When I let go of my belief in God, my mental health improved immensely. I became more proactive in dealing with problems head on, and while not all my issues are completely healed (it's can be a bit lonely as an atheist in Ohio with social anxiety, lol), I find it a lot easier to make sense of things.

I've suffered from severe depression and social anxiety since I was a child. So while being an atheist has had some positive effects, there are some negative push backs. For one, we are a small minority of people in the U.S. without any real common population centers that I know of. There is simply a lack of the same sort of social structure that is provided by being part of a religion. Religion is such a pervasive part of our society that it can feel lonely and overwhelming, especially considering how much open hostility is shown towards atheists still.

But the question really wasn't whether being religious (or not) correlated with mental health. It was how one's concept of a god and how that concept could be used to more effectively provide treatment.

For you, understanding how you came to atheism and what that means to you would be the important thing, not whether you are religious or not.

Pretty good stuff.

Hope you are feeling well and finding what you need. It's not easy, I know.

Admittedly, I was being lazy and didn't read the link so I was mostly going by the bit you posted I'll bookmark and read the rest.

Enjoy!

To my understanding, getting someone to where they need to be is the goal of contemporary therapy.