People feel they deserve healing instead of punishment.Children are put in fear of demons and told that these demons have supernatural powers. Wrongdoing accumulates without a means for forgiveness, atonement or purification.Guilt is projected outward onto demons instead of healed inside.Believers pay attention to that myth and give it value.People feel they deserve punishment rather than healing.a society with fear-based beliefs in unworthiness, shame and sin: In his book Life After Death: The Burden of Proof, Deepak Chopra describes the difference between a society that is empowered by its spirituality vs. severe corporal punishment, isolation) that create the damage. hellfire, original sin) and practices (e.g. More often it is an accumulation of exposure to teachings (e.g.
#Religious trauma syndrome movie
Religious harm or Toxic Religious Experience is rarely a single event, although many sufferers may focus on singular horrifying events such as watching a movie about the End Times. This is a huge, multidimensional task, since religion can seem to define all of reality. Related to all of these issues is the fact that authoritarian religions teach two basic and powerfully toxic messages: “You are not okay” and “You are not safe.” Recovery from religious harm involves healing from these deep assumptions, often indoctrinated from birth, and reconstructing a whole new worldview.
Like other trauma, religious trauma can produce anxiety in the form of emotional flashbacks, which can look like panic attacks, among other responses. Many people leaving religion have had enough Toxic Religious Experience (TRE) to produce symptoms of complex PTSD, which is “trauma” in the more clinical sense. Relational: Problems with family and friends due to religion, loss of social support systemĭevelopmental: delayed areas of human development due to religious isolation and conformity, including critical thinking, decision-making, identity formation, emotional regulation, healthy sexuality, social skills, creativity, self-efficacy, and meaning in life Social: Loss of social network, family rupture, social awkwardness, sexual difficulty, behind schedule on developmental tasksĬultural: Unfamiliarity with secular world “fish out of water” feelings, difficulty belonging, information gaps (e.g. Religious Trauma Syndrome has a very recognizable set of symptoms, a definitive set of causes, and a debilitating cycle of abuse:Ĭognitive: Confusion, poor critical thinking ability, negative beliefs about self-ability & self-worth, black & white thinking, perfectionism, difficulty with decision-makingĮmotional: Depression, anxiety, anger, grief, loneliness, difficulty with pleasure, loss of meaning It can be compared to a combination of PTSD and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD). RTS is a function of both the chronic abuses of harmful religion and the impact of severing one’s connection with one’s faith. They may be going through the shattering of a personally meaningful faith and/or breaking away from a controlling community and lifestyle. Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS) is the condition experienced by people who are struggling with leaving an authoritarian, dogmatic religion and coping with the damage of indoctrination. Marlene Winnell, in her book, Leaving the Fold, describes Religious Trauma Syndrome as follows: Salon.Com, last modified November 1, 2014.ĭr. Valerie Tarico and Marlene Winell, “The Sad, Twisted Truth about Conservative Christianity’s Effect on the Mind. Psychological mind-control techniques that encourage isolation A threat-based reality (hell, punishment, catastrophic end times). Restricted access to outside sources of information An authoritarian power hierarchy that demands obedience Tarico and Winnell identify these characteristics : Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. Children raised in this mindset fail to develop critical thinking skills and intellectual autonomy, and when presented with an image of God as a frightening entity, can grow up projecting their fear of God onto the world at large, perceiving everything outside the immediate religious community as dangerous evil and suspicious.
She identifies characteristics in religious authoritarian systems that include literal interpretation of scripture as the source of absolute rule, and the threat of punishment for non-conformity. Researcher Janet Heimlich, in her book Breaking Their Will, explores how religion can often function as an authoritarian culture that creates terror among followers.
0 kommentar(er)
