There is a new mental healthcare disorder called Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS). It develops in people who have been indoctrinated into fundamentalist religions and experience intense suffering.
More RTS
Religious Trauma Syndrome?is a real disorder for people who have escaped a fundamental religion and seek mental healthcare. Therapy helps people with experiences similar to those that cause post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).
Dr. Marlene Winel specializes in the area of healing people in recovery from a fundamentalist religion. As the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries, she brings a special perspective to her work. She also wrote?Leaving the Fold – A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion.?
Bad And Good Religion
Bad Religion
- Controlling
- No thinking for yourself
- Obedience and conformity
- Fear not love and growth
- Isolation
Good Religion
- Connects people
- Promotes self-knowledge
- Encourages personal growth
- Empowers people as individuals
- Provides social support
- Shares ideas, inspiration, opportunities for service, and connection to social causes
- Encourages spiritual practices that promote health, such as living out the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)
How Indoctrination Works
The indoctrination often begins when people are small children with something as simple as, ?Spare the rod and spoil the child.? That quickly turns into physical abuse.
The emotional abuse condemns the individual into believing he or she is wrong and deserves to die. Children are trained to believe they are weak and dependent ? just broken spirits in an empty shell.
Indoctrination techniques can include:
- Toxic teachings like eternal damnation and original sin
- Black and white thinking
- Sexual guilt
- Neglect
- Sexual abuse
- Emotional and mental abuse
- The expectation that victims should celebrate with their perpetrators every Christmas and Easter
?RTS is a set of symptoms and characteristics that tend to go together and which are related to harmful experiences with religion. They are the result of two things: immersion in a controlling religion and the secondary impact of leaving a religious group.
??Many other people are surprised by the idea of RTS, because in our culture it is generally assumed that religion is benign or good for you.
Symptoms Of RTS include:
- Terror and anxiety
- Flashbacks
- Panic attacks
- Nightmares in adulthood
- Depression
- Cognitive difficulties
- Problems with social functioning
- Cutting and burning one’s self
- Taking overdoses
- Starving
- Learned helplessness
- Frequent thoughts of suicide
Recovery Through Mental Healthcare
One person in recovery said,
?It’s taken me years to feel deserving of anything good. I was afraid I was going to hell. I was afraid I was doing something really wrong. I was completely out of control.
?Sometimes I would wake up in the night and start screaming, thrashing my arms, trying to rid myself of what I was feeling. I’d walk around the house trying to think and calm myself down, in the middle of the night, trying to do some self-talk, but I felt like it was just something that ? the fear and anxiety was taking over my life.
?I lost all my friends. I lost my close ties to family. Now I’m losing my country. I’ve lost so much because of this malignant religion and I am angry and sad to my very core. . . I have tried hard to make new friends, but I have failed miserably. . . I am very lonely.?
Be Aware
There are two particularly detestable practices to notice:
- Child Evangelism Fellowship
- A group organized?to oppose their infiltration into public schools
Please note: mental healthcare therapy outside of religion is available to treat this syndrome and ease suffering.
Thank God there is good religion.
h/t RawStory.com
