RTS - We Have Some Sufferers Here

[Minimalist]

Interesting idea....

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/religiou...-problems/

Religious Trauma Syndrome: How some organized religion leads to mental health problems

Psychology usually leaves me cold but we have a couple wandering around here who seem like a religious IED went off too close to their cars and fried their brains.

[Longhorn]

Oh yea, no harm in religion, no harm at all

I can relate to some of the symptoms described.....but your regular christers will deny everything

[Nope]

I could see how fundamentalism and the fear of hell could be traumatic enough for some people that they have a form of PTSD. Hell is a sick concept. Not only do you have to be afraid that you might go to hell but if you don't raise your own kids or convert your loved ones, they will go to hell also and it would be your fault.

I have spoken with more than one person who reported feeling terrified when they returned home from school and their parents were gone. They thought that their loved ones had been raptured without them.

In addition to anxiety, RTS can include depression, cognitive difficulties, and problems with social functioning. In fundamentalist Christianity, the individual is considered depraved and in need of salvation. A core message is “You are bad and wrong and deserve to die.” (The wages of sin is death.) This gets taught to millions of children through organizations like Child Evangelism Fellowship, and there is a group organized to oppose their incursion into public schools. I’ve had clients who remember being distraught when given a vivid bloody image of Jesus paying the ultimate price for their sins. Decades later they sit telling me that they can’t manage to find any self-worth.

This doesn't surprise me at all.

[Minimalist]

They thought that their loved ones had been raptured without them.

That is like seriously fucked up, man.

Although....I bet you could have a lot of fun leaving piles of clothes scattered about trailer parks in the south.  Set up a hidden camera and put it on youtube.

[Ashground]

They thought that their loved ones had been raptured without them.

That is like seriously fucked up, man.

Although....I bet you could have a lot of fun leaving piles of clothes scattered about trailer parks in the south.  Set up a hidden camera and put it on youtube.

You are one evil bastard Min!  

[Whateverist]

This doesn't surprise me.

[drfuzzy]

I could see how fundamentalism and the fear of hell could be traumatic enough for some people that they have a form of PTSD. Hell is a sick concept. Not only do you have to be afraid that you might go to hell but if you don't raise your own kids or convert your loved ones, they will go to hell also and it would be your fault.

I have spoken with more than one person who reported feeling terrified when they returned home from school and their parents were gone. They thought that their loved ones had been raptured without them.

In addition to anxiety, RTS can include depression, cognitive difficulties, and problems with social functioning. In fundamentalist Christianity, the individual is considered depraved and in need of salvation. A core message is “You are bad and wrong and deserve to die.” (The wages of sin is death.) This gets taught to millions of children through organizations like Child Evangelism Fellowship, and there is a group organized  to oppose their incursion into public schools.  I’ve had clients who remember being distraught when given a vivid bloody image of Jesus paying the ultimate price for their sins. Decades later they sit telling me that they can’t manage to find any self-worth.

This doesn't surprise me at all.

Oh hell yeah. (pun intended) Sure, I once went home, found nobody there . . . when they finally got back, they found me crying in my closet. I was sure that they had been Raptured. My mother was an evil psychotic bitch who beat the crap out of me daily, while quoting scripture. I still have a burn scar on my right leg from where she pressed the tip of her iron, saying that "now you'll never forget what hell is going to feel like".  PTSD.  Oh yeah, I have some. Now, she probably would have been dangerous without the psycho fanaticism, so I can't COMPLETELY blame religion for the hours of therapy I've been through. (They were very helpful.) But oh yes, there were huge elements of abuse in the ultra-right-wing protestant snake-handling, speaking-in-tongues cults that I knew as a child.

[Dystopia]

As someone who had mostly positive or otherwise neutral experiences with religion I can fully understand why severe indoctrination and late change of mind could destroy someone's psychological well being. I imagine someone living a few years or even decades thinking something is right and dedicating most of their life, out of passion and fear, to that something - And then they find out it's a lie, but they' can't let it go because they were told so many times it is right they can't conceive the possibility of it being wrong.

[robvalue]

I have no doubts about how indoctrination can cause lasting damage in lots of ways. I've heard several people now describe the after effects as PTSD. Every one of them has my sincere sympathy.

With ruthless indoctrination it seems the outcome is either someone with their reasoning skills and grip on reality fried, or else a narrow escape plagued by all kind of horrific symptoms which take a lot of work to come to terms with.

[Spooky]

Brainwashing is bad on a good day. And religion is anything but good.