Religious obligations caused the worst flareup of my life and I'm so angry about it
I live in a country where it's illegal to leave this religion. We have a month where we have to fast. No water or food from dawn till dusk.
I have left the religion years ago, but I'm still forced to abide by it's customs. I still live with my family (It's heavily frowned upon to NOT live with family because of the religious extremism). So I pretend to fast every year, and I always have a flare because of it.
I snuck in breakfast and other food thats caters to my deficiencies in spite of having to pretend to fast but it wasn't enough. I tried my best to eat and I powered through the fatigue and pain and hoped I would be better once the month was over.
At the end of that month, I ended up having muscle pain so bad that I was struggling to walk. The past two months have been horrible. I'm trying my best to eat well. I'm taking suplements and meds, but I'm struggling so hard to be functional at work. I'm so exhausted.
The worst part is that the religious education here has brainwashes everyone to believe that fasting is benefitial for our health. Maybe it is benefitial for some, but not for all. In this country at least, we're still pressured to do this even when we're sick. Now that I'm fully diagnosed, I'm never fasting again. I'm going to adovocate for myself harder.
edit: I'm not blaming the religion, I'm more frustrated at the extremism in my country. The religion is not taught properly here, instead, it's twisted in a way that has created harmful social dynamics. Whatever you feel about religion, you all know that there are a lot of countries out there that take it too far.