Donations Are Coming In!

I'm excited to report that donations have started coming in to make it possible for me to attend the workshop next weekend for Second Generation Adult survivors of high-demand groups. The first was from someone I met yesterday while selling One Step Away -- she actually made the donation from her phone while we were talking -- and more have been made since as a result of her passing the word to her friends. It's very gratifying to see that people are willing to help me address the ongoing issues affecting me as a result past cultic involvement.

I should mention that not too long ago I couldn't even have imagined doing something like this -- reaching out and asking others to help me get help for myself. For instance, in 2002, when I decided to go to Palestine to take part in the International Solidarity Movement, I read in a booklet for volunteers that one could raise funds for one's trip by holding a house party for friends. I thought it was lucky I had enough in the bank at the time, since I wouldn't even have thought of asking others to give me money personally, even though it was for a worthwhile purpose. But with the help both of talk therapy I've been receiving recently, and psycho-education in recent years under the auspices of the International Cultic Studies Association (of which the upcoming workshop would be a new installment, more specifically tailored to my background than the earlier ones), I've finally arrived at the point where I can see and present myself to others as having needs worthy of other people's support. In fact, yesterday I even started mentioning my being a cult survivor while selling the newspaper. Although I know there are still some people who lack understanding or sympathy on this issue, I felt ready to make myself vulnerable by talking about it, and thereby prove to myself that I can now handle the unpredictability of people's reactions.

I'm reminded of Albert Ellis's famous exercise in which he helped himself overcome social anxiety by approaching strangers and telling them he'd just been released from a mental institution and needed directions. I'd known about this for years but generally lacked the nerve to do anything similar. Now I can.