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Understanding Religious Trauma Syndrome: It’s Time to Recognize It
The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies ^ | Dr. Marlene Winell

Posted on 11/01/2014 7:35:52 PM PDT by Faith Presses On

...Article 1 of 3 by Dr. Marlene Winell...

...In my view, it is time for the mental health community to recognize the real trauma that religion can cause. Just like clearly naming problems like anorexia, PTSD, or bipolar disorder made it possible to stop self-blame and move ahead with treatment, we need to address Religious Trauma Syndrome. The internet is starting to overflow with stories of RTS and cries for help. On forums for former believers (such as exchristian.net), one can see the widespread pain and desperation...

...At present, raising questions about toxic beliefs and abusive practices in religion seems to be violating a taboo. In society, we treasure our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Our laws and mores reflect the general principle that if we are not harming others, we can do as we like. Forcing children to go to church hardly seems like a crime. Real damage is assumed to be done by extreme fringe groups we call “cults” and people have heard of ritual abuse. Moreover, religious institutions have a vested interest in promoting an uncritical view.

But mind-control and emotional abuse is actually the norm for many large, authoritarian, mainline religious groups...


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; Moral Issues
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To: Faith Presses On

The thought police cometh.

How old is this “doctor.” Is he an ex-Nazi or something? Maybe he was raised by one. Study this man’s pathology and you might find the key to preventing another evil regime rising. If this kind of bizarre thinking spreads, the world is in grave danger.


21 posted on 11/01/2014 9:24:45 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Faith Presses On

This seems fringe atm but from what I can see there is already in society the will to have Christians excluded and branded as loonies because they actually believe in God! If you follow news stories enough and read people’s comments it is already out there. This would mean removal of children from religious parents. The closing down of non-complaint schools and churches and the abolition of anything to do with Christianity as we have known it. It is supposedly abuse - once you can legally label it that then it is all easy from there! If people believe that these radical homos will get what they want then leave us alone then they have not been paying attention.


22 posted on 11/01/2014 10:26:48 PM PDT by melsec (There's a track, winding back, to an old forgotten shack along the road to Gundagai..)
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To: Faith Presses On

This dork will recogize real trauma when the muslims calmly cut his secular head off.


23 posted on 11/01/2014 10:33:42 PM PDT by Theophilus (Be as prolific as you are pro-life.)
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To: Cicero

When you say “a few” it suggests that you can’t remember how many. Is that true? Disingenuous.


24 posted on 11/01/2014 10:51:13 PM PDT by Misterioso ("Capitalism is not the system of the past; it is the system of the future" -- Ayn Rand)
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To: Faith Presses On

I’m guessing this article has no mention of Post-Abortion Syndrome, sometimes referred to as Post-Abortion Trauma.


25 posted on 11/01/2014 11:11:04 PM PDT by MDLION ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: Faith Presses On

I can see the ad now:

Religion can be very comforting to some people. However, disturbing side-effects may include levitation, stigmata, visions, uncontrolled unintelligible speech, mood changes, euphoria, prophesy and rapture.

Ask your doctor if religion is right for you.


26 posted on 11/01/2014 11:25:11 PM PDT by married21 ( As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Faith Presses On

Go tell it to the mullahs....


27 posted on 11/01/2014 11:26:56 PM PDT by moonhawk (What if they gave a crisis and nobody came?)
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To: Faith Presses On

Remember when respect for religious freedom and conscience used to be at the heart of our Constitution and society? I always preferred our American revolution’s approach to religion to the French or the Russian Revolutions’ murderous hostility. Somehow, continental Marxist anti-religious ideology has triumphed in the Anglosphere. When did this happen, and why are people such fools as to allow it?


28 posted on 11/02/2014 3:05:34 AM PST by Unam Sanctam
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To: Faith Presses On

*former believers*?

No. If they were believers, they’d still be.

I feel for anyone raised in a cult religion and the abuse that can happen from that.

However, that is not true Christianity.

These so-called, self-appointed (allegedly) intellectual elites, do not understand in the least what a saving relationship with Christ is all about. The fact that they confuse that with religion, demonstrates that.


29 posted on 11/02/2014 3:29:13 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: TBP

Do you mean stifling like pointing out and identifying sin in our lives, how these sins can cripple our spiritual growth and damage personal relationships, and then offering a path for deliverance from a life of sin? How having a set of moral absolutes leaves no question about ethical behavior and treatment of your fellow man as you would be treated? Or does stifling mean you can’t engage in your favorite wordly affectation without consequence.... just askin’


30 posted on 11/02/2014 5:31:18 AM PST by cport (How can political capital be spent on a bunch of ingrates)
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To: MDLION

A few years ago I went looking for what the psych community has to say on Post Abortion Syndrome and found they resisted the idea. If I recall correctly, they argue that abortion is only traumatic if you are “mentally ill” already. I came across an article by an “abortion doula,” however, where she admits that the pro-abortionists suppress all knowledge of the trauma done by abortion for the sake of politics. I posted that article here.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3205138/posts


31 posted on 11/02/2014 6:04:18 AM PST by Faith Presses On
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To: Faith Presses On

This article interested me because I see a number of women who have been so beaten down by the idea taught by their “pastors” that they have to submit to their husbands. The husbands are free to sin in the form of domestic violence, adultery, selfishness, substance abuse then repeatedly “repent” and demand to be forgiven, but the wives are to endure, persevere, and keep raising the children as Christians all the while. These women become increasingly detached from reality as the pain and instability of their family lives is serially rocked by their husband’s betrayals. They become damaged and are unable to put the pieces together.

But this author’s reliance on psychology as the answer is disingenuous. Psychology does not help with sin, betrayal or the ptsd these women are suffering.

What does help is separating from the source of the evil, the one who is causing the pain and the instability, and focus on healing, repairing the relationship with the children and advancing the best interests of the children. Focus on self, which is often emphasized as the key to healing is a lie.

There truly are many lies told in the name of religion, but it is our job to sort them out and focus on the truth.


32 posted on 11/02/2014 6:11:43 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Cicero
I’ve known a few shrinks, and they were all crazy.

One of my grandmother's sayings: Everybody's crazy but thee and me and sometimes I wonder about thee.
:o)

If shrinks didn't self-prescribe so much, they MIGHT not have such problems.

33 posted on 11/02/2014 10:13:27 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: cport
Do you mean stifling like pointing out and identifying sin in our lives, how these sins can cripple our spiritual growth and damage personal relationships, and then offering a path for deliverance from a life of sin? How having a set of moral absolutes leaves no question about ethical behavior and treatment of your fellow man as you would be treated? Or does stifling mean you can’t engage in your favorite wordly affectation without consequence.... just askin’

Why you loveable ole cynic, you!

34 posted on 11/02/2014 10:14:54 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: cloudmountain

Thanks (I think) LOL


35 posted on 11/02/2014 6:57:32 PM PST by cport (How can political capital be spent on a bunch of ingrates)
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To: cport

You’re welcome. It was a compliment.


36 posted on 11/02/2014 7:02:32 PM PST by cloudmountain
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