what do athiests do when they hit rock bottom without friends or family?
this question is for athiest
and or people who are not spiritual
or believe any spirituality at all (not saying all athiests are like that, because i know someone is gonna protest me saying that )
but for people who trully believe
this is it in life
i have to ask
when you were at your lowest of low
be it
depression
alcohol
or drug addiction
and had trully no one you could find to reach out a kind hand or kind word to help you thru your difficult time
what did you do to help yourself get thru it
now while many would just say
o my friends and family
now please just imagine if you didnt have any friends and your family hated you
or
imagine what it would be like to be an addict who’s family has given up on you
what would you want to cling to in a sense for a little bit of hope
that you will be able to make it thru this
RELIGIOUS OR NOT
i am not asking this to imply that jesus or any other religion is going to cure everything
but just interested as
alot of former addicts and people who have hit the lowest point in their life
say they had religion or something of that nature help them thru that difficult time
and help turn their life around
im just interested to see
for people who dont believe in any spirituality, or religion or any concept of god
and have trully hit rock bottom
and have no friends or family to turn to
what would you do to help you thru this situation
Ok again for people who are defending the fact saying
“i have great friends and family ”
please read the damn question again
and THINK ABOUT IT
it is not a bashing on you or your friends or your family
and NO i am not sayin just because you are athiest means you dont have friends
READ THE QUESTIONS
its part hypothetical
because
obviously most of the answers on here
are some of the dumbest ones ive ever heard from people who call themselves athiest
This was for people who have hit rock bottom and or been an addict
spongesquare
and gentelman jack
you two were the ONLY ones on here who seemed to understand the concept of the question
and for that i thank you
the rest of you who keep defending the fact that you have “GREAT FRIENDS AND FAMILY ”
defend it till its blue in the face
i really dont care
you are missing the point of the question all together
Tagged with: athiests • bottom • Family • friends • Rock • They • without
Filed under: Alcohol Depression Cures
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What?
Atheists have no friend or family? What the heck are you saying?
The same thing everyone else does, except without the imaginary friends.
So you want me to imagine I’m xtian??
If you want to see people at their lowest, check all the people in prison..apparently god worshipers like yourself dominate our prison..talk to them and see what they say
edit:
I’m not going to cling to imaginary gods to get me through life
I’m stronger than that
who cares about stupid atheists anyway?
i listen to some metallica or something
I’d hit up Secular Sobriety.
Also, I’ve already dug my way out of at least minor holes with drugs in the past without telling my family nor really having any close friends at that time.
You seem to be emphasizing an impressive amount of hypotheticality. I have a great family and friends, so I can’t speak to that issue… I’ve never had a drug/alchohol addiction so I can’t help you there.
When I’m at my lowest, I think “get your act together man, you’re on limited time here”. No amount of spiritual reassurances or panderings can give you the swift kick in the butt that realizing you only have a limited amount of time to make your mark can.
I have both friends and family…when I was at my lowest (I don’t know if I’ve ever been even near “rock bottom”), I got help from those friends and family, I worked on my problems, and I solved them much faster than someone else who waits for help from some imaginary sky genie.
Help myself.
same way i do everything else. i dont depend on my friends and family for any of my problems. i depend on myself… they have enough problems without dealing with mine too. if im in the gutter i crawl my azz out.
they go in with their ignorant and proud ways not being able to accept they aren’t the highest form of intelligence. and believe they figured everything out.
..Actually, it seems like most people aren’t able to deal with loneliness very well. We have tons of social instincts, and we need interactions with other humans because of it. That goes for religious people as well. Can you honestly say you would NOT be miserable if you had NO friends or family members who cared about you..? Would your belief in your deity alone, without ANY social community to attend be good enough for you? I very much doubt it.
Anyway, I’m actually quite a loner, personally. I’m not *completely* secluded and withdrawn, but I’ll admit that I definitely don’t get as much social contact as I would like, and I absolutely hate that. However, I still manage to cope, somehow. I waste time online, listen to music, watch movies, read, sleep, eat junk food, etc. It’s not ideal, but it isn’t exactly killing me either.
Set goals, come up with a plan, implement the plan. Get out of trouble. Funny how that pretty much ALWAYS WORKS, while prayer is basically hit or miss. Another useful strategy is to start doing something about your problems BEFORE you hit rock bottom. Why wait? I usually start fixing things when the situation gets to be mildly uncomfortable, or sooner.
You know, most of us have friends and family and stuff, too. You make it sound like atheists have no social contacts, or something, making me think you have a pretty warped view of rational people.
To be honest with you, my depression was what pushed me away from religion a few years ago.
Take from that what you will.
Commit suicide without fear of eternal damnation
basically what theists do, but without ‘god’.
There’s always the internet, for one. I can talk to people who aren’t my friends, but might be able to help me. I could make some new friends in real life, if I had the willpower to. Of course I could get a psychologist; that one’s obvious. I could learn new coping skills, such as meditation or art. I could have internal conversations with imagined characters in my head, which I already do sometimes.
I have yet to hit rock bottom and not have family and friends for support.
And this is coming from someone who has been diagnosed with psychiatric issues including suicide attempts.
If I had no friends and no family then I am assuming I would rely upon strangers or acquintances.
My therapist would be the most obvious one but I have also found strangers to be very kind.
A few times I have started to just randomnly cry on a subway train and each time, I have been offered comfort by strangers.
I mean this is going to sound incredibly cheesy but even when I am feeling very low, what always cheers me up is other people. I love the feeling of how compassionate people can be and how they can all come together for one thing. I dont know how to explain it but suffice it to say, I recognize the good in people and this gives me hope.
So rather than placing my faith in imaginary beings, I place my faith in humans, who though flawed, can also be amazing.
You’re saying if we lost them or we were depressed and couldn’t “see them”?
The same thing theists do without the “reaching out for our spiritual beliefs” part.
Luck.
When I have been at the lowest points in my life, I have always had family and friends to help me through it. Why do you believe atheists don’t have friends and family? Did Pastor tell you that?
And as a matter of fact, I do a lot of volunteer work for a drug rehab house. I have found that the more hooting and hollering they do about religion, the less likely it is that they’ll stay sober. Other sober people reach out to those who have lost all family and friends; once these have turned their lives around, they in turn reach out to the next new ones.
Honestly, religion is as much of a hinderance as a help. I speak as someone with 20 years sobriety WITHOUT a god.
On the contrary, I have no scarcity of friends and family. In fact, sometimes I wish they’d leave me the hell alone.
I think there are many atheists who, no matter what horrible difficulties they were struggling with, would never view religious faith as a possible place for help. For some of them, religious beliefs and practices would only make their struggles even worse.
That said, I understand your point, There are so many people (including myself) who have been enormously helped by religious faith, especially in time of extreme stress, suffering, and sadness. When my youngest daughter had to spend three months in the ICU as a baby, I was overwhelmed by the love I felt from people of all faiths (as well as atheists), and I sincerely feel that the stress would have gotten the best of me without the presence of God in my life.
I am not one who would insist that non-believers (like my father) need to do things my way. I would hope, however, that atheists would begin to understand the power of faith/God/Truth to transform people and communities, especially in times of distress (the Civil Rights movement comes to mind).
I hope you get some good answers. Thanks for the question. Peace.
so your asking will desperation drive us to delusional thinking? will hard times and strife make us resort to wishful thinking and talking to ourselves?
In my experience its the people who dont understand “why is god doing this to me” that suffer from depression, while atheists and other people with well adjusted world views recognize that sometimes bad things happen and that there is nothing hard work and perseverence cant overcome…. when you “let go and let god” and things dont improve… you despair…. when we tighten our belts and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we see what Mankind is capable of. Religious people turn to god to solve their problems for them…. atheists are problem solvers by their very nature. People who feel that god has let them down or abandoned them turn to drugs or alcohol…. atheists are high on life …. if you need a crutch like drugs or alcohol to deal with your life, you’ll need a crutch like god to deal with your drugs and alcohol… atheists have 2 good legs and dont use crutches…
I’m sorry, I just dont think atheists ever hit a rock bottem because their intellectual nature doesnt ever lead them in that direction
That’s like asking what you do about sexual release when there are only others around of your same sex but you’re not gay – or all there is to make you feel better is drugs, but you’re not a druggie –
It’s a resource you don’t have. You suffer. You reach out to other people. You work with the resources you do have. A lot of atheists think it is an indulgent cop out to embrace delusion in desperate times – or any times.
I gain courage from the fact I am alone, and if anyone is going to sort my mess out it has to be me, so I may as well just get on with dealing the situation I am in. No matter who is around to help or support you, the strength to crawl out of a pit of depression HAS to come from within.
I’ve only ever been addicted to tobacco, and as I’ve never tried to give it up, I cannot comment on what it’s like for addicts of illegal drugs.
I’ll say the same as many others: Why wouldn’t we have family or friends? We have plenty, just like any religious person. We’re normal people who wouldn’t be ditched when we hit a rough patch in life.
I suffer from unipolar depression and was suicidal for a long time. Practiced self harm and everything. It was the support of family members and friends that kept me going. The depression worsened to a point where even the thought of how my suicide would effect my family wasn’t enough to stop me. What got me through that was thinking: “I see all these people who are happy. Don’t I deserve to know what they find so appealing about life? Why they even bother to get up every morning? Why shouldn’t I get the chance to feel that way?” So it was the support of the people around me plus my own determination to find out what all the fuss was about life. Not suicidal any longer but still have a long way to go.
And I’m finding out gradually (without religion)
I’ve been through several horrific experiences, and I did reach that point – rock bottom – although not from any drug or alcohol abuse of my own. I had a family to turn to, but I didn’t want them to be too worried, so I hid my nightmare from them as best I could. My ‘friends’ disappeared, since they were largely my ex’s friends and they stuck by him and just left me alone.
I took one thing at a time and did the best I could to resolve the problems I faced. At no point did I wish that I had a god in my life to turn to or talk to, nor did I ever feel compelled to look for some kind of spiritual presence or “help” or anything. The most I did in that way was occasional mindfulness or lovingkindness meditation. I relied on my own efforts, my own common sense, my own strength, and my own hard work to pull myself up out of rock bottom, and depended on my own curiosity and will to survive to keep me moving forward.
Other times, when I’ve dealt with extreme stress or depression, I’ve found that therapy, yoga, and physical activity can help manage stress and deal with the problems that cause depression.
I’ve been an atheist for over thirty years, and in that time, I’ve never, ever felt the need of a god figure in my life, in either good times or bad.
@Asker, a lot of people tried to answer the question out of their own experiences – and those experiences involved friends and family. They weren’t being stupid…they were relating their own experiences to the fairly specific hypothetical situation you postulated.
…sorry, I’ve never hit “rock bottom”, and I have plenty of loyal friends and loving family..I also have a functioning brain that enables me to use logic when making decisions..therefore, I think before I act, which enables me to avoid making terrible decisions, saving me from problems even starting.
well its both difficult to answer and easy
they do the same thing as any believer who has no friends, family and is feling this way over life, the same thing any person will
usually turn to other means of coping, fantasy, other reality, doign things thats not so good, doing things that are better
most people, believers and not, go through times like that, and we are all still here
rock bottom is just a fact of life, its inevitible, there is a begining middle and end, top middle and bottom, and we will get to each stage at some point in our existence
you just try to make it through as best as you can