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
I’m sorry she deals with that. I don’t get nightmares but I have trouble with concerts or seating anywhere in rows as a panic attack trigger 😅
Potential Hot Take
Religion is a collective illusion at best and a reason for genocide at worst. So we should do everything to create a society, where people just leave this dangerous liability behind.
A ban will not do it. But continuos reminders of what religion actually is and does, will pave the way for it to die out on its own.
Religion ruins everything.
I agree. A ban would be a counterproductive disaster. It’s something we need to grow out of collectively and that will take a minute.
We need to develop (we being humanity) a more moral equivalent to religion because it does fulfill some basic needs.
Per usual, educated people are harder to control.
There are so many hateful people and con men in religion. I was thinking my way out of it in my 20’s. What they were preaching as gospel sounded like the fantasy stories of Dungeons and Dragons or the books I was reading.
And I was Gay and had to figure that out. It wasn’t easy with all the hate pushed by religion.
Yeah, I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut about my sexuality because my religion (Mormon/LDS) still practices electroshock torture for ‘fixing the gay’. I maintained my silence out of sheer terror that the people I was supposed to trust would want to hurt me that way.
Now that I am stronger, I will not forgive and I will not forget. Nor will I remain silent any longer.
Did you leave the Mormon church. I hear leaving comes with issues too.
Glad you were smart and aware about what could happen. My parents were not happy I was gay and thought it was a mental illness and that my friends were teaching me to be gay. None of my friends were gay. I had to make new gay friends. I was able to keep one old friend but lost all the other friends I had before I come out.
Being an atheist on top of that was the cherry on top of it all.
Oh, yes I left it behind long ago, never quite really believed any of it, although I conformed for social survival. All it took to leave was complete social suicide, I left behind my entire family for a few years (have since reconnected with the good ones). I lost all my friends from before the age of 30. It was an incredible cost. Fuck everything they stand for.
Sorry that happen to you. Glad you were able to get away from it.
I was happier with gay friends I could talk to about things. But my parents came around. They still were not happy but knew there was nothing that they could do. I was an adult and supporting myself.
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