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"Examples of Religious Trauma Syndrome

While RTS can be different depending on the religion, practices, or beliefs, it typically has a common component of fear and manipulation. Individuals may be told that they will be separated from God, face social ruin, or go to hell based on their adherence to a certain set of traditions or belief.

Slade adds, “While archetypal traumatic experiences exist, such as sexual assault, there are no predictable causes of overwhelming or disruptive adverse effects on individuals. For one person, trauma results from teachings about hellfire, damnation, original sin, or a belief in the rapture. For another person, it’s the act of public shaming or being ‘slain in the Spirit.’ For someone else, it’s the experience of repeated sexual, emotional, social, or physical stigmatization and isolation.”

Some examples of religious trauma syndrome include:

• A child experiencing same sex attraction may be told that their feelings are sinful and that they need to repent.
• An adolescent expressing their thoughts may be physically disciplined or beaten into submission by a parent or religious leader to “save their soul.”
• A young woman who finds herself pregnant out of wedlock may be subject to sanctions and be ostracized from the community or congregation. She may feel shame, confusion, guilt, or depression due to religious indoctrination or beliefs that she is a bad person.
• A person may be told that the majority of their financial resources should go to the cause of furthering the message of the religion, causing financial hardship.

These experiences can wreak havoc on one’s sense of self and create a false narrative that absolute adherence to certain practices and traditions are necessary to make it to the afterlife. Because religious trauma can be prevalent in childhood, becoming more distant from religion can sometimes mean that individuals feel that they are abandoning everything that they’ve been taught.

An individual who decides that they will leave their religion or faith community may find themselves without a place to go. They may lose family, friends, or an extended network of individuals that they previously felt connected to. On a deeper level, it can be common to lose your sense of self and your identity as you learn that most of the things that you knew to be true as it pertains to religion and faith were untrue. You may feel lost and find yourself at a point where you must build a new support network based on who you are outside of the religion that you left.

Religious Trauma Syndrome Symptoms

Symptoms of religious trauma include:

• Poor critical thinking skills
• Difficulty making decisions
• Decreased sense of self-worth
• Difficulty building strong relationships
• Being unfamiliar with mainstream culture/isolation
• Struggling with fitting in and belonging
• Nightmares
• Sleeping issues
• Eating issues
• Sexual dysfunction
• Anxiety symptoms
• Depression symptoms
• Grief symptoms
• Loneliness."

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