A recent article from The New York Times explores the growing acceptance of “religious trauma syndrome” (RTF) among mental health professionals and how certain churches are working to help those “recovering from the harmful effects of religious indoctrination.”
The syndrome branches in causes, with a 2018 feature in Vice’s “Broadly” tackling how evangelical purity culture leads women to feel “fear, shame and anxiety,” and even have mental breakdowns, at just the thought of sex. But while deconversion can be a way to alleviate RTF, leaving a religion can also result in the syndrome, according to a 2014 work in The Atlantic. And though spirituality can help someone with mental health problems, it can also prevent them from seeking professional mental and physical treatment, CNN reported in 2018.