The Connection Between High-Control Religion and Complex-PTSD
If you believe you may have religious trauma, and are interested in processing that with a therapist, consider reaching out to us here so that we can connect and see if we could be a good fit to work with you.
As a therapist who works with clients who have primarily grown up in Evangelical and other fundamentalist Christian environments (forms of high-demand, high-control religion), it became clear fairly quickly that many of the clients I worked with had symptoms of PTSD. More specifically, many of these clients seemed to have a form of PTSD called Complex-PTSD because of the build up of chronic exposure to harm over a long period of time. After working with this the past few years, I wanted to lay out and explain the connection I’ve been seeing between the two, to help others who have been in religious environments who have ended up with trauma symptoms better understand their experiences.
Understanding the Terms
Trauma occurs when someone experiences something that completely overwhelms their nervous system to the point that they are unable to come back to a sense of safety. Most of us have experience some kind of trauma, but not all of us develop PTSD. Those who do may experience persistent symptoms such as anxiety or panic, nightmares, depression, avoiding triggers, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or others. Complex-PTSD is a newly recognized form of PTSD that forms when trauma is experienced over a long period of time rather than from a single incident or time period. It often begins from developmental trauma from childhood where someone experiences persistent, ongoing fear or distress. However, it can occur in any situation where there is ongoing trauma where the single incidents may not seem that big, but over time they add up and create chronic nervous system dysregulation. It is incredibly common for people coming from high-control religious environments to eventually be diagnosed with Complex-PTSD. While this connection may be surprising on the surface, it starts to make a lot of sense when we consider some of the most common experiences of those raised in high-control religion.
The Environment Created in High-Control Religion
In high-control religious environments, shame-based punishment and physical discipline are both much more common, and often even encouraged. It is also common in these homes for children to be taught to fear Hell, Satan, demons, the rapture, and God’s wrath. Kids are often taught they are uinherently bad, sinful, and unworthy. All of these things can create environments of persistent fear and distress.
A resilient nervous system forms when a child experiences intense emotions, such as frustration, anger, or sadness, and is supported through those emotions. Their nervous system can then learn that their emotions and experiences are safe and they can learn that they will be met with support. In subsequent difficult experiences, they will be able to more quickly return to a sense of regulation. However, in high-control religion, a child’s developmentally normal feelings and behaviors are often met with them being told they are sinning, making God unhappy, or putting themselves at risk of Hell. This creates a bind for the child who subsequently learns to fear their own emotions, needs, and imperfections. Rathan than knowing they are safe when these situations arise, their body learns to be flooded with fear in response to them.
Complex-PTSD can also form after childhood in situations where there’s chronic, persistent harm (such as in an abusive relationship between two adults). I’ve worked with clients who have developed C-PTSD through experiences in their youth group as a teen, or from working or volunteering in an intense of demanding church setting in adulthood. It is not uncommon in these settings for members to feel a constant state of fear of making a mistake, of no longer belonging, of losing their income, or just generally existing in a state of hypervigilance due to the environment.
In Conclusion
Religious trauma is still an often under-identified form of trauma that can truly be just as harmful as other forms of trauma. In the same way that chronic exposure to sexual or physical harm can lead to C-PTSD, chronic exposure to religious harm (or relational harm in religious spaces) can have a similar long-term impact. Understanding this can help us to support ourselves and others, and to better identify what needs to change in these environments to decrease the risk of long-term harm.
