Some mental health experts are advocating for religious trauma to be considered an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Some mental health experts are advocating for religious trauma to be considered an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Religious trauma absolutely should be considered a disorder. And not just for queer people. There are people who grew up in incredibly crazy churches and are plagued with recurring nightmares of burning eternally in hell because they were told that’s what would happen to them if they made the slightest misstep. They aren’t daily or anything like that for my wife, but she grew up in an Assembly of God (crazy speaking in tongues people) church and she does still get nightmares about being in hell. I’ve talked to people for whom it’s pretty much a weekly occurrence.
I also get dreams like this! More often I wake up and can’t get the stupid hymns and songs they taught us in sunday school when we were kids out of my head. It’s really fucking annoying and makes me feel crazy sometimes