Stranger Things Isn’t All That Strange: What Shame, Healing, and Spiritual Warfare Teach Us About the Battle Within
- Hannah
- Oct 20
- 6 min read
A trauma-informed reflection on overcoming darkness, reclaiming identity, and finding healing through faith and emotional wholeness.
Stranger Things Really Isn't that Strange
The darkness isn’t always obvious, and neither is the way to the light. Stranger Things offers more than supernatural thrills—it’s a mirror for the spiritual and emotional battles we face every day. From shame that isolates us to the courage it takes to run toward healing, this story shows that light overcomes darkness. In this post, we’ll explore how the show reflects our inner struggles, the choices we make in the face of shame, and why healing is a daily, intentional decision.
The Ground We’ll Cover
In this post, we’ll explore:
How Stranger Things mirrors the battles in our minds and hearts.
The way shame isolates—and how the enemy uses it.
Why discernment starts with awareness, not fear.
Practical ways to ground yourself in truth and belonging.
How to rebuild trust with your inner voice and with God.
The reminder that shame doesn’t define you—wholeness does.
Battles Every Human Fights
Season 5 of Stranger Things releases soon, so I decided to rewatch the series from the beginning. It’s always been dark, eerie, and full of tension — but this time around, something struck deeper.
Beneath the monsters and flashing lights is a raw reflection of the battles every human fights: shame, isolation, identity, and the long road to becoming whole.
For those who haven’t seen it, Stranger Things centers on a tight-knit group of kids in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. What starts as a missing person mystery quickly unfolds into a war against evil forces from a parallel world called The Upside Down.
At the heart of the story is Eleven — a girl raised in isolation, experimented on for her telekinetic powers, and burdened with the belief that she is a monster. Her story is fiction, yes — but her internal struggle mirrors something profoundly real:
The battle between truth and lies.
Between light and darkness.
Between shame and redemption
he same is true in our lives.
My Shame
I have struggled with shame over the last year. I had told my best friend I didn’t want to do anything for my final day in the Air Force because shame had settled deep inside me—I felt like I had failed.
Medically retired for C-PTSD, my journey included a painful breakdown, treatment, and the harsh reality that seeking help was often viewed as weakness. The whispers of shame still creep in, replaying doubts and fears: I let people down. I failed. They will think differently of me. It was all for nothing.
This week was a different story - I was expecting to meet with a friend, only to find most of my unit there to celebrate my last day on active duty. For those who couldn’t make it, messages of love and encouragement poured in.
Prior to this (to combat the feelings of failure and shame) my therapist asked me to look back on my career at my awards and decorations, but as I did what stood out weren’t the missions or accolades—it was the people. Thousands of photos, moments of joy, love, and connection, reminded me what my actually career was...
My career, my mission, my purpose—it was never about the tasks. It was about the connections, the relationships, and the light we created in each other’s lives. It was about keeping each other together through chaos and life’s messiness. The people in my life—the ones who lift me, cheer me on, and connect me to my truest self—are my reminders of true success, resilience, and the only valuable part of life - being with amazing people.
Shame is a weapon used to isolate us, to make the darkness feel permanent. But the light—the connection with others, the truth of who we are in Christ, the love that surrounds us—breaks through the lies and fear. We have a choice: to stay in shame or to step into the light that restores, redeems, and reminds us of our inherent value and wholeness.
Vecna’s Weapon of Choice: Shame
Season 4 takes this theme to a chilling new level. Vecna, the new villain, hunts teenagers haunted by secret shame — using their memories against them until they collapse under guilt and fear.
It’s brutal to watch… but eerily familiar.
Because shame still does this to us today. It isolates. It accuses. It kills our confidence and numbs our hope.
Whether you believe in the devil literally or metaphorically, Scripture is clear:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” — John 10:10
Shame steals your identity, kills your potential, and destroys your connection to truth. It whispers lies like, “You’re not enough.” “You’ll always be broken.” “You deserve this.” And if we let it, it becomes a prison that keeps us from the healing that’s already been promised.
Running Toward the Light
One of the most powerful scenes of the entire series is when Max — a strong yet grieving girl — becomes Vecna’s next target. Her shame runs deep: guilt over her brother’s death, anger she can’t express, and a numbness that makes her withdraw from everyone she loves.
Vecna seizes on this pain. But in that moment, her friends fight for her by playing a song that represents her connection to life and love — Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”
As the music swells, Max begins to see flashes of her memories, her friendships, and her worth. A portal of light opens, and she runs. Through the debris. Through the darkness. Toward the light.
John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The light isn’t just symbolic — it’s survival. It’s what helps us see reality clearly again, beyond the fog of lies. It’s forgiveness instead of condemnation, truth instead of accusation, reconnection instead of isolation.
In therapy and faith alike, running toward the light means daring to stay connected — to yourself, to others, to God — even when everything in you wants to hide.
Becoming Whole: Facing the Inner “Upside Down”
In one of the most profound moments of the series, Eleven tells her father figure, Papa:
“I saw what I did. I am a monster.”
He replies:
“People are not so easily defined. Only by facing all of ourselves — the good and the bad — can we become whole.”
This scene mirrors the work of Internal Family Systems (IFS) — the therapeutic model that teaches us we all carry many parts: wounded ones, protective ones, and the Self that leads with love and wisdom.
We are not defined by our worst moments or our biggest fears. Healing happens when we face them with compassion instead of judgment — when we stop trying to destroy our “monsters” and start understanding them.
It’s uncomfortable. It’s messy. But it’s the only way we grow.
From the Upside Down to the Inside Out
The greatest plot twist of Stranger Things isn’t the monsters or government conspiracies—it’s that the real battle was never outside of them. It was always within.
Shame tells us we are what we’ve done. That the dark parts of our story define us. But truth—God’s truth—says otherwise.
You are not your failures. You are not your trauma. You are not the version of yourself you had to become to survive.
Just like Eleven, we all carry memories that haunt us. We all have moments that make us whisper, “I’m the monster.” But the light of Christ reveals something different: we were never the monster. We were the child—frightened, hurting, longing to be seen and loved.
Healing doesn’t erase the past; it reclaims it. It says: I see what happened. I see what hurt me. And I’m still worthy of light.
Romans 8:1 reminds us “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Shame may drag us toward the Upside Down, whispering that we’ll never be enough. But grace flips the world right-side up again. It reminds us that we are whole, chosen, and loved beyond measure—before we ever did a single thing right.
So when the darkness calls your name, remember this: You’ve already been rescued. You’ve already been found. And you don’t have to run anymore—because the Light lives within you now.
Maybe Stranger Things isn’t all that strange after all. It’s the story we all live: a journey through the dark, toward the One who calls us back into the light.
💛 Hannah
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