I am a 15 year old with differing religious views from my mother, who is Christian. I don't hate religion like my mother has come to believe, I am just not personally religious myself and she has taken this a very wrong way...
In detailing this question, I will try not to make too many assumptions about how my mother thinks, I try to keep it with in the realm of how she acts around this issue which leads me to more solid evidence in how she thinks.
This problem has been ongoing for several years now (around 4 or 5), and hasn't gotten any better despite my attempts to try and improve it. She just simply will not accept my beliefs no matter what. My assumption is that in her eyes, "improving" this issue would be for my beliefs to change to her own, and from what I can see this is the only option for her.
This might sound like a minor issue at first; a small religious difference between two people, but she cares heavily about what I believe and her in eyes I will not be successful in life unless I believe in and love God. She has stated this multiple times directly to me over the years, and even to our counselor, and other non-religious people.
She has told me, she has never in her life doubted the existence of God, which I personally have no issue with. The issue arises in her thinking that if you don't believe in God, you are evil and will not be successful in life, and since I am her son this scares her. This, in combination with her communication-dominate tendencies, leads some some serious issues between not only her, but our whole family.
This "fragmented communication" is essentially just her yelling over me whenever I want to communicate my ideas on the issue. She gets crazed, and yells over me when I try to speak my mind. She isn't particularly a quieter person, unlike me being very quiet. This repetitive yelling and put-downs (also with her husbands and boyfriends) and disapproval of my beliefs has lead me to depression, thoughts of suicide, self harm, drug use, etc. When she starts, she does NOT stop either... It will extend hours into the night, and sometimes she wont let me sleep either.
To make the matters even worse, she is almost always the one who starts these arguments. She is very passionate about her religious ideas and often tries to force them down on me in any random conversation we are having.
This has drove us very far apart, and I can hardly call us mother and son now, because it doesn't feel that way. Not only does it hurt me, but it is hurting her too. She has cried on several occasions, mentioned suicide a few times, and even prayed for me to believe countless times (as she has said this to me over and over).
Too me, this honestly feels psychopathic and like a form of manipulation, which I have finally come to realize over the years. She mentions suicide, but the only option she gives me is to conform to her own beliefs.
I really don't know what to do in this situation. Sometimes, the only option feels like moving far away when I'm 18 (with a person I'm in a secret relationship with, otherwise my mother would flip), but I don't feel like I can make it another 3 years.
I'm unable to move to other family members' homes because pretty much my whole family is religious, so they agree with her because she is the one telling the story, but they don't see the gross underbelly of this manipulation.