Spiritual abuse can often cause trauma. Spiritual abuse is when someone uses religion or faith to control or hurt others. It is a kind of psychological and emotional abuse.
Our bodies are smart – they help us deal with stress and danger. But sometimes, something so big or scary happens that our brain and body can’t handle it. When that happens, we can develop something called trauma.
Trauma can make people feel scared, confused, sad, or angry, even when the danger is gone. Not everyone who goes through spiritual abuse will get trauma. But it can happen—especially if the stress goes on for a long time, or we don’t get help.
What Is Spiritual Abuse?
Spiritual abuse is a kind of emotional and psychological abuse. It happens when people use spiritual or religious ideas to control other people in harmful ways.
For example, people might:
- Tell you what to think, feel, or do—without letting you decide for yourself.
- Use religion to make you feel guilty or scared.
- Say that you must obey leaders, even if they’re hurting you.
- Say God will punish you if you leave or don’t follow the rules.
- Cut you off or tell lies about you if you ask questions or speak up.
It’s not always easy to spot. It can feel confusing, especially if people say they are trying to help you or “do what’s right.” But if you’re being controlled, scared into obedience, or made to feel worthless—that’s not okay.
To read more about what spiritual abuse is, check out my post Spiritual Abuse Explained: What It Is and How To Recognise It.
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is what happens when something is too much for our brain and body to handle. It can come from things like:
- Accidents
- Abuse
- Losing someone we love
- Being in a place where we feel unsafe for a long time
Trauma isn’t just “being upset.” It changes how our body and brain work.
How Our Brain Reacts to Danger
When something scary happens, our brain acts fast to protect us. It doesn’t stop to think things through—it just wants us to survive. This is called the survival response.
Your body might choose:
- Fight – try to stop the danger
- Flight – run away
- Freeze – shut down and stop resisting
- Fawn – try to please the person hurting you to stay safe
This is normal, and it’s your body trying to help. But if the scary thing keeps happening—or if your body doesn’t realise the danger is over—you might stay stuck in “survival mode.”
When the Body Gets Stuck in Trauma
If your brain thinks the danger is still there, even when it isn’t, it keeps sending panic signals to your body. You might feel:
- Scared all the time
- Tired or dizzy
- Like you’re watching life from outside your body
- Nervous, angry, or jumpy
- Confused about who you are
These are trauma symptoms.
They might get worse in situations which remind you of what happened (this is called a trigger). Even if you aren’t aware of what is causing you to react, your body and brain might believe it’s happening all over again and be trying to protect you.
This can happen even years later. To read more about the long-term effects of spiritual abuse, check out this post: Why Spiritual Abuse Stays With Us: The Long-Term Effects.
How Spiritual Abuse Can Cause Trauma
People spiritually abuse others to make them easier to control. They want to take advantage of:
- people’s time
- their money
- their work
- even their bodies
By making people feel guilty, worthless, powerless or scared using spiritual ideas, abusers gain more power over the people they are harming.
Our bodies will sense the danger and react by going into Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn mode. We might switch between these different modes over time.
But these survival responses weren’t meant to be a long-term solution. They are supposed to help us react so that we can deal with the threat and find safety.
When someone is spiritually abusing us, they might have used religious teachings to make us believe:
- that we are powerless to stop the abuse
- that what is happening is right
- that we deserve the abuse
- that we will be punished if we leave or rewarded if we stay
This makes it harder for us to stop the abuse. Our bodies might stay in fight or flight for a long time. This puts a huge amount of stress on our bodies. The stress of spiritual abuse can cause trauma.
Some other ways that spiritual abuse can cause trauma:
- It can come with other kinds of abuse (like emotional, physical, or sexual).
- People might not believe you or may blame you for speaking out.
- Leaving the group can mean losing your home, family, friends, or faith.
- Spiritual abuse is not well understood, which can make it harder to find help.
Even if no one physically hurt you, living in fear, confusion, and shame for a long time can make you feel like you’re always in danger. That’s trauma.
To read more examples of spiritual abuse, check out this post: Examples of Spiritual Abuse: Learn to Spot the Signs
Symptoms of Trauma
People with trauma might:
- Feel numb or overwhelmed
- Have panic attacks or feel scared all the time
- Feel confused about who they are
- Be very angry or very sad
- Feel ashamed or blame themselves
- Have nightmares or flashbacks
- Feel tired, sick, or unable to concentrate
- Lose interest in things they used to enjoy
- Feel like they’re not safe—even when they are
These symptoms can make it hard to go to school, work, have fun, or feel okay in your own skin.
Will I Have Trauma If I Have Been Spiritually Abused?
People are often surprised to hear that being spiritually abused doesn’t always cause trauma. A lot of different things affect whether abuse will cause trauma, including:
- How much support we had around us
- How long the abuse went on for
- Our genetics
- Our experiences growing up
- How much power we had to stop the abuse
It is possible for someone to be abused and not have any trauma. They might have been able to recognise it and get help. Or maybe they had other things in their life which helped them cope.
Just because some people seem to carry less harm than others doesn’t mean that the abuse was less of a problem. Abuse is wrong, no matter how much trauma the victim has.
It also doesn’t mean that you are weak or silly if you have more trauma than other people after being abused. People who have been abused often feel very ashamed of what happened, or the impact it had on them. But this is not your fault.
We can’t control how our body responds to overwhelming things. But we can get help and move forwards.
But I Wasn’t Spiritually Abused—Why Do I Still Feel Hurt?
Even if no one directly abused you, being in a faith group with an unhealthy culture can still cause trauma. Especially if you:
- Felt alone or trapped
- Lost people you loved when you left
- Tried to get help but weren’t believed
Your pain is real, even if it doesn’t look like someone else’s story.
To read more about unhealthy cultures and the harm they cause, read this post: From Healthy to Harmful: Where Is The Line?
What About “Religious Trauma”?
Some people call trauma caused by spiritual abuse Religious Trauma. It’s not a different kind of trauma—it just means the hurt came from a religious group.
It can come from two things:
- What happened while you were in the group
- What happened when you left (like losing your community or beliefs)
If You’re Struggling
Spiritual abuse and trauma are real. And if you’re feeling confused, scared, or overwhelmed by what happened to you—it’s not your fault.
You deserve support. You deserve healing. And you deserve to be heard.
If this post brought up hard feelings, take a break. Talk to someone you trust. And remember, there are kind people and helpful resources out there for you.
- Check out the Help for When You Feel Overwhelmed: Getting Through Hard Moments page if you’re struggling right now.
- If you are worried about something that’s happening, go to the Am I Being Spiritually Abused? Signs, Support, and What to Do Next page.
- Or if you’re concerned about someone else, you might find this helpful: Supporting Someone Facing Spiritual Abuse: How You Can Help
- For links to organisations that can help, check out the Get Help for Spiritual Abuse page.
Books I used to help write this post
- Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory, by Deb Dana.
- Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma, by Janina Fisher
- 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery, by Babette Rothschild
- Escaping the Maze of Spiritual Abuse, by Lisa Oakley and Justin Humphreys
- Walking Free From The Trauma Of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse, by Gillie Jenkinson
- When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion, by Laura Anderson
For more helpful books, videos and podcasts about spiritual abuse and the road to recovery, check out the Spiritual Abuse Recovery: Helpful Resources page.
