Religious communities often serve as the foundation for individuals' lives, providing social support, a coherent worldview, a sense of meaning and purpose, and social and emotional satisfaction. Leaving a controlling religious community, while often experienced as liberating and exciting, can be experienced as a major traumatic event. Chronically living in fear of eternal damnation and lifelong separation from loved ones and religious communities if they fail to comply to sexual identity restrictions can induce long-term symptoms of RTS. The process of attempting to alter one's orientation can create emotionally abusive thought patterns prone to exacerbate the C-PTSD-like symptoms of RTS. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are at particular risk of RTS and C-PTSD as they attempt, over an extended period of time, to alter their sexual orientation and gender identity to fit the expectations of authoritarian religious communities. Symptoms of RTS are a natural response to the perceived existence of a violent, all-powerful God who finds humans inherently defective, along with regular exposure to religious leaders who use threat of eternal death, unredeemable life, demon possession and many other frightening ideas to control religious devotion and submission of group members. The development of RTS can be compared to the development of Complex PTSD, defined as a psychological disorder that can develop in response to prolonged, repeated experience of interpersonal trauma in a context in which the individual has little or no chance of escape. RTS begins in toxic religious environments centered around two basic narratives: "You are not okay" and "You are not safe." These ideas are often enforced with theology such as the Christian doctrines of original sin and hell. Religious trauma has also been linked to severe results such as suicide and homicide.
Developmental delay: emotional, intellectual, social, and sexual immaturity resulting from the control of information and discouragement of critical thinking within the religious environment. Social/cultural: Rupture of family and social network, employment issues, financial stress, problems acculturating into society, interpersonal dysfunction. Functional: Sleep and eating disorders, nightmares, sexual dysfunction, substance abuse, somatization. Affective: Anxiety, panic attacks, depression, suicidal ideation, anger, grief, guilt, loneliness, lack of meaning. Cognitive: Confusion, difficulty with decision-making and critical thinking, dissociation, identity confusion. 
3.3 Betrayal trauma and shattered assumptions theoryĪs symptoms of religious trauma syndrome, psychologists have recognized dysfunctions that vary in number and severity from person to person. Survivors report relief when they find out that RTS is "real." Winell explains the need for a label and the benefits of naming the symptoms encompassed by RTS as similar to naming anorexia as a disorder: the label can lessen shame and isolation for survivors while promoting diagnosis, treatment, and training for professionals who work with those suffering from the condition. The term has circulated among psychotherapists, former fundamentalists, and others recovering from religious indoctrination. The term "religious trauma syndrome" was coined in 2011 by psychologist Marlene Winell in an article for British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, though the phenomenon was recognized long before that. RTS has developed as its own heuristic collection of symptoms informed by psychological theories of trauma originating in PTSD, C-PTSD and betrayal trauma theory, taking relational and social context into account when approaching further research and treatment. RTS occurs in response to two-fold trauma: first the prolonged abuse of indoctrination from a controlling religious community, and secondly the act of leaving the controlling religious community. Symptoms include cognitive, affective, functional, and social/cultural issues as well as developmental delays. 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. Lingering symptoms of controlling belief systems
0 kommentar(er)
