Yeah, I've gone back and forth on this one. My therapist says "for every door that closes, far many more open", and that has been true for the most part - but

Yeah, I've gone back and forth on this one. My therapist says "for every door that closes, far many more open", and that has been true for the most part - but still those closed doors suck. Exiting my religion was a fate worse than death. I grew up on the culty side that had a ton of hero worship, I was always proselytizing, I gave money I didn't have to the church, and was so deeply embedded (or it was so deeply embedded in me) that it was excruciating to exit. I lied for a long time after I stopped believing. A little to myself, and a lot to everyone else, but my devoutly religious partner knew from day one, and thank goodness we were able to talk about it (kind of). But I sang the song and danced the dance, but I couldn't keep up the "multiple identities" aspect of it all. I'm not going to pretend that I understand what it's like to be queer, as I'm not - but I for the first time had an experience that turned some of the sympathy to empathy as I struggled with the way people saw me and them loving me for something I haven't let them in on. I was diagnosed with PTSD last year from the whole thing, and am treating it with antidepressants and Ketamine therapy, but I have a lot of work to do before I can say that I'm happier after leaving. Would I leave again if I had to? Yeah. I don't think happiness is a solid metric to base your life after, so I measure on "was it worth it" and the answer is always yes. And bro, the earth was 7000 years old, get your facts straight /s.