTS with a mental health professional.
There are various signs that an individual may be experiencing religious trauma or continuing to cope with its prolonged effects. Some symptoms of religious trauma include:
Unhealthy or toxic churches or religious institutions can come in many forms, but there are some signs of an unhealthy church that can help an individual begin the healing process.
An unhealthy church may show the following signs:
Spiritual abuse in a church is intimately connected to religious trauma, but there is a key distinction between spiritual abuse and religious trauma.
Where religious trauma is the constant exposure to a religious culture or community affecting a person’s mental health over time, spiritual abuse instead often describes a distinct interpersonal relationship, typically between a religious figurehead and an individual.
Some signs of spiritual abuse from a religious figure in a church include:
Experiencing religious trauma often has long-lasting effects on a person’s mental health, self-worth, beliefs, perspectives, and more. Many of these beliefs can be detrimental and even compromise a person’s emotional, mental, and physical health.
Religious trauma has lasting effects on an individual, necessitating the need for professional treatment and clinicians to address these effects.
Some of the long-term effects of trauma include:
Some of the ways in which religious trauma affects the brain include:
Trauma of any kind can profoundly affect the brain, affecting a person’s beliefs, perspectives, attitudes, mental health, and much more. Religious trauma and its connection to post-traumatic stress disorder and c-PTSD can have equally as profound effects.
Religious trauma can also inform the development of other mental illnesses and disorders. This includes anything from anxiety disorders and depression to post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, social disorders, and even substance use disorder to cope.
Religious abuse and spiritual abuse have lasting psychological effects that can continue to inform daily life even after an individual has left a particular religious community.
Some of these psychological effects of religious abuse include:
While religious trauma and RTS are not yet recognized in the DSM-5, it is still a serious concern for many and demands professional attention to address.
Not only can religious trauma and PTSD have significant overlap between them, but they can also continue to inform each other over time, necessitating the need for professional therapy with trauma-informed clinicians.
Religious trauma takes many forms, and each individual will have their own unique experiences with religion and religious institutions.
Some examples of religious trauma can include:
Religious abuse is any action taken by a religious community or high-ranking religious member that may cause an individual to act against their own better judgment, needs, goals, or identity.
This often means using faith or beliefs to actively shame an individual or compromise their own mental health, emotional health, or even sexual health against their will.
Church trauma is any kind of experience in a religious context where religious environments and practices are harmful to a member’s emotional, physical, social, or financial health.
Self-hating beliefs and religious indoctrination within a church can have lasting effects on victims. These experiences are often ingrained into the culture of a religious institution, which can lead to cycles of generational trauma.
This religious trauma is a sustained form of trauma that occurs over time, with constant traumatic experiences affecting an individual’s beliefs, identity, and more. As a result, experiencing these traumas in childhood can have lasting, profound effects.
Childhood trauma from church can instill a self-deprecating or guilty state of mind from a young age.
These traumatic experiences not only shape a child’s worldview and views of themselves but also introduce many negative ideas, such as prejudice, shame, guilt, and more.
Childhood trauma from a church can also include not just emotional or physical abuse but sexual abuse as well. Pressure from religious organizations to maintain their reputation may prevent children from getting the support they need to recover as victims of abuse.
Religious trauma can profoundly affect the development of children in many areas, including:
Abusive relationships and childhood neglect can add to these challenges and further stunt a child’s development of necessary skills and identity.
Healing from religious trauma is difficult due to the prolonged and encompassing nature of these kinds of experiences.
However, healing is always possible. Working with trauma-informed professionals and in-person support groups outside of a religious environment can help each individual recover from religious indoctrination.
Taking time to explore a person’s own needs, the effects of their religious experiences on their mental and physical health, and objectively approaching the various effects of religious trauma is necessary.
It can be difficult to unpack religious trauma, and many may find it difficult to speak negatively of religious institutions.
Cultural forces make it difficult to criticize many religious environments. However, the first step toward unpacking religious trauma is finding an accepting support group and professionals who understand the very real and negative effects of an unhealthy or toxic religious experience.
Religious trauma can be difficult to process, and professional treatment to overcome the effects of religious trauma and the beliefs instilled is necessary.
Combining effective support groups with proven practices is necessary. Some of the methods to begin processing and overcoming the effects of religious trauma include:
Finding a new community in healing from religious trauma is necessary but also exceptionally difficult. Talking with professionals about each unique situation is paramount to exploring how each person can approach their start to healing.
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