I don't know if this will help, but you mention one aspect of religions' trap which is common: "First and foremost leaving Islam by itself was a grieving process for me because I had invested so much time, effort, energy, money, thought, passion and devotion to this religion." Note the admission -- "invested."

It does not hold true for all religious believers because many are simply followers, intellectually lazy as hell -- blinder wearing bordering on insanity -- and as I said, "lazy" intellectually. Including those, the ungodly many, that put inheritied beliefs before truth/fact/reality.

Those who say "Your factual evidence won't matter because it won't change what I believe" are not worth one minute of your time on planet earth.

Basically, you became an aspostate because, intellectually, you are not intellectually lazy and you decided also not to blindly follow -- to willingly lose your inherited nose ring and jerk chain.