How I did it: With the help of a loving, dependable, caring person who talked to me, didn't judge and asked the right questions.

I started talking with a person who the church would have found utterly inappropriate, so that should I decide to stay, I could blame him for supressing me into bad behavior. He asked me to explain the church and it's teachings to him. When I found that my explainations could not hold up to even the simplest of questions, I knew that something was very, very wrong. Once I was able to assure myself that I was better off away from them, I left persistently. I kept track in a journal of what I did to followo thier rules and carefully pointed out that I had followed instructions and was not getting the "right" result. I made myself less available to come in for Session. Then I started letting people know that I had done what they asked, and felt it was my right to leave. I kept telling that story to anyone who would listen. Then I got someone high up in the church to believe me. So they let me go. I had known from the begining that the only way to leave that group was to get asked to leave, either by being declared an enemy or just written off as a lost cause. They scare me shitless, and I do not want to be thier enemy, so I made myself a lost cause. I went to a pyschiatrist, "attempted" suicide, and took an antidepressant so that I would be absolutly, positively a lost cause. They don't want me anymore and they don't see me as a threat.

Lessons & tips: Be careful. Know, and trust the truth in your heart before making any changes. Have faith (ha!) that, regardless of what they say, you know better than they do what's really best for you.

Resources: Captive Hearts, Captive Minds.

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Jan 16, 2009, 08:11PM PST | 1 comment | 2 cheers