(November 19, 2014 at 11:34 pm)Quantum1Connect Wrote: I left mormonism, had been depressed two years before then, and when I left things got worse.
Anyone else experienced this?
Anyone ever felt so insecure and empty after leaving an extremist dogma?
I think, especially in the case of mormonism, the practitioner of any serious sect has to sacrifice their identity for the sake of the church. For someone who has mental health issues, this creates another bag of problems to heals.
Just a thought.
Religion is poison.
I don't blame it, I take responsibility for my own fate and emotions, but I think things would be easier without the dogmatic variable of absolute servitude.
It's understandable.
As a member of an organised religion with strict doctrine you are likely to have been subject to something called 'impairment of autonomy'. As you were already experiencing depression and most likely a sense of lack of control over things that affect your life (lack of autonomy), any further loss of control i.e. the removal of the religious doctrine that propped up areas of your fragile psychology, would have stripped the autonomy you retained of any meaningful context and led to a sense of even less control (less autonomy) and possibly more depression.
Which seems to be the case.
Psychological states rarely change overnight, it takes time to repair and heal. The more your life outside of organised religion takes shape and becomes more concrete, the more your feeling of autonomy will return.
You will be fine, just be patient with yourself and your recovery. See a doctor about some meds to help you through the depression, if you have a headache you take something for it, phycology is no different.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
