My deconversion was a gradual and fairly linear process from the age of about 29 to 42. I am now 62.
In retrospect, there was nothing that was going on that particularly rushed it or gave it urgency; to the contrary, there were a lot of things in my life that distracted from it, such as the madness of my first wife, a period of single parenthood, a lengthy period of acting as sole caregiver to my second wife due to her physical illness, etc. I think these various clusterfucks caused me to mis-identify them as the primary / seminal source of my distress, when in fact, my life choices (particularly not changing things that weren't working for me or mine) and the limited way I framed my perceptions and responses thereto, had far more to do with the failed epistemology under which I was attempting to function (namely, religious faith).
In retrospect, there was nothing that was going on that particularly rushed it or gave it urgency; to the contrary, there were a lot of things in my life that distracted from it, such as the madness of my first wife, a period of single parenthood, a lengthy period of acting as sole caregiver to my second wife due to her physical illness, etc. I think these various clusterfucks caused me to mis-identify them as the primary / seminal source of my distress, when in fact, my life choices (particularly not changing things that weren't working for me or mine) and the limited way I framed my perceptions and responses thereto, had far more to do with the failed epistemology under which I was attempting to function (namely, religious faith).
