Losing Faith Complicates Mental Health Recovery?

[Faith No More]

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.

ManMachine's answer was very good, but I thought I'd add a little.

The brain likes stability, especially when it comes to the model of reality it creates for itself. Uprooting that model by concluding your religion is false will cause the brain to be unbalanced. When you combine that with mental health issues, which essentially means you have a brain that doesn't stabilize very well, you throw your brain and your sense of self into a sort of chaotic soup. It's a one-two combo that can really mess you up.

I have never dealt with leaving a religion, but having spent over a decade battling mental health issues myself, I can see how it would exacerbate the situation. Just do your best to stay vigilant about what helps and what hurts and remember that there are many others out there that share your struggles.