Responsibility

Responsibility

An Essay

by

Desago

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Responsibility

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How can you define responsibility? Are you a responsible person? What is your attitude towards irresponsible people? Can you remember an accidents that happened because of someone being irresponsible? These are questions you need to ask yourself to accept your own responsibility.

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Responsibility defined.

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1. the state or position of being responsible

2. a person or thing for which one is responsible

3. the ability or authority to act or decide on one's own, without supervision

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This is how I view responsibility. Responsibility is your birth right. Responsibility for the responsible, the more you accept the more that will be given to you. With responsibility goes authority to direct and take the necessary action to ensure success.

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Being responsible refers to our ability to make decisions that serve our own interests and the interests of others. We first need to accept responsibility for ourselves before we can be responsible for others. In learning to be more responsible it is important that we know our limitations. It does not matter how smart we are, there is only so much responsibility that a person can handle. It is also important to remember that we are not responsible for things that are out of our control, for example, how other people feel or how they react to ourselves or others. Sharing responsibility for both success and failure can lead to increased responsibility to oneself and others. When you hear the word "responsibility," what do you think of first? Many people think of the word BLAME, as in, "Whose responsibility is this?" or “Who is responsible for this?” I think of responsibility as seizing what's in front of you, exerting choice, and taking control. The real meaning of responsibility is the ability to respond. It's going out and creating what you want through personal choices. The responsibility that each of us has is that we are completely, 100% responsible for how our lives turn out.

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It's a free choice, to accept your responsibility. I don't choose to keep some "duty" for eternity that's my own choice; and I was responsible for accepting the duty, nobody laid it on me. To some being responsible means taking care of, and raising a family, to others it means being active in political campaigns and voting, and to some it means taking responsibility for their own actions. Society will also expect you to be responsible for your actions and supplies. Responsible people look to the long-term goals, and not always what is easy or for what provides immediate satisfaction. If the people in our society took responsibility for all their actions, our society as a whole would be better. People are not born with a sense of responsibility, they have to learn it and accept it. Negative attitudes are very common. But you can pick it up and lay it down. Good and responsible people do exist in the world.

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There are many events in a person's life that have an impact so large, that the person' life is forever changed. Hopefully most such events are positive, and help him in his life. However, there is also the undeniable fact that bad things happen. It is not uncommon to hear someone wondering aloud why an event took place. A person's actions come into question, and it is wondered what the person's motivation was. Once we start questioning the events of our lives, we begin to test out different theories that we have heard over time. "It was fate," “My destiny” or "It is part of God's plan," or other theories which attempt to put some meaning and reasoning behind events in our lives, this how ever takes away human responsibility. Human's also begin to wonder how it is that their actions are determined. Aside from these various explanations, philosopher's have created explanations which can tell the story of human action. There are four main positions that one can maintain. Hard determinism, compatibilism, indeterminism, and skepticism.

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Man has always struggled with the issue of human responsibility, even the great

philosopher Aristotle admitted that there were cases in which he felt it was too difficult to either find a person responsible or not responsible for their actions. Therefore, we need a structured set of characteristics to describe Human Responsibility.

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Three characteristics of Human Responsibility

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1)      Whether or not the person causally contributed to the event happening, either passively or actively.

2)      A person to be held responsible is whether he or she knew or should have known that the event would happen.

3)      Free Will

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Learning the Skill of Self -Responsibility

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There comes a moment in your life that you have to step up and claim it as your own. “I put myself here. I created this world that now seems upturned.” You have to finally claim that ‘personal responsibility' for your life. Taking this step required a

skill that needs to be learned by many individuals. The acceptance of inner

acknowledgment that we are solely responsible for our choices in life, even when

life deals us a bad hand, will give us an upper hand. Taking control of that bad situation frees us to seek out and accept help for ourselves.

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In taking on this task we must ask ourselves this simple question, how rational

are we in dealing with the part we played in being who we are today? And if not,

who is the responsible party? Why are we so programmed to blame?

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Alexander Graham Bell (1827) said,

“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with- a man is what he makes of himself. In entering adulthood we chose how our self-esteem develops, but instead we seem to always have that, if it was not for her or if I could only go back and do things different. We must learn to work out our anger, hostility and depression over those haunting ghosts and focus on our now. Who we are and where we are going with this life.”

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Removing Blame

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As I have already stated Blame is the name of the game. We have this tendency to shove off our responsibility to those around us, the fall guy, the scapegoat, who can we put in our place, to catch hell for this, who is the villain here? Christians readily place blame on atheists, on Satan, on those who do not accept their deity of chose. Republicans place blame on the Democrats, because of political motives. Injured workers place blame on the insurance companies, the list goes on and on. So how do we as a society remove the blame?

1)      Accept our part, our responsibility, of the situation, did we either passively or actively contributed to this event? If we are in the wrong then promptly admit it, without trying to hide behind our shame.

2)      Let go of the guilt of powerlessness. If we did not play a part in the situation, if we are not directly or indirectly responsible for this situation, why feel guilty about it, other than being powerless or not in control, there is no shame in admitting things are out of your limited range of control.

3)      Control is an illusion, you can’t control how other people think or feel, you can’t make someone accept your point of view, without manipulation of the situation, but manipulation removes responsibility, both yours and theirs from the situation.

4)      Admit your own short comings, your own limitations, as a human being and embrace your birth right of being a responsible person.

How does mind control work?

How does mind control work?:
A technical overview of mind control tactics

Terminology note: Today Mind control or brainwashing in academia is commonly referred to as coercive persuasion, coercive psychological systems or coercive influence. The short description below comes from Dr. Margaret Singer professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley the acknowledged leading authority in the world on mind control and cults. This document, in substance, was presented to the U.S. Supreme Court as an educational Appendix on coercive psychological systems in the case Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology 89-1367 and 89-1361. The Wollersheim case was being considered related to issues involving abuse in this area.


Coercion is defined as, "to restrain or constrain by force..." Legally it often implies the use of PHYSICAL FORCE or physical or legal threat. This traditional concept of coercion is far better understood than the technological concepts of "coercive persuasion" which are effective restraining, impairing, or compelling through the gradual application of PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES.

A coercive persuasion program is a behavioral change technology applied to cause the "learning" and "adoption" of a set of behaviors or an ideology under certain conditions. It is distinguished from other forms of benign social learning or peaceful persuasion by the conditions under which it is conducted and by the techniques of environmental and interpersonal manipulation employed to suppress particular behaviors and to train others. Over time, coercive persuasion, a psychological force akin in some ways to our legal concepts of undue influence, can be even MORE effective than pain, torture, drugs, and use of physical force and legal threats.

The Korean War "Manchurian Candidate" misconception of the need for suggestibility-increasing drugs, and physical pain and torture, to effect thought reform, is generally associated with the old concepts and models of brainwashing. Today, they are not necessary for a coercive persuasion program to be effective. With drugs, physical pain, torture, or even a physically coercive threat, you can often temporarily make someone do something against their will. You can even make them do something they hate or they really did not like or want to do at the time. They do it, but their attitude is not changed.

This is much different and far less devastating than that which you are able to achieve with the improvements of coercive persuasion. With coercive persuasion you can change people's attitudes without their knowledge and volition. You can create new "attitudes" where they will do things willingly which they formerly may have detested, things which previously only torture, physical pain, or drugs could have coerced them to do. 

The advances in the extreme anxiety and emotional stress production technologies found in coercive persuasion supersede old style coercion that focuses on pain, torture, drugs, or threat in that these older systems do not change attitude so that subjects follow orders "willingly." Coercive persuasion changes both attitude AND behavior, not JUST behavior.


THE PURPOSES AND TACTICS OF COERCIVE PERSUASION

Coercive persuasion or thought reform as it is sometimes known, is best understood as a coordinated system of graduated coercive influence and behavior control designed to deceptively and surreptitiously manipulate and influence individuals, usually in a group setting, in order for the originators of the program to profit in some way, normally financially or politically. 

The essential strategy used by those operating such programs is to systematically select, sequence and coordinate numerous coercive persuasion tactics over CONTINUOUS PERIODS OF TIME. There are seven main tactic types found in various combinations in a coercive persuasion program. A coercive persuasion program can still be quite effective without the presence of ALL seven of these tactic types.

TACTIC 1. The individual is prepared for thought reform through increased suggestibility and/or "softening up," specifically through hypnotic or other suggestibility-increasing techniques such as: A. Extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills; B. Excessive exact repetition of routine activities; C. Decreased sleep; D. Nutritional restriction.

TACTIC 2. Using rewards and punishments, efforts are made to establish considerable control over a person's social environment, time, and sources of social support. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered. (In the forerunner to coercive persuasion, brainwashing, this was rather easy to achieve through simple imprisonment.)

TACTIC 3. Disconfirming information and nonsupporting opinions are prohibited in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.

TACTIC 4. Frequent and intense attempts are made to cause a person to re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control, and defense mechanisms as well as getting them to reinterpret their life's history, and adopt a new version of causality.

TACTIC 5. Intense and frequent attempts are made to undermine a person's confidence in himself and his judgment, creating a sense of powerlessness.

TACTIC 6. Nonphysical punishments are used such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques for creating strong aversive emotional arousals, etc.

TACTIC 7. Certain secular psychological threats [force] are used or are present: That failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief, or consequent behavior will lead to severe punishment or dire consequence, (e.g. physical or mental illness, the reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, failure to find a mate, etc.).
Another set of criteria has to do with defining other common elements of mind control systems. If most of Robert Jay Lifton's eight point model of thought reform is being used in a cultic organization, it is most likely a dangerous and destructive cult. These eight points follow:

Robert Jay Lifton's Eight Point Model of Thought Reform

1. ENVIRONMENT CONTROL. Limitation of many/all forms of communication with those outside the group. Books, magazines, letters and visits with friends and family are taboo. "Come out and be separate!"

2. MYSTICAL MANIPULATION. The potential convert to the group becomes convinced of the higher purpose and special calling of the
group through a profound encounter / experience, for example, through an alleged miracle or prophetic word of those in the group.

3. DEMAND FOR PURITY. An explicit goal of the group is to bring about some kind of change, whether it be on a global, social, or
personal level. "Perfection is possible if one stays with the group and is committed."

4. CULT OF CONFESSION. The unhealthy practice of self disclosure to members in the group. Often in the context of a public gathering in the group, admitting past sins and imperfections, even doubts about the group and critical thoughts about the integrity of the leaders.

5. SACRED SCIENCE. The group's perspective is absolutely true and completely adequate to explain EVERYTHING. The doctrine is not subject to amendments or question. ABSOLUTE conformity to the doctrine is required.

6. LOADED LANGUAGE. A new vocabulary emerges within the context of the group. Group members "think" within the very abstract
and narrow parameters of the group's doctrine. The terminology sufficiently stops members from thinking critically by reinforcing a "black and white" mentality. Loaded terms and clichés prejudice thinking.

7. DOCTRINE OVER PERSON. Pre-group experience and group experience are narrowly and decisively interpreted through the absolute doctrine, even when experience contradicts the doctrine.

8. DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE. Salvation is possible only in the group. Those who leave the group are doomed.

COERCIVE PERSUASION IS NOT PEACEFUL PERSUASION

Programs identified with the above-listed seven tactics have in common the elements of attempting to greatly modify a person's self-concept, perceptions of reality, and interpersonal relations. When successful in inducing these changes, coercive thought reform programs also, among other things, create the potential forces necessary for exercising undue influence over a person's independent decision-making ability, and even for turning the individual into a deployable agent for the organization's benefit without the individual's meaningful knowledge or consent.

Coercive persuasion programs are effective because individuals experiencing the deliberately planned severe stresses they generate can only reduce the pressures by accepting the system or adopting the behaviors being promulgated by the purveyors of the coercion program. The relationship between the person and the coercive persuasion tactics are DYNAMIC in that while the force of the pressures, rewards, and punishments brought to bear on the person are considerable, they do not lead to a stable, meaningfully SELF-CHOSEN reorganization of beliefs or attitudes. Rather, they lead to a sort of coerced compliance and a situationally required elaborate rationalization, for the new conduct.

Once again, in order to maintain the new attitudes or "decisions," sustain the rationalization, and continue to unduly influence a person's behavior over time, coercive tactics must be more or less CONTINUOUSLY applied. A fiery, "hell and damnation" guilt-ridden sermon from the pulpit or several hours with a high-pressure salesman or other single instances of the so-called peaceful persuasions do not constitute the "necessary chords and orchestration" of a SEQUENCED, continuous, COORDINATED, and carefully selected PROGRAM of surreptitious coercion, as found in a comprehensive program of "coercive persuasion."

Truly peaceful religious persuasion practices would never attempt to force, compel and dominate the free wills or minds of its members through coercive behavioral techniques or covert hypnotism. They would have no difficulty coexisting peacefully with U.S. laws meant to protect the public from such practices.

Looking like peaceful persuasion is precisely what makes coercive persuasion less likely to attract attention or to mobilize opposition. It is also part of what makes it such a devastating control technology. Victims of coercive persuasion have: no signs of physical abuse, convincing rationalizations for the radical or abrupt changes in their behavior, a convincing "sincerity, and they have been changed so gradually that they don't oppose it because they usually aren't even aware of it.

Deciding if coercive persuasion was used requires case-by-case careful analysis of all the influence techniques used and how they were applied. By focusing on the medium of delivery and process used, not the message, and on the critical differences, not the coincidental similarities, which system was used becomes clear. The Influence Continuum helps make the difference between peaceful persuasion and coercive persuasion easier to distinguish.


VARIABLES

Not all tactics used in a coercive persuasion type environment will always be coercive. Some tactics of an innocuous or cloaking nature will be mixed in. 

Not all individuals exposed to coercive persuasion or thought reform programs are effectively coerced into becoming participants. 

How individual suggestibility, psychological and physiological strengths, weakness, and differences react with the degree of severity, continuity, and comprehensiveness in which the various tactics and content of a coercive persuasion program are applied, determine the program's effectiveness and/or the degree of severity of damage caused to its victims. 

For example, in United States v. Lee 455 U.S. 252, 257-258 (1982), the California Supreme Court found that 

"when a person is subjected to coercive persuasion without his knowledge or consent... [he may] develop serious and sometimes irreversible physical and psychiatric disorders, up to and including schizophrenia, self-mutilation, and suicide."

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA OF A COERCIVE PERSUASION PROGRAM?

A). Determine if the subject individual held enough knowledge and volitional capacity to make the decision to change his or her ideas or beliefs. 

B). Determine whether that individual did, in fact, adopt, affirm, or reject those ideas or beliefs on his own. 

C). Then, if necessary, all that should be examined is the behavioral processes used, not ideological content. One needs to examine only the behavioral processes used in their "conversion." Each alleged coercive persuasion situation should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The characteristics of coercive persuasion programs are severe, well-understood, and they are not accidental.

COERCIVE PERSUASION IS NOT VOLUNTARY, PEACEFUL, RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OR CENTRAL TO ANY BONA FIDE RELIGION.

Coercive persuasion is not a religious practice, it is a control technology. It is not a belief or ideology, it is a technological process. 

As a PROCESS, it can be examined by experts on its technology COMPLETELY SEPARATE from any idea or belief content, similar to examining the technical process of hypnotic induction distinct from the meaning or value of the post-hypnotic suggestions. 

Examining PROCESSES in this manner can not violate First Amendment religious protections. 

Coercive persuasion is antithetical to the First Amendment. It is the unfair manipulation of other's biological and psychological weaknesses and susceptibilities. It is a psychological FORCE technology, not of a free society, but of a criminal or totalitarian society. It is certainly not a spiritual or religious technology. 

Any organization using coercive persuasion on its members as a CENTRAL practice that also claims to be a religion is turning the SANCTUARY of the First Amendment into a fortress for psychological assault. It is a contradiction of terms and should be "disestablished." 

Coercive persuasion is a subtle, compelling psychological force which attacks an even more fundamental and important freedom than our "freedom of religion." ITS REPREHENSIBILITY AND DANGER IS THAT IT ATTACKS OUR SELF-DETERMINISM AND FREE WILL, OUR MOST FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS.

High on Jesus

High on Jesus

We have all heard of the Addict, who will drink, or use drugs, or even gamble; without concern for those they hurt. But there is another addict that is more socially accepted than the run of the mill junkie, looking for a quick fix. Many of you reading this essay will instantly recognize those of whom I speak. And hopefully realize these people are sick with the disease of addiction.

The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism), nicotine addiction, problem gambling, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, computer addiction, video game addiction, pornography addiction, etc. Few people are ever really cured of their addiction; they just simply trade one addiction for another, because the underlying problem of addiction has never fully been addressed. They simply hope the new addiction will be a more positive addiction than the one with the deviant behavior.

 Such as religion; yes that is correct boys and girls, religion can become addictive. This essay will hopefully reveal the startling overwhelming evidence, that some people of the religious mind set are in fact addicted to their religion.  

 According to Rev. Leo Booth, author of When God Becomes A Drug, a person can, indeed, become addicted to religion.  He writes that there are symptoms by which to determine the possibility that someone is “addicted” to their religion. These include, but are not limited to; “black and white simplistic thinking, shame based belief that “God will fix you”, uncompromising judgmental attitudes, and progressive detachment from the real-world, isolation, and breakdown of relationships.” (Booth 1991)

Not many people have had to deal with the addict mindset; trying to convince them (the addict) that they are in the wrong. It can be frustrating, to say the least; because in their mind they are not in the wrong.  In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiological disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance or behavior despite its detrimental effects, impaired control over the use of a chosen drug (compulsive behavior), and preoccupation with a drug's use for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e. craving the drug). Accord to Narcotic Anonymous literature; “An Addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs, the getting, using and finding ways and means to get more.”

 But how does that correspond to the Religious addict? You ask.   

“"The goal of addiction is to get the high and if the high is 'I am righteous' and the feeling that I'm righteous then whatever I do will be to get the feeling of 'I am righteous' again. No matter who gets stepped on or whatever happens that's the goal," Minor said.
In reality, addicts use religion to avoid thinking about the hard realities of life, preferring a black and white set of beliefs that provide easy answers. This takes away the addicts need to take responsibility for their lives or their beliefs. Religious addicts can easily be spotted by their rigid, either/or thinking, perfectionist thinking and an inability to take responsibility for their positions.” Dr. Robert Minor, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas.

Many people simply misunderstand the addictive mindset; they believe that the ‘Bad’ can simply be replaced by the good. This is made very clear in Alcoholics Anonymous literature; “In many regards the choice of addictive behavior is a falling from spirit, in the sense that addictive behavior is of a self centered, self serving attitude, whereas spirituality encourages a sense of connectedness and being of service to others. Most individuals that have chosen to partake in addictive behavior do so at the expense of others, and they do it with one thing and only one thing in mind; the need to mask the pain of their emotional issues. Making a connection with spirit allows the addicted person to view things in a greater perspective and allows them to understand that one person’s actions affect the many.”

The very founder of AA, Bill Wilson, was introduced to the idea of a spiritual cure by an old drinking buddy, Ebby Thacher. Wilson, or Bill W. as he became know in AA; underwent what he believed to be a spiritual experience and, convinced of the existence of God, he was able to stop drinking. However his compulsive behavior was not arrested, with his ‘cure’ from the disease of alcoholism. He was constantly seeking out new spiritual ways to treat the problems of others who still suffered. As you can see he simply traded one addiction for another, because of the underlying problems, the needs and compulsion to immerse oneself into an addiction, he was never really cured.

 Here are some general signs of drug use from the Mayo Clinic:

• Feeling that you need the drug regularly and, in some cases, many times a day
• Making certain that you maintain a supply of the drug
• Feeling that you need the drug to deal with your problems
• Driving or doing other activities that place you and others at risk of physical harm when you're under the influence of the drug
• Greatly impaired perception of reality

Symptoms of religious addiction

The Rev. Leo Booth has compiled a list of symptoms that can be associated with a religious addiction. They include:

Religious convictions are stated as black and white.
Isolation from people who do not share the same beliefs.
Think of the world and flesh as inherently evil.
Obsessive about praying, going to church, reading the Bible, attending crusades, watching television evangelists, sending money to missions.
Excessive fasting.
Hearing messages from God.
Judging others, often angry and violent toward "heathens."
Brainwashing - attempt to persuade family and significant friends to their way of thinking.
Compulsively talking about God, religion or quoting from Scripture.
Conflict of ideology with hospitals and schools.
Discourage thinking for oneself, doubting or questioning.
Sexuality seen as dirty or bad.
Cannot accept criticism.
Suffer tension, stress, often develop physical illnesses, such as eating disorders, depression and anxiety.
Often stare, go into trances.
Erratic personality changes.

Evaluating and Assessing Religious Addiction

If you know someone who is extremely religious, consider their history:

Have they always been that way?
Does their zeal represent a sudden personality change?
Do the religious beliefs provide peace and personal contentment?
Has the person become belligerent and defensive?
Are they gentle in their speech or harsh, argumentative and self-righteous?
Have they become intolerant of other points of view?
Have people started avoiding them?
Has their quality of life improved or deteriorated?

How their religious attitudes affect people can represent an infinite variety of causes and motivations, and the reasons behind those causes can explain a great deal about the individual’s psychological profile and mental stability. It’s not enough to simply say, “His religion makes him feel good,” because there are many troubled people who find similar peace and strength through negative stimuli as well, such as alcohol and drugs.

Religion, like alcoholism, can be a crutch, and it can be an addiction. Just as with alcohol, religion may be used to hide other problems. Addiction is defined as the abuse of a substance to cover up the underlying disease or discomfort.  Religion can be viewed as an addiction if it is used as a cover up for unresolved issues of shame, anger and authority. When you take away the superficial layers of the drinking or the religion, the underlying pathology is revealed.

Knowing what lies underneath that veneer of religion is critical to understanding the hyper-religious person’s behavior. Therefore, it helps to know what brought about the change in attitude when someone’s conspicuous preoccupation with religious belief and ritual takes on an extreme, consuming new importance in their lives.

A suddenly increased interest in God and religion is often triggered by a trauma or severe anxiety, and those may come in many forms:

    * Death of a loved one
    * A break in a relationship
    * Serious illness or accident
    * Personal or financial loss
    * Incarceration


When people’s security in their selves is threatened, for whatever reason, they often turn to God.  Such a reaction is understandable: a confused, frightened individual who feels helpless will naturally reach out for a source of comfort and solace. Also, a frequent catalyst for triggering Addictive Religious behavior may be a latent psychiatric disorder, such as depression.

Regardless of the reason why a person chooses to pursue religion, at what level does healthy, normal religious belief become abnormal?

Often the personality change is subtle. Eventually, though, hyper-religious behavior will manifest itself in obvious and disconcerting ways, such as:

Loss of Objectivity

Their ability to reason logically can become impaired.  Such as, an inability to think, doubt, or question religious information, and/or authority and unwillingness to understand the opinions and interpretations of others. A concrete and rigid thinking style develops that does not allow for consideration of extenuating circumstances in a person's life.  Black/white, good/bad, either/or simplistic thinking: one way or the other with very little room for gray areas. A tendency toward magical thinking, that God will fix you/ do it all, without serious work on your part. Confusion and doubts lead to mental, physical or emotional breakdown. They develop a fear-based or guilt-based belief system, believing/following a religion out of fear, not understanding and love.  They also tend to have a shame-based belief system that they are not good enough or are not doing it right.  They believe in a punishing and angry God.

Reactivity: Anger and Defensiveness

If sincere faith in God is supposed to bring peace and contentment, a religious person who is paranoid and confrontational about it may have a larger mental problem. They tend to have increased conflict and argumentation with science, medicine, and education. They tend to become argumentative and defensive in dialog.  They have a limited ability to explain their beliefs. Since their belief system about themselves and the world is fear-based, they seldom understand religion, but follow it out of a dependent need for strength and power.  Force is their farce.

Judgmental and Critical

Hyper-religiosity may be revealed in someone as unusual self-importance, as if that person were much closer to God, making others around him seem inferior.  They develop uncompromising judgmental attitudes, with a readiness to find fault or evil out there.  An attitude of self-righteousness or superiority: "we versus the world," including the denial of one's humanness.  They tend to be blind to their own behaviors, denying their projections on to the idol 'god' they have created.

Obsessive and Compulsive Behavior

Ritual is part of religion, and as such is neither good nor bad. However, when it disrupts normal activities it is unhealthy—as in being unable to function without repeated readings of the same passages, or unusually frequent rituals.  Scrupulously rigid and obsessive adherence to rules, codes of ethics, or guidelines.  Compulsive rituals or obsessive praying, quoting scriptures and excessive fasting often accompany the change in thinking patterns. Giving up sleeping or eating to pray or meditate.  Again, prayer and meditation are important aspects of faith, but not to the point of jeopardizing a person’s health or relationships.

Isolation

Isolation and breakdown of relationships often follows.  Progressive detachment from work and relationships is noticeable as they spend more time proselytizing their message.  Manipulating scripture or texts, feeling specially chosen, claiming to receive special messages from God, they move further and further away from the mainstream of social contacts.

Breakdown

In severe cases they may also develop some of the following patterns:
Psychosomatic illness: back pains, sleeplessness, headaches, hypertension, etc.
Maintaining a religious "high", trance-like state, keeping a happy face (or the belief that one should...)

Denial of any personal problems

When behavior borders on manic or pathological, the hyper-religious person may even start hallucinating, i.e.: hearing voices or seeing images, or possibly “talking to God.”

By then, it’s clearly evident something is wrong to the people around the religious addict, but not so clear to the addict.

If you know someone whose interest in religion has suddenly (or even gradually) reached a point of fixation—when their regular lives are negatively affected—you need to understand what’s motivating their behavior. The problem could go away, but it could also get worse.

The ultimate temptation of the believer is to assume that his or her way to God is the best or only way for others. The particular Way to God becomes what is adored, not the ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery to which we give the name of God. In essence they become addicted to their faith.  It becomes a means of escape.  It is no longer a living BY faith; with understanding, hope and growing in unconditional love.  Instead of love of God softening their lives, it makes them harsh, rigid and limited.

Physical Changes

One of the first signs that one might be affected to religion is their look. A glazed, high appearance, as if the person was using either drugs or alcohol; but without laboratory evidence of abuse where the patient has not been tested or he/she has tested negative. This might be the easiest way to determine if someone is addicted to religion, though some people who are truly believers in a particular religion may say that this is only the conclusion of coming to terms with God or a true vision of holiness in their life so one must be careful not to jump to too many conclusions early before intervening in such a person's life.

Compulsive ritualization with religious issues and behaviors.

Bible reading and church attendance are to many religious addicts what bingo or slots might be to someone in Gamblers Anonymous. Because so many different religions exist in this country; including those outside of the mainstream concepts of religion such as Paganism and Buddhism. Those in recovery must find a definition of sobriety appropriate to them. Behavioral addictions always include compulsive behavior, which are the bottom-line definitions of a behavioral addiction. For the behavior is their drug. For a Buddhist, of course, a different set of compulsive behaviors from a Christian's problem behaviors would exist. Therefore, sobriety is different for each religions addict, but the concept of sobriety is different for each religious addict but the concept of sobriety as practiced by groups like NA is focused on the behavior, not the drug.

Isolation from the outside world and social involvement only with other addicts.

This must be a symptom of the serious addict. This differentiates the dabbler and the true believer who is equivalent to the person who takes prescription drugs for a lifesaving purposes, from the addict. A dabbler will decide to avoid an illicit drug she/he doesn't like unlike the dabbler in religion who will attend a given church only once or twice. They may do this several times and then decide to refrain from joining for any one of a number of good reasons. People marked as "true believers" genuinely agree with the doctrines of the particular church they attend and try to live by its guidelines without being a rule maniac and neither isolate themselves from the outside world nor associate with those who misuse the resource they find so comforting. This kind of progressive movement in religion, which is equivalent to the change in tolerance seen in some alcoholics, is another type of addiction altogether. These addictive believers find their drug of choice so much of a high that they choose, at least initially, until religion becomes a drug to which the addict is addicted at the life-maintenance stage to isolate their social contacts to fellow addicts.

Withdraw symptoms

Withdrawal can refer to any sort of separation, but is most commonly used to describe the group of symptoms that occurs upon the abrupt discontinuation/separation or a decrease in dosage of the intake of medications, recreational drugs, and/or alcohol. In order to experience the symptoms of withdrawal, one must have first developed a dependence upon a substance. The term "cold turkey" is used to describe the sudden cessation use of a substance or behavior and the ensuing physiologic manifestations.

These withdrawal symptoms are created when the addict stops going to religious meetings or involving themselves in any activity relating to religion which could be anything from Sunday services right down to pot luck suppers. A primary symptom is going right back to the problem religion and by association, Christ himself, was suppose to save and cure you from be it excessive grief over a loved one or another associated addictive behavior like drinking or overeating. Depression and euphoric recall which romanticizes aspects of these elements of the group one despised most could be others.

Withdrawal symptoms can vary significantly among individuals, but there are some commonalities. Subnormal activity in the nucleus accumbens is often characterized by depression, anxiety and craving, and if extreme can help drive the individual to continue the substance or behavior, despite significant harm — the definition of addiction — or even to suicide.

Addiction is to be carefully distinguished from physical dependence. Addiction is a psychological compulsion to use a substance or behavior despite harm that often persists long after all physical withdrawal symptoms have abated. On the other hand, the mere presence of even profound physical dependence does not necessarily denote addiction, e.g., in a patient using large doses of opioids to control chronic pain under medical supervision

As the symptoms vary, some people are, for example, able to quit smoking "cold turkey" (i.e., immediately, without any tapering off) while others may never find success despite repeated efforts. However, the length and the degree of an addiction can be indicative of the severity of withdrawal.

Withdrawal is a more serious medical issue for some substances than for others. While nicotine withdrawal, for instance, is usually managed without medical intervention, attempting to give up a Benzodiazepine, alcohol and even religious dependency can result in seizures and worse if not carried out properly.

What course does one take to become cured from addictive religion?

As you can see there is a cure, but remember there are underlying problems that lead to this addiction to religion in the first place. It can best be treated by counseling, and only through this type of treatment can you address those problems, instead of kicking on addiction for another. Religious intervention has been used in the past to deprogram cult members, but kidnapping and unlawful restrain is a very serious crime. Addicts can not filter information the way a non addicted person will. So pointing out their faults and short comings will usually intensify their using and abusing of their religious behavior. The primary goal is to get the addict to admit they have a problem. This is the first step according to AA and NA documentation. Also from a psychological stand point, only by recognizing that there is a problem can you begin to address the problem.



Resources:

http://www.desertpastor.com/paradoxology/2003/12/r
eligious_addic.html
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/
fund80.html
http://www.crescentlife.com/spirituality/religious
_addiction.htm
http://www.fairnessproject.org/Addiction%20Reviews
.html  

http://www.na.org/

http://www.aa.org

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Abused God (2008) by Rev. Dr. Regina Pinto-Moura

Toxic Christianity: Healing the Religious Neurosis (1992) by Paul Deblassey

Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction (2002) by Dr. Thomas and Beverly Bien

When God Becomes a Drug: Book 1; Understanding Religious Addiction & Religious Abuse (1998) by Leo Booth and John Bradshaw

Religious Addiction, Mental health and Spirituality (2008) by Regina Pinto-Moura

Overcoming Religious Abuse & Religious Addiction (2000) by Father Leo Booth

Healing Spiritual Abuse and Religious Addiction (1992)by Matthew Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Dennis Linn

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