Losing Faith Complicates Mental Health Recovery?

[robvalue]

I'm very sorry to hear how it has affected you. I have heard similar stories many times on the Atheist Experience, how religion has been so drilled in that pulling it out is painful and leaves wounds.

It's very sad that religious people will take advantage of your situation and try to say you "just need god again". Religion has nothing to do with god, it's just poison like you say. It's control, power and delusion.

I hope things improve for you, I empathize as I too am severely depressed, I'm on very high doses of anti depressants (I have M.E. and most likely a genetic vulnerability to depression). All I can suggest is to try to meet up with as many atheists as possible, try to form a new social framework of people who care about you as a person, not just because of dumbass beliefs. If anyone treats you worse because you have left religion, they are a despicable person and are just proving that "religious person" is not the same as "good person". In fact I have generally found the opposite to be the case. The more religious someone is, the nicer they are not.

Keep posting on here, and focus on the fact that you now live in reality. I know that can be hard, I find depression gives me a hyper awareness of reality. It's more difficult to brush aside the horrible things in the world.