Healing From Religious Trauma | Inspired Happiness Therapy & Wellness (2023)

FAQs

What does religious trauma feel like? ›

Many people experience RTS as a result from an authoritarian religion or faith community. Individuals suffering from RTS may be struggling with black and white thinking, irrational beliefs, difficulty trusting oneself, low self-esteem, or feeling indebted to a group of people.

Religious trauma syndrome (RTS) occurs when an individual struggles with leaving a religion or a set of beliefs. It often involves the trauma of breaking away from a controlling environment, lifestyle, or religious figure.

If religious individuals experience an interpersonal trauma, this may lead them to modify their religious schemas (changing their religious beliefs). Such individuals may increase or decrease the elaborateness of their religious schemas or reject their schemas altogether.

The best way to promote healing from trauma is to get as many traumatized parties who share a common event together and begin processing the feelings, thoughts, and memories together. Each individual remembers things differently. Tunnel vision usually focuses each person on one of our sensory perceptions to survive.

Religious trauma therapy

Trauma of any kind can be difficult to process without the help of a mental health professional. Many therapies have proven helpful for survivors of trauma, including religious trauma, such as: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) Cognitive processing therapy (CPT)

In general, research suggests there is a positive association between spirituality and grief recovery for survivors of traumatic loss (20). Researchers suggest that for many spirituality provides a frame through which survivors can "make sense" of the loss (14).

Hyperreligiosity is a psychiatric disturbance in which a person experiences intense religious beliefs or episodes that interfere with normal functioning. Hyperreligiosity generally includes abnormal beliefs and a focus on religious content or even atheistic content, which interferes with work and social functioning.

Religious trauma syndrome (RTS) is recognized in psychology and psychotherapy as a set of symptoms, ranging in severity, experienced by those who have participated in or left behind authoritarian, dogmatic, and controlling religious groups and belief systems.

What are the 7 domains of trauma? ›

So, as discussed in the definition, there are three parts to trauma: event, experience of the event, and effect.

Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.

Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body.

It may feel like you're on edge. You may start to sweat. Your heart may race, your fists may clench. Trauma isn't only a person's emotional and psychological reaction to an intense or overwhelming event, it can lead to physical manifestations that are felt in the body too.

The gold standard for treating PTSD symptoms is psychotherapy, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive processing therapy, and prolonged exposure therapy.

What is religious psychosis? ›

Individuals experiencing religious delusions are preoccupied with religious subjects that are not within the expected beliefs for an individual's background, including culture, education, and known experiences of religion. These preoccupations are incongruous with the mood of the subject.

Examples include intimidation, coercion, ridiculing, harassment, treating an adult like a child, isolating an adult from family, friends, or regular activity, use of silence to control behavior, and yelling or swearing which results in mental distress. Signs of emotional abuse.

The narcissist goes through the same cycle in his relationship with God, the quintessential authority figure. But often, even when disillusionment and iconoclastic despair have set in – the narcissist continues to pretend to love God and follow Him.

People tend to hold their traumas in the Manipura chakra. Those suffering from PTSD often feel like they have no power, no strength in decision making and who they are and these symptoms are governed by this energy center.

People affected by trauma tend to feel unsafe in their bodies and in their relationships with others. Regaining a sense of safety may take days to weeks with acutely traumatized individuals or months to years with individuals who have experienced ongoing/chronic abuse.

Severe trauma or PTSD can literally have such a strong interpersonal effect that it feels like the damage is irrecoverable. It can literally feel like your soul has been robbed of its power. Particularly in some of our veterans it often feels like they have lost themselves at their core.

Religion has been found to enhance remission in patients with medical and psychiatric disease who have established depression. The vast majority of these studies have focused on Christianity; there is a lack of research on other religious groups. Some research indicates an increased prevalence of depression among Jews.

Some people are naturally quiet and don't say much. But if you have a serious mental illness, brain injury, or dementia, talking might be hard. This lack of conversation is called alogia, or “poverty of speech.” Alogia can affect your quality of life.

A messiah complex (Christ complex or savior complex) is a state of mind in which an individual holds a belief that they are destined to become a savior today or in the near future.

Can religious trauma cause OCD? ›

Psychologists do not believe that religion causes people to develop OCD. However, religion may influence whether someone with OCD experiences obsessions and compulsions related to religion, Abramowitz said. OCD makes you think in black and white.

Religious persecution consists in making an offence of certain religious beliefs, or of their natural expression in speech, writing, or religious observances. The term is loosely used of mob violence, which is sometimes encouraged or connived at by the authorities; but in its stricter form refers to legal action.

Benkert and Doyle (2009) describe religious duress as a type of fear in victims that hinders their ability to detach from the abuser. They argue that religious duress is similar to the idea of reverential fear, which intensifies based on the high levels of respect that one has for a person in position of authority.

The trauma-informed approach is guided four assumptions, known as the “Four R's”: Realization about trauma and how it can affect people and groups, recognizing the signs of trauma, having a system which can respond to trauma, and resisting re-traumatization.

The freeze, flop, friend, fight or flight reactions are immediate, automatic and instinctive responses to fear. Understanding them a little might help you make sense of your experiences and feelings.

Pete Walker's “Complex Trauma: From Surviving to Thriving,” explores the four F's of complex trauma, fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, to help survivors understand their coping mechanisms and reactions, and begin to work towards actions that may better serve them in their life and relationships.

Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.

What Are Common Reactions to Trauma? All kinds of trauma create stress reactions. People often say that their first feeling is relief to be alive after a traumatic event. This may be followed by stress, fear and anger.

Which areas of the brain are most directly affected by trauma? ›

The effects of trauma on the brain impact three areas of the brain that are impacted the most are the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. These areas all play a part in regulating emotions and responding to fear.

The key in trauma-informed care is to approach each of your clients as if they have experienced trauma. The language that you use with your clients is important. Trauma-informed language includes using words that don't trigger your clients. In fact, the word “trigger” can be triggering, for lack of a better word.

The functions of the amygdala, hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex that are affected by emotional trauma can also be reversed. The brain is ever-changing and recovery is possible. Overcoming emotional trauma requires effort, but there are multiple routes you can take.

Inwardly-directed spiritual practices such as mindfulness, meditation, and prayer may help reduce hyperarousal. Foreshortened Future and Loss of Interest in Activities. Rediscovery of meaning and purpose in one's life may potentially have enormous impact on these symptoms.

The energy of the trauma is stored in our bodies' tissues (primarily muscles and fascia) until it can be released. This stored trauma typically leads to pain and progressively erodes a body's health. Emotions are the vehicles the body relies on to find balance after a trauma.

“Research shows that the strongest protective factor linked with resilience to childhood trauma is the reliable presence of a sensitive, nurturing, and responsive adult,” Child Trends reports.

When a person experiences a traumatic event, adrenaline rushes through the body and the memory is imprinted into the amygdala, which is part of the limbic system. The amygdala holds the emotional significance of the event, including the intensity and impulse of emotion.

Vishudha Chakra is located at the throat and governs self expression. Those who suffer from PTSD as a result of emotional abuse often have blockages in their Vishudha Chakra, causing fear around speaking, self expression, and perhaps could be related to a sufferer having a hard time seeking out help.