Marlene Winell was 18 years old and sitting in church when she decided she wanted to leave. “The pastor was holding up a newspaper about the Six-Day War in the Middle East, and everybody cheered because war is one of the end-of-times prophecies,” she told HuffPost. “He was happy the war had broken out. And that to me was the last straw. It was one of my last days in church.” Winell’s parents were fundamentalist Christian missionaries in China and Taiwan, and after she grew up in Taiwan, they sent her to a missionary boarding school in Southern California. She was part of the Jesus Movement — an evangelical Protestant revival popular in the 1960s and 1970s — living in a commune with those she described as “Christian hippies” and “Jesus freaks.”
Questioning the Bible and Leaving the Church
After graduating from high school, Winell began to question things. “More and more things just gave me doubts — especially finding out about how the Bible was actually written,” she said. “There was an intellectual process going on where I didn’t want to just buy it. I want to know myself.” She left the church, attended college, and now helps people recover from intense religious upbringings. In 2011, she coined the term “Religious Trauma Syndrome” to describe the emotional and mental harm caused by extreme religious communities — including fear, low self-esteem, and a feeling of no control. “They get told what to think, what to believe, how to behave, what to wear, all these things that they have no control [over],” she said.
The Spectrum of Religious Devotion to Psychosis
Most religious beliefs are healthy and sustaining, but experts say devotion can tip into isolation, delusion, or a break from reality. “Religious psychosis” is not a formal medical diagnosis but describes someone using religion to justify delusions or hallucinations — such as believing they are a prophet or have supernatural powers. Harold Koenig, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University, notes a spectrum from “healthy religious beliefs” to “psychotic symptoms.” Around 25% to 39% of schizophrenia patients experience such symptoms, though more research is needed on the link between schizophrenia and religion.
Children at Risk in High-Control Religions
Winell emphasizes that children are often victims. “Most extreme believers grew up in it,” she said. “You’re not supposed to have your own opinion; you’re not supposed to ask questions. You’re supposed to be devoted to the authority of your parents, your pastor, a priest or the scripture, or what God is telling you. It’s all externally focused.”
Warning Signs of Religious Psychosis
While there is no definitive checklist, experts point to recurring characteristics. Koenig says signs are “typically not all that subtle” to those within the faith community. Key indicators include:
- Inability to engage with outside perspectives: Shutting off all sources of information and refusing outside expertise.
- Obsessive religious behavior: Praying all day long or seeking divine signs in mundane decisions, to a degree noticeable even to other members.
- Complete isolation: Pulling away from family and church relationships, focusing inwardly instead of outward.
- Dysfunction in daily life: Faith interfering with work or socializing.
- Grandiosity: Believing they are special and superior because of their perceived truth.
Recovery Challenges Unique to Religious Trauma
Recovering from religious trauma presents obstacles not faced by other trauma survivors. “If you were sexually abused, you’re not encouraged to go to that person and forgive them,” Winell said. “Whereas, in the religious context, a lot of pressure is put on the victim to forgive and forget.” She added that society often trivializes the harm: “People don’t tend to believe you or feel that sorry for you. If you say your parents made you go, it’s like, ‘Oh, poor you, your parents made you go to church.’”
Koenig notes that many clinicians lack personal religious experience, limiting diagnostic tools. He recommends seeking care from a doctor “sensitive” or “sympathetic” to religious beliefs. Decades after leaving the Jesus Movement, Winell’s path forward starts with self-trust: “It has to do with learning some self-respect, growing up, and learning to trust your own thoughts and feelings, and believe what you intuitively are thinking about — trusting yourself more.”
