It seems like a large portion of people on this site left mormonism because they found out damning things about church history. Others have left because of scientific reasons. Has anyone else left for psychological reasons?

After I graduated from college I developed severe depression. I was still very active in the church at the time. One of the tools I've learned to deal with depression is called cognitive behavioral therapy. This is basically where you become aware of the irrational, negative thoughts you have that are leading to your depression/anxiety, etc. You then try to replace those thoughts with more rational ones.

As I went through this process I was surprised to find that a lot of my negative thinking was wrapped up in my religious beliefs. Other TBM's would explain this away by saying ... it's not the church, it's how you are reacting to the church. But over time, no matter how much I tried to make church work for me, I would always fall back into the same negative thinking patterns regarding my personal worth, my outlook on life, etc. It became easier with time to see the church as something that had been psychologically damaging to me.

When I discovered the church history stuff, that was the nail in the coffin ... but I had been drifting away for a long time before that. Just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences.

I think most of us are in the same boat you are. Biblebeltbetsy is compiling a treatise on depression among Mormons. I am sure she would love to hear from you.

I have had cognitive behavioral therapy to learn how to deal with my PTSD while I was still TBM. I never connected the dots towards my religious beliefs back then, but when DH found disturbing information that TSCC was NOT the one true church three years later, it was easy to connect the dots with the skills I had already acquired.

It felt like a cloud had lifted and I had finally been freed of the last major toxic influence in my life.

When I was TBM, I was pressured into not continueing with my therapy. Small wonder that therapy is such a major threat to cults: It gets you out of the herd of sheeple and transforms you into an individual being.

So, for me, CBT was a great help in quitting TSCC, though not the reason for leaving.

Yeah, therapy can be a breath of fresh air, and has probably been the beginning of the end for some mormons.

Ironically, the first therapist I went to was a church-sponsored one ... I think the program was called LDS social services, or something like that. My bishop helped me get hooked up with them. I wonder if the church does any 'coaching' for their therapists ... or if they allow them to do their own thing. The one I got was surprisingly open minded.

I can't imagine how dismayed my old bishop would be to discover that he helped me start along the road that eventually led me out of the church.

Lol - escaped TSCC aided by your bish. :D

I avoided the mormon therapist - there was only one, she was a member of our ward and she "cured" a sister from our ward of the consequences of years of sexual abuse by her paternal grandfather in *10* therapy sessions flat (...and blabbed about her "success" in RS). I didn't trust her.

I found my therapist by myself, we had a good connection and she helped me with no ulterior (TSCC-related) motive.

I found LDS social services to be a joke. I told my therapist I was listening to Christian music on KLOVE to help me feel in tune with the Lord (This was way back in 2010) and he told me that it would eventually cause me to lose my testimony. I was like: What the f***! Christian music will make me lose my testimony of Mormonism? The LDS therapists have an agenda, they're no good. Thank goodness my insurance now pays for good therapy!

my wife didn't leave because of this, she just followed me, but when she did her depression got much better

I knew the damning things from church history and I used my Cognitive Dissonance to reconcile them. I was in therapy for anxiety and depression and made the connection that I was codependent (with the help of a friend). I joined a 12-step program for Codependents and realized that their definition of a higher power and my definition of a higher power were two different things. I never felt that the Mormon god (notice lower case) ever accepted me without strings attached. I always had to do something to make up for it. My CoDA Higher Power (God) was supposed to. I spoke to a Born-Again Christian friend about this and she suggested I go to a certain church. I went and spoke to the Pastor a few days later about my codependence. He explained that God loves me unconditionally and that His Grace is something I'm given without having to do anything else (temple, sacrament, baptism, etc.) Wow! I don't even have to be baptized to be saved! So, even if the Born-Again faith is wrong, I'm somewhere where I feel a closer connection with my Higher Power. I get depressed at times, but not as often. My anxiety is gone! I can't go back to Mormonism, it would be like eating my own vomit!

Going to church made me miserable. I lived in a ward with a lot of retired people. They were an angry bunch with nothing better to than gossip. If there wasn't anything to gossip about, they'd make it up.

The best part of Sunday was when church was over. I started really paying attention to the people around me. Nobody looked happy. They were a very gloomy crowd. Even the little kids looked depressed. Smiles were rare. It was like this week after week. The sacrament meeting talks were nothing more than scold and shame fests. I had to ask myself why I was there. What was I getting out of this?

It was depressing. Then I learned about all the black marks. I couldn't come up with one single reason why I should go there and do this to myself every Sunday. I had referred to Sunday as mental abuse day for years. IT was time to stop. Time to make Sunday the best day of the week, not the worst.

Sunday is now my favorite day of the week. I actually attempted suicide about 7 months back, in part, to get out of home teaching (there were a plethora of other reasons). I love attending church with other Christians who are non judgemental. I love being somewhere where I don't have to wear a white shirt and tie. I love the messages. Sorry if I seem to be pimping my new found faith. I have friends who left the "so-called" church to become Atheist describe that they feel the liberation I have. I don't think I could do this without God. I need a higher power in my life right now. The Mormon higher power is not the same Jesus Christ as the Christian Jesus Christ, no matter how much they claim it. Didn't Hitler say that if you repeat a lie enough times that people will start to believe it? I think that's what TSCC is doing.

One of the things I've learned in my experience with people who have mental health issues (me included), is that one of the worst ways to respond to them is to contradict them. There is nothing worse to say to someone who is contemplating suicide than ... "oh you don't really want to kill yourself." Doing that tries to deny their ability to express deeply hurt feelings. A much better approach is to believe them, and ask follow-up questions like "ok so you want to die ... tell me why?"

If this was practiced in the church it would help immensely. Unfortunately what you get from TBM's is contradiction instead of empathy. Have you ever had a TBM say to you ... "oh I can see how finding those things out would make you upset and question your faith ... let's talk about it."?

Of course they don't say that ... what you get instead is crap like ... "I think deep down you know it's true ... where is all this doubt coming from? Did someone offend you? Did you do something you need to talk to the bishop about?"

I agree 100%. My bishop saw me in the hospital the day after I tried to OD on pills and tried to show concern but it came across as contrived and feigned. I still like the guy, don't get me wrong. But, I simply felt like he was there more out of a sense of duty than out of concern for me. Amazingly enough, the person who helped me the most was someone who was a non-member (I live in St. George, Utah, by the way) who been subtly attacked for her smoking habit by some so-called "saints". She told me since that she could pick up that there was something incredibly wrong in me and felt pulled to me to help me with it. She, a non-mormon, got me pointed in the right direction to therapy and 12-step meetings, not my bishop, my bishop never asked me another question about it. Who was the good Samaritan here? My friend will read this post, because I'm sharing it with her. She's my sister from another mother. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. "A", my friend, didn't lay down her life for me, but she's sacrificed more of her time and charity to me than any Mormon I know. Why? Because she felt pulled to me by her higher power. If my Bishop were entitled to revelation for me, why didn't he pick up on it?

History and science were a big part of my separation, but yes, psychology is part of it too. I simply realized that being forced into a mold and being required to groupthink was not for me. When Sunday school or priesthood lessons begin to feel like cult indoctrination sessions, it's time to leave.