Can you get addicted to religion?

“I’ve never been happier since I quit my 30-year addiction to Jesus.” — A former believer

To a medical researcher, the word addiction has a specific biological meaning. But in common vernacular, it means approximately this: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

Based on this definition some religious experiences seem a lot like addictions — at least that’s what former believers say.

Blogger and former Christian Sandra Kee looks back at her family history and sees religion and addiction as a messy tangle: “My family for several generations was in a dysfunctional and addictive religious life, using God (or what we believed about God) as a drug. Many of the family who left religion simply traded for another addiction. The generations that entered into religion did so to escape alcoholism and other addictions (though it wasn’t called addiction back then). Many who remained in religion developed additional addictions as well.”

Former Mormon Brandon Olson is even more emphatic: “Karl Marx said it right, ‘Religion is the opiate of the masses.’ I’m still recovering from it. Part of my recovery is helping others get free,” says Olson. “I quit believing in a God when I was a teenager, but I was afraid of hell/damnation until I was about 35. It took me until I was 40 to speak up and revoke my LDS cult membership. I am now 50, and I consider religion to be an imposed addiction — no different than holding a baby and shooting it up with small doses of heroin, increasing the doses as the baby grows.”

In recent decades, the idea of recovery from religion has taken root. Recovery websites provide platforms for sharing stories, like exChristian.net, or offer support and help, like RecoveringfromReligion.org. Many draw on the language and strategies of other recovery programs.

Addiction Symptoms
When does spirituality start looking like addiction? On the Internet, checklists abound and include symptoms that would sound familiar to any addict or Al Anon member:

Do you use religion to avoid social and emotional problems?

Are you preoccupied with religion to the point of neglecting work?

Would people who know you describe your religiosity as extreme or obsessive?

Does your commitment to a religious leader or institution take precedence over your children or other family relationships?

Does religion isolate you from outside friends and activities?

Do you use religion as an excuse when you are abusive to friends or family members?

Are your religious contributions financially imprudent?

Do you feel irritated and act defensive when someone questions your religion?

Psycho-Social Benefits?

To make matters even more complex, a set of beliefs can be false without being either toxic or addictive, and in some situation false beliefs may even be adaptive. Also, research suggests that participation in some forms of religious community or spiritual practices like meditation may have benefits independent of any truth-value in the community’s distinctive claims.

Recognising this, humanist and atheist groups have begun experimenting with how to create secular churches and humanist assemblies — communities that lack supernatural beliefs but that nonetheless meet regularly to channel wonder, provide mutual support, talk about deep values and inspire service. These experimental communities are exploring how to keep some of the best of religion without supernaturalism and without the other parts that can lead religion to feel harmful. In the future, secular spiritual communities of this type may ease the transition for people leaving a religion that feels unhealthy or addictive, or that no longer fits for other reasons.
Source: www.rawstory.com