Religious Trauma Articles
Mental Health, Complex PTSD & Adverse Religious Experiences
How to Tell if You Have High-Functioning Religious Trauma
On the surface, high-functioning religious trauma looks makes it appear as though you “have it all together” while under the surface, this high-functioning persona is being fueled by fear, anxiety, and stress.
Religious Trauma Bonds: What They Are & How They Develop
In this article, I’m talking about something I see all the time in my religious harm recovery work: trauma bonds. While this term is often used when discussing abusive relationships, trauma bonds can also form in authoritarian religious groups where fear, guilt, and control are key tools for keeping members loyal and obedient. {Disclaimer: I…
4 Harmful Outcomes of Striving to be “Christ-like”
Religious trauma hits close to home for many who grew up in high-control religions. A common theme I hear from my online community (@religious.harm.recovery) is how being ‘Christ-like’ often conditioned them into people-pleasing behaviors, resembling the trauma response known as ‘fawning.’ Unfortunately, this conditioning tends to linger even after leaving they’ve left their religion. In…
How Religious Patriarchy Affects Men: Are They Victims Too?
Religious patriarchy affects both men and women, creating a system where men face pressures to conform to rigid leadership roles while simultaneously being told they’re broken sinners who need constant divine guidance.
4 Stages of Anger Connected to Religious Trauma
Leaving a high-control religion often brings up a wide range of emotions, and anger tends to be one of the hardest to navigate for most folks. This is because many of us were taught that anger was dangerous, sinful, or even a sign of spiritual weakness. But anger, like any other emotion, is neutral—neither good…
6 Ways Religious Trauma Can Manifest in Physical Symptoms
In recent years, we’ve started to really understand the toll that indoctrination into high control religions can take on us, and the term religious trauma continues to become more well-known and widely accepted as an area of concern in the mental health health community. However, what’s important to understand is that religious trauma is not just about…
How to Identify & Manage Triggers from Religious Trauma
Even though I stepped away from Evangelical Christianity almost a decade ago, I still deal with quite a few triggers related to religious trauma. This is because any type of trauma alters your nervous system, making you hyper-aware of potential threats in your environment — and it’s no different for religious trauma! While I left the environment…
5 Ways High Control Religions Cause You to Dissociate
Are you someone who tends to dissociate but you’re struggling to understand why? {If you’re not sure what exactly dissociation is, hang tight, we’re going to unpack that a little later in this article}. Here’s the thing, dissociation is actually a pretty common religious trauma symptom… However, it can still feel pretty unsettling to realize…
Religious Trauma & OCD: Everything You Need To Know
Religious OCD, also known as scrupulosity , is the mental health condition I get asked about the most often in my work with religious trauma survivors. I think this is probably because the symptoms of religious OCD can have an extremely negative impact on someone’s sense of well-being and overall quality of life. If this sounds like you {or…
How High Control Religions Create Perfectionism
Do you struggle with perfectionism? I know I definitely do. And to be honest with you – it used to be much, much worse that it is now. As a child, it would really show up in the super-high degree of anxiety I would have about “messing something up” – an art project, a school…
High Control Religions Can Trigger These Mental Health Disorders
High control religions can take a heavy toll on someone’s mental health. I’ve found that there are 8 underlying mental health conditions that are at a heightened risk for being triggered by the demands of a high control religion. If you’re seeking treatment for one of these conditions, it’s super-important to be aware of the impact that religious…
How to Untangle Religious Trauma from Family Trauma
Here’s the unfortunate reality when it comes to trying to untangle religious trauma from family trauma — you can’t. This is because authoritarian religious structures, which often result in religious trauma for many folks, become fundamentally intertwined with the family system, creating family trauma. You see, religious trauma negatively impacts the family system , creating patterns of…
Religious Triggers: What They Are & Where They Come From
Do you struggle with religious triggers? If so, you’re not alone. Many people coming out of high control religions still struggle with triggers associated with the trauma that occurred during religious indoctrination. One of my followers on Instagram recently asked me a really great question on this very topic. {And I think it’s a question…