"The reverse is certainly true as well. What if the source of the help you are relying on does not actually exist?"

In one basic sense ... what any type of "faith" is doing is working to remove doubt. One of the basic strengths of an organized faith is that it stops peoples' thought patterns from "going all over the map". Fear does tend to mak people think "wild and crazy thoughts" - which are highly disruptive to a positive thought pattern that can produce effective answers. These wild and crazy thoughts are not WRONG. They are the result of our subconscious mind bubbling up its own inputs into our conscious mind. Fear really unlocks the barriers between the conscious and the subconscious. For this same reason - these wild and crazy thoughts can be very hard to control.

Therefore ... you need your own "mental system" that gets your thoughts onto an organized track. It's a bit like putting a steam locomotive onto a set of rails ... now it has a place to go. If you can get your mind onto a system ... you can get to a place in your head where you are thinking constructively again.

I have tried to phrase these last two responses so they are helpful for ALL people on the forum. Anybody can get into a crisis - we all need methods to get out. :-)

Pete2