8 Common Religious Trauma Symptoms

Religious trauma is more common than you might think. When trauma happens within religious environments, unique symptoms can arise. Oftentimes, there’s a mix of upsetting trauma symptoms and the mental health outcomes of living in repressive and controlling environments.  

What are religious trauma symptoms? 

I’ve elaborated on how I define religious trauma. You can read more about that here. 

Here are some common symptoms that happen in the aftermath of religious trauma: 

• Anxiety and panic: You might feel anxious and easily overwhelmed.  Think about the messages you received in your group.  They are usually full of fear-mongering messages that leave us scared and worried about our thoughts, feelings, and futures. 

• Depression, despair, or feelings of hopelessness: Survivors typically have feelings of depression and despair while in the group, as well as after they have left the traumatic community.  

• Rumination over fear-mongering messages received: This means you go around and around in loops in your own head with worry.  You might worry that you’ve misread something, your perception of events is wrong, and the messages you received within your community were actually right and you are wrong. 

• Delayed emotional development: When we are told that our emotions are wrong, we typically spend most of our time repressing those feelings, rather than getting to know them and learning how to manage them over time.  When religions and cults tell us to avoid our emotions, we find ourselves delayed, overwhelmed, and easily frustrated. 

• Low self-esteem or trust in your gut instincts: If you are told that you are wrong, broken, sinful, and in need of saving from your disgusting self, then chances are that you aren’t going to think very highly of yourself or have the opportunity to build self-esteem. 

• Shame over human experiences: We are often told that we can’t trust ourselves, our instincts, or our desires because they are a part of our broken humanity. This leads to deep shame over anything human that happens to us: sexuality, feelings, thoughts, passions, etc. 

• Difficulty creating social connections with others: Many religious communities restrict or shame members’ contact with non-members.  That leaves the members with a lack of practice in social connections and leaves them stunted when it comes to building healthy and robust relationships with others. 

• Sexual dysfunction: This one is probably easy to spot. If you were sexually repressed or told that your sexuality was wrong in any setting other than inside marriage, it’s likely that years of those messages have had an impact on your sexual expression. 

• Lack of safety in all settings and relationships: Trauma leaves us feeling unsafe. When our religious communities become unsafe, then it’s hard to believe we can trust anyone at all. We might even have a hard time trusting we are safe with god or a higher power.

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