“LIA was telling me on a daily basis that a loss of self meant a gain in virtue, and a gain in virtue meant I was drawing closer to God and therefore closer to my true heavenly self. But the means to that end – self-loathing, suicidal ideation, years of false starts – could make you feel lonelier, and less like yourself, than you’d ever felt in your life.”

“LIA was telling me on a daily basis that a loss of self meant a gain in virtue, and a gain in virtue meant I was drawing closer to God and therefore closer to my true heavenly self. But the means to that end – self-loathing, suicidal ideation, years of false starts – could make you feel lonelier, and less like yourself, than you’d ever felt in your life.”

— Garrard Conley