Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

When a child is baptized, whoever is having them baptized is doing what they believe to be a great service for the child. In the process of becoming baptized, the door to eternal salvation is opened, and a relationship with “god” is formed. No religious parent would ever dare say that baptism and a religious upbringing could do more harm than good, but nothing can be good when given in too large a dose. When parents bring up their children in dogmatic Christianity, they expose their children to serious risk of physical, mental, and spiritual harm. Dogmatic Christianity and Christians deserve absolute condemnation by other religious communities and individuals because it ties in an individual’s intrinsic value with their commitment to a god,

Dr. Marlene Winell, a human development consultant, writer, and educator with more than 28 years of experience in human services in a variety of settings, believes that leaving such extreme religions produces a trauma unique enough that it needs a diagnostic category of its own, which she has labelled Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS). One might wonder why this could not be lumped in with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The reasoning behind this would be, while there is a generous amount of symptom overlap, certain symptoms of RTS are completely distinct from what would be observed in an individual with PTSD. Some symptoms of RTS include “Confusion, difficulty making decisions, trouble thinking for self, lack of meaning or direction, undeveloped sense of self” (Winell, 2013), as well as “Rupture of family and social network, loneliness, problems relating to society, personal relationship issues” (Winell, 2013). Along with symptomatic differences, there are differences in the treatment as well. In treating RTS, specific emphasis must be placed on undoing the indoctrination the sufferer experienced. RTS also fits well as a subset of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD). Winell outlined the distinction in an interview with journalist Kristen Hovet, stating RTS “really destroys your whole approach to life. It’s like the rug gets pulled out from under you in every way, because religion defines everything — it defines who you are, your relationships, your purpose in life, your view of the world, your view of the future, your view of the afterlife. The whole house comes down.” (Winell,