Empathy, compassion, and a rejection of stigma related to mental health is necessary to support the survivors of complex religious trauma such as this. She lives with toxic shame, persistent suicidal ideations and attempts, hypervigilance about people, and a near total loss of faith about the world being good.

This makes Hannah vulnerable to sexual and interpersonal trauma in her continued search for a rescuer. Some of the more severe symptoms of complex religious trauma that have come to characterize her life is Dissociative Identity Disorder Fugue (DID) when stress levels are extremely high. Because neither her family, religious community, nor the public school she attended responded to the morally wounding traumatic events, she lives her adult life with complex religious trauma. As a result, she sustained complex moral injury, and struggles with complex religious trauma, which presents like C-PTSD. Hannah is physically unable to escape these attacks that take place over the course of a year and consequently experiences dissociation as a means to survive her situation.

During adolescence she is forced, repeatedly, into a sexual act that is viewed to be profoundly “immoral” by her religious community, and by the teaching of their religious belief system. You get your life back on your terms.A young girl (I'll call her Hannah) raised in a home central to her religious community grew to view her parents' life goals and ministry as her own. This may seem overwhelming, but the benefits are indisputable. A collection of books that explore trauma, religious trauma, and adverse religious experiences, curated by Brian Peck, LCSW. Recovery begins with deciding to take that responsibility. Because your religion took care of so much, defining and dictating reality in so many ways, you are now faced with largely reconstructing your life. There are many issues to work through-thoughts and feelings to process, new friends to make, new beliefs to nurture, new ways to live. Religious trauma is the result of different experiences that occur in a religious community, within a church, or spiritual community that exposes the members to indoctrination messages, coercion, humiliation, embarrassment, and abuse. After having been born again, leaving your faith can feel like being lost again. Part of the difficulty is the anxiety, the terror you may feel about having to go it alone. Secular friends and even therapists may not understand what you have been through.

The familiar sources of church support are no longer there, and family members still in the fold may actually shun you. But whereas help for divorced people is readily available, little if any assistance is available to help you to leave your religion.

The symptoms of separation are quite similar-grief, anger, guilt, depression, lowered self-esteem, and social isolation. In general, leaving a cherished faith is much like the end of a marriage. This book can provide some assistance in your recovery by clarifying the issues involved, offering ideas for healing, and suggesting directions for further growth. While the experience of losing your religion is often painful and confusing at first, there is much to be learned and ultimately a profound maturity to be gained. Many, many others have been through this and gone on to reconstruct their lives in meaningful and satisfying ways. Perhaps you have trouble connecting with other people and life 'in the world.' You may be depressed about life or scared of the future. You may be feeling confused, guilty, empty, or bitter. Leaving the Fold: Chapter 1 The Recovery Processīreaking away from your faith has had an impact on your life, and probably a profound one.