Polls
I wonder how many visitors of my blogs have been in cults or abusive churches and how many of them have their significant others there. Also, I am interested to know how many of those who left cults had any therapy or counseling. So, I created three polls with these questions. All the polls are completely anonymous. Multiple choices are allowed there because I understand that there may be various situations. I disabled cookies in order to allow family members to vote from the same computer. However, please do not vote more than one time for each person. I will be thankful to all the people who will participate in the polls. You can leave your comments regarding these polls, using the comment form below. Anonymous comments are allowed. All the suggestions will be appreciated.
Anonymous said
completed poll
Lema Nal said
Thank you.
Alexandra Amor said
Hi Lema,
Great idea to have these polls on your site. Brilliant! And I’m happy to have found the web site of another cult survivor.
Warmly,
Alexandra Amor
Author: Cult, A Love Story
Lema Nal said
Hi Alexandra,
Thank you. Nice to meet you (if I can say so about online contacts – I am not a native English speaker). I like to experiment and invent something new, so the polls are one of these experiments. :)
April Galamin said
Great website!!
Lema Nal said
Thank you!
shane said
Just voted.
Hope it helps.
Lema Nal said
Thank you for voting.
Patty said
I’m a cult survivor. It was very small bible study based. 2 are still in and continue to be decieved. It is heart wrenching!
Lema Nal said
Hi Patty, it’s good that you are out. I wish your loved ones or friends to leave also. Many people eventually leave cults. So, do not lose hope.
Patty said
Thank you very much Lema, we can no lose hope. We pray that they will come to see when they look back over the years how decieved they were and come to realize thy are the only 2 left and all their family and friends are hoping and praying.
Jill said
Therapy for former cult members is a great idea. But what do you do when the person who was in a cult is in denial and feels that they don’t need therapy? My daughter is functional – holds a job, pays all bills, appears fairly normal – but it is obvious to all family members that she is in dire need of therapy. What then? She has cut herself off from the family and is thousands of miles away but we have someone keeping an eye on her. She refuses to come home. How do we get her into therapy if she keeps avoiding us?
Lema Nal said
Well, not all the ex-members of cults need therapy. Many of them recover by themselves and there are people who were not seriously damaged by cults. On the other hand, some cults induce phobias regarding therapy and it frustrates ex-members of them from seeking therapy.
Ex-cult members may get help by reading about cults and post-cult recovery. There are many helpful books. One of them is Recovery from Abusive Groups by Wendy Ford.
Dr. Margaret Singer who interviewed thousands of ex-cult members wrote in Cults in Our Midst, chapter 12:
Even if your daughter does need therapy, she may still get help by self-education. It will help her to understand better what happened with her in the cult, what her problems and needs are and how to deal with them. Through the self-education, she may also realize that she needs therapy (if she needs it).
Although many ex-cult members who get therapy are benefited by it, some do not get any help from therapy and in some cases therapists may even damage their clients. Before hiring a therapist, I would recommend to read this article or the whole book “Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? by Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich.