Can You Get PTSD From Being Mormon?
Understanding Religious Trauma
It’s a question many people type quietly into a search bar, often late at night, often alone: Can you get PTSD from being Mormon?
For some, even asking this feels disloyal, dramatic, or wrong. For others, it brings a sense of relief - finally naming something that has lived in their body for years.
The short answer is this: Yes. It is possible to experience PTSD or trauma-related symptoms as a result of growing up or living within a high-demand religious system, including Mormonism. And, just as importantly, if this question resonates with you, your experience deserves to be taken seriously.
What PTSD Is (and Isn’t)
Post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t limited to combat veterans or single catastrophic events. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), PTSD can develop after exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence, or through chronic, repeated exposure to distressing experiences, particularly when escape feels impossible.
Research has increasingly recognized that chronic psychological coercion, fear-based belief systems, and loss of autonomy can produce trauma responses similar to PTSD, even without a single defining incident (American Psychiatric Association, 2022; Herman, 2015).
Common symptoms include:
Hypervigilance or persistent anxiety
Intrusive guilt or shame responses
Fear of punishment, abandonment, or being “found out”
Difficulty trusting one’s own thoughts or decisions
Emotional numbing or dissociation
Panic or physiological responses to reminders (church language, authority figures, hymns)
Not everyone who leaves Mormonism develops PTSD, but many experience trauma-related symptoms that closely resemble it.
How Mormonism Can Become Traumatizing for Some
It’s important to say this clearly: many people find meaning, comfort, and community within The LDS Church. Trauma does not come from belief itself; it often emerges from how belief is enforced, especially in high-demand or high-control systems.
Research on religious trauma highlights several dynamics commonly associated with trauma responses:
1. Worthiness and Surveillance
Regular worthiness interviews, behavioral monitoring, and moral evaluation can create a state of chronic self-surveillance, which research links to anxiety, shame, and hypervigilance (Winell, 2011).
2. Obedience Over Inner Authority
When doubt or asking questions is framed as spiritually “dangerous” or moral failure, individuals may learn to suppress their intuition and self-trust. Over time, this can impair autonomy and increase trauma-related symptoms (Herman, 2015).
3. Shame-Based Teachings Around Sexuality and the Body
Numerous studies connect religious sexual shame with long-term anxiety, dissociation, and difficulties with intimacy (Exline et al., 2014).
4. Eternal Consequences and Existential Fear
Teachings involving eternal separation from loved ones or eternal punishment can activate persistent threat responses, particularly in children and adolescents whose nervous systems are still developing.
5. Social and Relational Risk
For many LDS members, Mormonism is not just a belief system - it’s their family structure, social identity, and community. The threat of ostracism or relational loss can function as a powerful psychological constraint (Scheitle & Adamczyk, 2010).
When these factors persist over time, the nervous system may interpret the environment as unsafe, even if no physical harm has occurred.
“But Nothing Bad Happened to Me…”
This is one of the most common responses people have when exploring religious trauma.
Trauma is frequently minimized because:
“Other people had it worse.”
“My family was loving.”
“I wasn’t abused.”
However, trauma is defined by impact, not comparison. If safety depended on compliance, silence, or self-erasure, the nervous system may still carry that imprint.
Many individuals only recognize religious trauma after leaving when anxiety increases, identity feels unstable, or old fears surface unexpectedly.
Religious Trauma, Complex PTSD, and Diagnostic Labels
Not everyone harmed by religious systems meets full diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Many instead experience:
Complex trauma (C-PTSD)
Religious Trauma Syndrome (a term introduced by Dr. Marlene Winell)
Trauma-related anxiety or shame disorders
The most important question isn’t the label—it’s this:
Is your past still shaping your nervous system, relationships, or self-concept in ways that feel distressing or limiting?
If so, support can help.
Healing From Religious Trauma
Healing does not require certainty about your beliefs. You don’t need to reject your upbringing or label it as abuse.
Many people begin healing simply by acknowledging:
Something about this hurt me.
Trauma-informed therapy can help individuals:
Rebuild trust in their internal authority
Separate fear from belief
Reduce shame stored in the body
Establish boundaries without overwhelming guilt
Grieve losses without erasing meaning
If This Question Brought You Here
If you searched “can you get PTSD from being Mormon,” you are not alone, and you are not broken.
Your nervous system adapted to survive a system that asked a great deal of you. Healing isn’t about rewriting your past; it’s about reclaiming your present.
You’re allowed to take your experience seriously.
Citations & Further Reading
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). DSM-5-TR: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books.
Winell, M. (2011). Religious Trauma Syndrome. Journal of Religion and Health.
Exline, J. J., et al. (2014). Religious and spiritual struggles and mental health. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Scheitle, C. P., & Adamczyk, A. (2010). High-cost religion and group cohesion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Support Resources
Religious Trauma Institute – religioustraumainstitute.com
The Secular Therapy Project – seculartherapy.org
Recovering from Religion – recoveringfromreligion.org
