THE EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS FANATICISM ON MENTAL HEALTH

ROSS VICTORY
8 min readMar 29, 2021
Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

Defining Religion & Spirituality

Since you clicked this article, there is a chance you may have had to deal with religious fanaticism in your family. Or, maybe you are coping with a mental health issue that has challenged your faith, or perhaps you are curious about the overlap of religion and mental health.

As someone who was raised as a non-denominational Christian and who is a non-religious, spiritual person, I have asked myself how do I maintain faith and hope in the future without subscribing to world views, beliefs, and practices that I personally disagree with?

My relationship with God is rooted in my body and mind and has often been felt but not seen. When I have seen God, it has been in nature, other people, and coincidences that I refer to as “God’s timing.”

I was raised in a fundamentally Christian Black home. Not only did our family go to church on Sundays, but we also went to bible study on Wednesdays, and I went to Christian school K-12.

Although I am not a religious expert or a theologian, I have seen much through my Christian career, from the good to the bad, the joyful to the traumatic.

To comprehend religious fanaticism, it is crucial to understand the basics of religion and spirituality. The effects of…

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ROSS VICTORY

Writer. Artist. Bisexual. Entrepreneur. Brother. Son. Uncle. "Victory" every day. Heart & human centered. Preorder: https://tinyurl.com/borderlandpoetrybook