Losing Faith Complicates Mental Health Recovery?

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I left mormonism, had been depressed two years before then, and when I left things got worse.

Building up the courage to take such a big step does not change a lot of the subconscious and subliminal programming in your brain. It's a pretty big change and the human mind doesn't seem to like changes --especially big ones-- even if they are reasonable and beneficial. I think it's important to review the ways in which your religion and religious practices affected your day-to-day life and find substitutes for those moments, otherwise you can feel as if your routine has been thrown off. It can be traumatic enough that a person will easily return to a system of behaviors that are harmful. But if you can get through the worst of it, you can then begin to build a new set of behaviors and routines and patterns that fit your new life and you will start to feel a lot better.

You're right. I've started to replace certain religious practices for more strengthening ones. Just a few off the top of my head:

Praying: Mindfulness
Church Music: My piano studies, negating all hymns from my repertoire.
Scripture Study: Recreational reading or science study
Church "talks"/testimony: poetry writing
Church events: secular meetups

I think I'm on the right track...atleast I feel better when holding true to these helpful coping mechanisms.