Losing Faith Complicates Mental Health Recovery?

[Mister Agenda]

I can see it. Dealing with too many big things at a time while dealing with mental issues could certainly complicate your progress. I suppose 'getting religion' could do the same.

[The Grand Nudger]

If Mormonism was your only tie to God, and you severed it.. then perhaps that is what you miss. Just because you can demonstrate a religious movement to be false does not automatically disqualify God.

Maybe it is just time for you to seek God outside of a structured religion for a while.

LOL, what a scavenger - the slightest whiff of personal anguish and here comes the jesus brigade. Maybe it's time for you to stop looking for carrion to exploit?

[Mr Greene]

I worked in a mental health centre for several years, we had several run ins with various religious groups who saw it as an easy target for recruiting. Such is life when you get classified as a vulnerable adult, every scammer comes out of the woodwork to try filching you.
In my experience baptists were worst, or at least more tenacious, but you could spot when the service users were going downhill as they became overtly religious as the first telltale.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The mental stress of leaving a religious faith behind is precisely the same mental stress as a child giving up his favourite blankie - intellectually, you know you've outgrown it, but you miss the security and reassurance.

Boru

This was definitely the case with me. Thankfully, I didn't have mental-health issues to deal with as well, because my fear was pretty big as it was.

Good luck, Q1C. There's plenty of good in the world as well, so long as you work to see it. Depression can cast a pall over everything, but like a pall of smoke over a fire, it doesn't mean that the sun's not there, it just means that you cannot see it because of your perspective.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

If Mormonism was your only tie to God, and you severed it.. then perhaps that is what you miss. Just because you can demonstrate a religious movement to be false does not automatically disqualify God.

Maybe it is just time for you to seek God outside of a structured religion for a while.

LOL, what a scavenger - the slightest whiff of personal anguish and here comes the jesus brigade. Maybe it's time for you to stop looking for carrion to exploit?

It's a tried and tested MO, preying on the vulnerable.

[dyresand]

LOL, what a scavenger - the slightest whiff of personal anguish and here comes the jesus brigade. Maybe it's time for you to stop looking for carrion to exploit?

It's a tried and tested MO, preying on the vulnerable.

that is pretty messed up thing to do is prey on the vulnerable to get a person into a religion he or she might not want to be in. that is a huge conflict of morality in my book. the person needs help the person doesn't jesus he or she needs human help not divine.

[Tonus]

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.

[Mudhammam]

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 so funny to me that whether Mormon, Muslim, or evangelical fundamentalist (as I was raised), the opinion expressed on these forums, regarding the harm done to a person's ability to evaluate their place in the world apart from fantastical dogma, is oftentimes the same.

[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.

[TubbyTubby]

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.

This is all very interesting stuff, at least for me anyway. It's not something I've considered too much. It is also quite telling that Drich and our other theist residents seem to avoid these types of discussion.