Nobody intends to join a cult. One day, you realize you are in one, and then you panic—because now you have to make a choice. Leaving means you are going to have to give up your entire life. You could lose your friends, your support system, and sometimes your family. Everything you knew about the world and how life works is now questionable. Staying means you live every day in a lie, pretending to believe when you know that you don’t, and slowly you start to go crazy. You want to re-enter normal society, but as you do, you realize how much of yourself was given up while you were immersed inside.
This is such a well written and accurate analysis of what is going on with our teens. They are in a cult, and they can't logic themselves out of it. Question to the author--how did you realize you were in a cult? What prompted you to leave? I hope you will write another essay on this subject. I also hope there is a way to highlight the older essays now that the readership has grown in the last 6 months. This piece deserves more reads! <3
I recognize both cults described here. I grew up in the same cult as the author, and I remember the way knowledge of our persecution bonded us together even tighter. It seems the more bizarre the belief, the more cognitive dissonance it requires, the intensity of the "suffering" being experienced by the group together, the stronger the sense of belonging. I left the described cult in my early 20s, a thousand miles from my family. This new cult is everywhere. We've tried to escape it, even by moving to another (red) state. I can only imagine the courage it will take for my incredibly bright child to allow herself to use her brilliant mind to see the ideology that has captured her and step away from what seems an evolutionary need to be tied so tightly to a "tribe." We need new and better ways to create this sense of belonging!
It's bad enough to see your child captured by a cult. Seeing the culture around you celebrate that makes it worse. The end of this nightmare and the reckoning that follows can't come soon enough.
The fact that there are so many of us parents and so many young people who escaped the cult who are now telling their stories gives me hope that our day is coming.
This cult cannot survive people waking up to the truth.
What a moving account. When I say this is a cult (albeit a cult supported by mainstream society and its authoritative bodies: schools, government, doctors and other healthcare providers, and media), it doesn't carry much weight. After all, what would I know? I'm just an ignorant adult, probably a "transphobe" who can't admit it. However, when someone who was actually raised in a cult and escaped recognizes this, I don't see how that warning can be ignored. Please speak out more and more. Your wise words will help. The one question I have is - what made you realize that you were in a cult, or, more aptly, what made you realize the people around you were living a lie?
Right on target. Thank you for spelling it out. Yes indeed why are liberals supporting this? Why are doctors?
Why are those who supposedly follow science now parroting that there should be no debate, no examination of evidence for medical and psychological interventions, looking at what is known (very little) just thought stopping pronouncements like "no debate"? This is not how you make medical decisions..... except for those with this belief.
This is such a true account. So many parents in our support group have reported that if they try to give sound evidence that supports their concerns, the more their adult child digs in against them, making it an me v the family situation. Most hurtful of all, they mock their own parents on their social media accounts. It's very sad because none of the therapists dig in and ask important questions about past traumas, depression or anxiety that most often lead to the worship of the trans god.
This is such a well written and accurate analysis of what is going on with our teens. They are in a cult, and they can't logic themselves out of it. Question to the author--how did you realize you were in a cult? What prompted you to leave? I hope you will write another essay on this subject. I also hope there is a way to highlight the older essays now that the readership has grown in the last 6 months. This piece deserves more reads! <3
https://purplesagefem.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/on-leaving-the-trans-cult/
Thanks so much for this article. May I translate it to our website? We are a Brazilian campaign against ´transing´ kids.
Unfortunately it´s worldwide, this cult.
I recognize both cults described here. I grew up in the same cult as the author, and I remember the way knowledge of our persecution bonded us together even tighter. It seems the more bizarre the belief, the more cognitive dissonance it requires, the intensity of the "suffering" being experienced by the group together, the stronger the sense of belonging. I left the described cult in my early 20s, a thousand miles from my family. This new cult is everywhere. We've tried to escape it, even by moving to another (red) state. I can only imagine the courage it will take for my incredibly bright child to allow herself to use her brilliant mind to see the ideology that has captured her and step away from what seems an evolutionary need to be tied so tightly to a "tribe." We need new and better ways to create this sense of belonging!
It's bad enough to see your child captured by a cult. Seeing the culture around you celebrate that makes it worse. The end of this nightmare and the reckoning that follows can't come soon enough.
The fact that there are so many of us parents and so many young people who escaped the cult who are now telling their stories gives me hope that our day is coming.
This cult cannot survive people waking up to the truth.
What a moving account. When I say this is a cult (albeit a cult supported by mainstream society and its authoritative bodies: schools, government, doctors and other healthcare providers, and media), it doesn't carry much weight. After all, what would I know? I'm just an ignorant adult, probably a "transphobe" who can't admit it. However, when someone who was actually raised in a cult and escaped recognizes this, I don't see how that warning can be ignored. Please speak out more and more. Your wise words will help. The one question I have is - what made you realize that you were in a cult, or, more aptly, what made you realize the people around you were living a lie?
Right on target. Thank you for spelling it out. Yes indeed why are liberals supporting this? Why are doctors?
Why are those who supposedly follow science now parroting that there should be no debate, no examination of evidence for medical and psychological interventions, looking at what is known (very little) just thought stopping pronouncements like "no debate"? This is not how you make medical decisions..... except for those with this belief.
This is such a true account. So many parents in our support group have reported that if they try to give sound evidence that supports their concerns, the more their adult child digs in against them, making it an me v the family situation. Most hurtful of all, they mock their own parents on their social media accounts. It's very sad because none of the therapists dig in and ask important questions about past traumas, depression or anxiety that most often lead to the worship of the trans god.