Finally Having Postive Emotions Again

[Ahh!]

For about 6 months after I decided to just leave religion, I was incapable of having positive emotions on a regular basis. I was just angry or depressed all the time. In the last few weeks though, I've found that I'm able to laugh again, that I'm starting to not take things as seriously as I did and that I am able to see the things that are beautiful about myself and others. I no longer feel offended by expressions of Christianity and other religions like I did at first. And I don't watch televangelists and get angry anymore... I just change the channel.

 

To anyone feeling like I did, you will regain your full range of emotions again and being that they are no longer governed by a religion, you will enjoy them more than you did before.

[Guest _mike]

I think that I and many others here can totally relate to you. Religion just has this way of allowing you to deal with, or shall I say, avoid, the problems and shortcomings in life by mentally leaving them in the hands of an imaginary figure you apparently have no knowledge of yet are capable of believing in and trusting. It's nice sometimes to just let things go and leave them into the hands of a higher power you believe in to be real. Yet, once this figure is intellectually dismantled in the face of reality, you are left dealing with it all on your own. It is then that you become depressed, feeling that you are alone, and when you realize that you have indeed always been alone, angry. It has been a little over a year now since I've left Christianity and since then the emotions I’ve been getting most of the time are very similar to yours. For me, the problem has been getting over my past. Almost everyone I knew and to some degree know now are Christian, and me being an atheist has shaken the relationship I’ve had with these people. I am glad that I have a few good friends that think nothing of my atheism and who would stick by me irregardless of my beliefs, but for many others, this is not the case. Many of my former Christian friends no longer speak to me. Others just look down at the fact that I have left the Church. My parents are devastated. I am angered and depressed at the same time because of all of this. It's quite difficult to adjust to this new mode of life. I am thinking ever more clearly but my emotions are everywhere. I was fully immersed into the Christian way of life for too long. I don't know when I will finally be able to completely rid myself of this past life. Looking forward to a day like yours!