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Religion with its rituals can become an object of addiction, especially when a child while growing up experiences neglect and abuse. It is also very common that such individuals transfer their feelings of anger, rage and sometimes even true hatred to God. Then God becomes the substitute for their displaced vengeance (upon those who abused them as children).

Victims of traumatic events who experience re-traumatization often develop a highly ambivalent relationship to God and all religiosity as extremely conflictual. On the one hand, they may choose to blame God for not having protected them, for having left them to feel so alone, for having been indifferent to them or they may even turn their wrath upon God, as the source of cruelty. Often though, the traumas experienced by individuals prompt them to turn to God and religion in search of help. This gives reason for the need of new and up-to-date research that can help elucidate why some people choose to seek help in religion and others turn away from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]