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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am asking this question after reading a previous post about people being depressed because they don't have religion in their lives. I am an atheist in my 40s, although I considered myself Christian until my early 20's. However with life and experience I find it impossible to believe in a 'God' and especially anything written in the Bible. It all seems totally unbelievable to me and I hate the way it has given people reasons to discriminate against LGBTQ communities.

I struggle on and off with depression and sometimes I wished I did have a faith to comfort me. It is very easy for people to say you should turn to Jesus etc, but to me it is like believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.[/quote]

OP, have you ever found anything in your life?[/quote]

I went to a Catholic boarding school and was one of the few non catholic students (although baptized Christian). I was judged by some very uptight religious teachers and overheard them gossip about my 'unorthodox'family. I tried to make them like me more by attending all the optional evening prayer services and tried to talk to God but never felt heard. In my late teens and early 20's I struggled really badly with OCD and depression and pleaded to God to help me but I felt no comfort only suicidal. The only thing that helped me in the end was antidepressants and therapy.  I stopped believing in God after this bout of depression and it all seems a lot of hateful made up nonsense to me now. But I do often think it would be nice to believe, some of my good friends do, I just can't seem to make that stretch. Whatever happens I know Catholic Church is not for me or any religion who thinks that being in a same sex relationship is a sin. [/quote]

Sorry I have not been

Your family wasn’t Catholic, but your parents sent you away to Catholic boarding school? Why did they do that? Did you tell your parents you were unhappy at a boarding school that wasn’t the religion your family embraced?

What were your parents doing, making you miserable and isolated? Were they wanting to make you Catholic, even if they themselves weren’t?

I wanted to be a boarder as most of my friends were. I could have attended as a day student. My parents sent me there as I had learning differences and was counseled out of another secular private school. In those days if you had learning differences in public school you were put with all the troublemakers and not expected to achieve anything. The catholic school was the only private school in the area at the time that has learning specialists. I enjoyed some aspects of school as I loved my friends there. Not all the teachers were judgmental. I never told my parents I was unhappy about the religious aspect I kept it to myself.I even thought about converting to Catholicism. It is only as an adult I can see the impact it had on me.
[/quote][/quote]

So you chose this school.

Is “counseling out” mean you were kicked out, for a lack of better terminology? The secular private school made you leave?

So the Catholics took you in, provided you with actual learning opportunities, you loved your friends at the Catholic school, and you admit all the teachers weren’t judgemental…but you are still depressed because of it?

Op, we all have a right to feel our feelings, but you seem to be looking for reasons to focus on the negative, ignore the positive, and stay mired in the past?

How many years have you been graduated from high school? Did you attend college? Do you have a career/job?[/quote]

Sorry I have not been clear. School was not the reason for my depression. It came about after struggling with OCD from my late teens onwards. Another pp asked if I had experience with God so I explained my background on Catholic school. I just wanted to give some context to my religious journey and struggle to believe.[/quote][/quote]

Counseled out meant my previous school told my parents they couldn't help students with learning differences (they were a top academic school) and suggested they find a school for me that could.[/quote]

Ok, what learning differences do you have? Have you attended or graduated college? Do you have a job that pays your bills and supports your life?[/quote]

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