From Take Back Your Life, p 230


(this woman was from a political group)

this woman actually had 3 stages:
1) The immediate crisis
2) Getting Back on my feet
3) Long Term Issues

What helped me in recovery:

*Having a close, trusting, and supportive relationship with my sister
who listened and did not judge.
*Being in contact with other ex-members, both new and old.
Our ad hoc group was critical to my recovery.
*Going to local support and education groups providing me with
information about cults and cult dynamics.
* Enjoying nature, music, art, books, and having fun.
* Giving myself permission to sleep and rest as much as I needed.
*Continuing to study thought reform
*Having a therapist willing to treat me as an equal, showing herself
as a human being rather than a god (the kind of overly rigid boundaries
Freudians promote).
*Being able to go to therapists and hand them copies of chapter from
various books on cults and social influence. I told the therapists they had to
read the handouts I gave them. If they were not willing, I didn’t go back.
*Enjoying a “be here, be now” mentality
*Working on projects where my skills and experience are valued.

What didn’t help:

*Seeing a therapist who dropped their mouth open when I began
telling her my story.
*Encountering therapists who didn’t know what they were dealing with and
weren’t open to learning.
*Being confronted with my mother’s judgemental, blaming, angry response.
*Assuming that when my husband got out, it would solve our problems
and make us better (even though the exit counselor had warned me about this).
*Encountering overly brief, practical problem-solving therapies; also pop
psychology.
*Seeing a therapist overly eager to prescribe drugs.
* Seeing a therapist who wanted to try hypnosis.
*Having people tell me to “get over it”. It takes a long time to get over
long term abuse.
*Lapsing into despair about the lost years.
*Getting stuck in the feelings of isolation and lack of community.
*Finally, I firmly believe that we have to keep telling our stories because
through them, we will all understand more and more about these issues.
Primo Levi, an Italian writer and survivor of Auschwitz, has much to
Say to those interested in totalism and power abuse.

on a personal side note, I have found all of these things to be true, esp in the therapist area.
I have encountered 7 in this area alone
(near Yelm), and not ONE has ANY experience in cohersive persuasive groups.
All were reluctant to look at any information and thought I should take it up
from a more "business" aspect.
I said, "Jeezuz, this group is right here.
If the bottom falls out, there is going
to be a whole lot of people with scrambled
brains around here."
There has only been one psychiatrist in the area who has seen several ex students
come through with varying degree of dis-
orders.
I would also like to add to the
"what helped" list:

1)keeping some sort of daily physical activity to keep one
connected to their body and mind.
This has helped me immensely.
Walking might not work for some, esp
if one associates it with
"the neighborhood walk."
2) make a list of even the tiniest things
to accomplish in the day.
3) when words(aka triggers) come up associated with RSE,
make a list, and look them up in the dictionary. Give
different and proper definitions to them, NOT associated
with the group.
4) No music worked best for me at first.
After a while, I started with very different music, not at all assoicated with
the Ranch.In fact, David has several
artisticly well done CD's he has produced
himself
5) Keeping in touch with this forum

Tree