Religious Trauma Articles
Mental Health, Complex PTSD & Adverse Religious Experiences
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How Religious Trauma Affects Your Nervous System
This article explains how the nervous system responds to religious trauma—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—why freeze and fawn are often the most common. It also includes how these trauma responses may still be showing up today.
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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6 Ways Religious Trauma Can Manifest in Physical Symptoms
Explore the connection between religious trauma and physical symptoms. This article outlines how indoctrination into high control religions can lead to various physical manifestations, including dissociation, digestive issues, and chronic pain. Learn about the role of the nervous system and effective treatment approaches for healing these symptoms.
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Religious Trauma Triggers: What They Are & How to Cope
Religious trauma can leave lasting emotional and physiological triggers. This article will help you to learn how to identify and manage these triggers while cultivating greater stability, self-awareness, and resilience on the other side of religious programming.
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How Religious Indoctrination Leads to Chronic Dissociation
This article discusses the connection between religious indoctrination and dissociation, highlighting how religious cults can induce dissociative responses through cognitive dissonance, thought control, and emotional suppression. It also outlines practical strategies for healing, including understanding triggers, building support systems, and seeking professional help, emphasizing that recovery is possible for those affected.
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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…
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5 Ways High-Control Religion Fuels Perfectionism
Perfectionism isn’t just about doing things “right.” For those raised in high-control religion, it often grew from fear, shame, and conditional love. This article unpacks how moral expectations, approval-seeking, and suppressed emotions turn perfectionism into a survival strategy.
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8 Mental Health Conditions Exacerbated by High-Control Religion
High-control religions significantly impact mental health, exacerbating conditions like OCD, anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. This article highlights how rigid rules and community dynamics intensify symptoms, making it critical to address both mental health and religious context for effective treatment.
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Key Ways Religious Trauma Intersects with Family Trauma + How to Break the Cycle
If you’ve ever wondered whether it was your church or your family that hurt you, this article is for you. It maps out how religious trauma is passed down through family systems and offers five concrete ways to begin healing, from education and boundaries to critical thinking and self‑care.