Whether you grew up in a strict religious household or you fell into a cult later in life, religious and spiritual abuse is more common that you might think.
It has many names and comes in many forms. Religious abuse. Spiritual Trauma. Faith Abuse. Cult Trauma. Faith-based control. Belief manipulation.
Additionally, there are many ways that this type of abuse can occur. For some people, maybe there was a leader or church authority figure who directly abused them either physically, mentally, or sexually. There may be denial of the abuse within the church, faith-based community, or even from religious counselors associated with the faith.
Others may have faced a situation where they were love-bombed with new knowledge from a community (that was actually helpful!) and then as they progressed with these connections, things became a little darker. They found that their autonomy, thoughts, actions, and behaviors were now controlled by someone else.
For others, their parents upheld extremely rigid practices at home that were taught by a faith-based community. These practices may have included social isolation, control, emotional denial, manipulation, and strict adherence to thinking a certain way. Often this leads to people feeling like “I don’t believe this, is there something wrong with me? Everyone else seems to believe it! Maybe if I just try harder, I’ll get it.”
Whatever the situation may be, people who have survived religious and spiritual abuse often have serious side effects from their experiences. Anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, embarrassment, paranoia, OCD… the list goes on.
Someone else being in control of your thoughts and telling you every day that your gut feelings are “not right” will absolutely have an effect on how you think later in life. Someone might experience the following:
- Fear of authority
- Conflict avoidance
- Gaslighting of self
- Denial of emotions
- Repeated intrusive thoughts or memories
- Feeling like an imposter
- Feeling constant guilt or shame
- Inability to make decisions (fear of making the “wrong” decision)
- Substance abuse
- Extreme fear of death/dying
- Dreams of specific experiences
- Hypervigilence
- Stuck in co-dependent relationships
If any of these resonate with you, it may be helpful to explore how people within your faith system or religion has harmed you. In our therapy work together, it isn’t about turning away from your faith, but about healing any past spiritual wounds and finding your own path back to your true faith.
Connections Creative Arts Therapy 