Posted by Tovah on October 6, 2003, at 16:19:42
Leaping onto this board for the first time so let's see what happens. I have some spare time for a period of time so have been exploring various faith-related boards.
Quick synopsis of my situation -
I was raised nominally Methodist, but felt strongly in a higher power from my earliest childhood. In high school I got more interested in religion and joined a Lutheran church because that is where my friends attended.
In college I got mixed up with Campus Crusade for Christ and began attending a fundamentalist church that led me to believe that I had never actually been Christian because my church had liberal beliefs, and what's more, that everyone in my life that I loved and cared about were destined for eternal hell.
After realizing that I could not "save" them I fell into a deep depression and developed OCD symtoms around religion.
Quit going to church and obsessed about it for more than 10 years, but read everything I could get my hands on, trying to find the "right" religion. Eventually became suicidal over religious discernment and was hospitalized.
Met (of all people!) a minister on leave from the Eastern Orthodox Christian church and dated him, and got to know about the church. For many theological reasons I won't explain here (unless someone specifically asks), came to believe wholeheartedly. Married the fellow, and he went back to the active ministry (we have a small mission church).
Underwent Christian counseling and found the right combination of meds that lifted my depression and the OCD symptoms so I could beging to develop a legetimate faith. Now very thankful for my faith but respectful of those who are still struggling or have difficulty in deciding what to believe.
Faith made me sick, and then it made me well.
poster:Tovah
thread:266053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20030908/msgs/266053.html