It doesn’t have to be always like this, but it seems to me that the process of conversion often includes installing some kind of threat. “If you stop following the rules, all these wonderful and friendly people will suddenly leave you alone, and also you will suffer horrible pain in the hell.” So a mind of a converted person automatically adds a feeling of danger to sinful thoughts.
The process of deconversion would then mean removing those threats. For example, by being gradually exposed to sinful thoughts and seeing that there is no horrible consequence. Realizing that you have close friends outside the religious community who won’t leave you if you stop going to the church, etc.
More generally: less freedom vs more freedom. (An atheist is free to pray or visit a church, they just see it as a waste of time. A religious person can skip praying or church, but it comes with a feeling of fear or guilt.)
It doesn’t have to be always like this, but it seems to me that the process of conversion often includes installing some kind of threat. “If you stop following the rules, all these wonderful and friendly people will suddenly leave you alone, and also you will suffer horrible pain in the hell.” So a mind of a converted person automatically adds a feeling of danger to sinful thoughts.
The process of deconversion would then mean removing those threats. For example, by being gradually exposed to sinful thoughts and seeing that there is no horrible consequence. Realizing that you have close friends outside the religious community who won’t leave you if you stop going to the church, etc.
More generally: less freedom vs more freedom. (An atheist is free to pray or visit a church, they just see it as a waste of time. A religious person can skip praying or church, but it comes with a feeling of fear or guilt.)