Thankfully for me, I have avoided most one-on-one interaction so that I haven't had to defend myself as of yet, but I have practiced it in my head a lot of times. If the conversation is such that probing questions are being asked about why I am inactive by people who I fairly recently had intimate friendship with (so I know their questions are sincerely an effort to reach out to me) I plan to tell them how much I adore them and how much I appreciate that their questions are out of sincere interest in helping me, but that I don't want to discuss my spirituality with anyone. I am hoping that even if I have to just repeat that phrase a few times, followed by redirecting the conversation to another topic, it will keep me from saying something I might regret. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore than my fade does hurt them and I don't want to say anything that will cause me to be placed in a category by the friends my comments might be shared with. If I give any reason for my inactivity, I'll either be labeled as depressed, discouraged, stumbled, apostate, faithless, etc., and I don't want to give them anything to repeat that would plug me into one of those labels. I also want to be careful to avoid saying anything that communicates that I want helped out of my slump or that if they care they will continue to reach out to help me. I don't want to give them the impression that on another day, I would feel like talking about it. It is a tricky issue. I play it out in my head a lot. Hope it goes well for you O.M.
L4P