For a long time, I believed the answer was to try harder.
Be better.
Pray more.
Question less.
Silence the parts of me that didn’t fully understand.
But no amount of performance ever made me feel safe within myself.
Healing started when I stopped asking, “What’s wrong with me?”
and started asking, “What happened to me?”
This book was born from that unraveling.
From learning the difference between fear and faith.
Conditioning and conviction.
Pressure and peace.
And maybe most importantly… learning how to trust myself again.
I wrote the book I wish someone would’ve handed me years ago.
Divorcing Religion, Finding God releases July 7, 2026 ‼️ To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to Achearedd.com
#religioustrauma #healing #peaceful #deconstruction #exvangelical
Not because I was out doing horrible things.
Not because I was hurting people.
But because somewhere along the way, I learned that being human meant constantly falling short.
I thought fear was conviction.
I thought anxiety was the Holy Spirit trying to get my attention.
I thought peace was something you earned through obedience.
So much of my relationship with God was rooted in trying not to disappoint Him instead of actually feeling connected to Him.
And that kind of pressure changes you.
It teaches you to question yourself constantly.
To overanalyze every thought.
To feel guilty for simply existing as you are.
Healing has been learning that fear and faith are not the same thing.
I go even deeper on this topic in my new book Divorcing Religion, Finding God. Releasing on July 7, 2026 ‼️ To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to Achearedd.com
#religioustrauma #healing #peaceful #deconstruction #exvangelical
Some of us learned how to disappear long before we ever learned how to be loved.
We were taught that having needs was selfish.
That boundaries were rebellion.
That suffering made us holy.
So we abandoned ourselves trying to become “good.”
But losing yourself is not what God asked from you.
A huge part of healing has been learning the difference between surrender and self-erasure. And realizing that disconnecting from yourself is not the same thing as devotion.
I go even deeper into this in my new book Divorcing Religion, Finding God releasing July 7, 2026 ✨
Some of us were taught that silence was holiness.
That enduring pain without question was strength.
That naming what hurt us meant we were unforgiving, rebellious, or “too sensitive.”
But healing often begins the moment you stop protecting what wounded you.
There is courage in telling the truth about your story.
There is courage in grieving what you lost.
There is courage in admitting that something shaped you in ways you’re still unraveling.
And none of that makes you bitter.
It makes you honest.
It makes you free.
I go even deeper on this topic in my new book Divorcing Religion, Finding God. Releasing on July 7, 2026 ‼️ To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to Achearedd.com
#religioustrauma #deconstruction #healingjourney #exvangelical #faithdeconstruction
Almost 20 years ago it started with two crazy kids from Columbus, Ohio that fell madly in love from day 1. A few years later we made it official and brought our handsome, intelligent son into the world. Our family wasn’t quite complete and we gave it a go a few more times. 2 of the times ended in miscarriage, but the 3rd time was a charm and our beautiful intelligent daughter came into this world. I never thought I could love another human so deeply. So on this Mother’s Day I sit in gratitude for me and the love of my life finding our way to each other, choosing each other everyday, and the family that we have created and continue to build daily. Today, I CHOOSE to focus on the good and what I have been so blessed to experience in this life. @michaelredd@notardynfr@michaelreddii I love you endlessly and am so proud to share my life with all of you. You all are my reasons. Thank you for making me a mom. 💚
Leaving religion did not make me lose God.If anything, it made me search for Him more honestly.
The hardest part was not walking away from the system.It was unlearning the guilt that made me believe fear and shame were the same thing as faith.
Questioning was never the enemy of faith. In many ways, it became the foundation of it. A faith that cannot be questioned is often a faith built on fear, not truth.
Religion may require rules and structure, but relationship with God is personal. Real connection was never meant to be reduced to performance.
High control religious environments often confuse fear with devotion, teaching people that obedience, silence, and self-denial are the same as faith when in reality many are simply surviving systems built around control.
I deep dive into all of this more in my newest book, “Divorcing Religion & Finding God,” where I unpack deconstruction, religious trauma, and rebuilding a relationship with God outside of fear and performance. Releasing July 7th.
To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to
#religioustrauma #healing #peaceful #deconstruction
Sometimes your body is not warning you that you’re doing something wrong.
Sometimes it’s reacting to years of pressure, control, and conditioning.
And learning the difference between fear and truth can change your entire life.
I go even deeper on this topic in my new book Divorcing Religion, Finding God. Releasing on July 7, 2026 ‼️ To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to Achearedd.com
#religioustrauma #healing #fearofgod #deconstruction #exvangelical
Internal authority is always greater than external validation…everything you need is already inside of you. You don’t have to look any further than the reflection of yourself in the mirror.
@briannawiest
#deconstruction #religioustrauma #healing #peace #exvangelical
The very things that once broke you…
become the places you learn the most compassion, the most awareness, the most truth.
Not because the pain was necessary…
but because you chose to face it.
If you’ve ever felt like your story disqualified you,
it doesn’t.
Sometimes it’s the very thing that allows you to show up for others in a way you couldn’t before 🤍
I go even deeper on this topic in my new book Divorcing Religion, Finding God. Releasing on July 7, 2026 ‼️ To join the waitlist visit the 🔗 in my bio or go to Achearedd.com
#religioustrauma #healing #peaceful #deconstruction #exvangelical
