45 People Who Escaped From Cults Are Sharing What Their Breaking Points Were

Ex-Jehovah’s Witness here.

My first hint that something was wrong was the amount of control exerted in our day to day lives. No beards, no long hair for men, no tattoos or piercings, no shirts with “edgy” artwork like band shirts or shirts with skulls, no entertainment they don’t approve of, etc. Other witnesses are trained to report you to the elders if you’re not following their guidelines, such as if you have a position of respect in the congregation but someone sees that you have a rated R movie, they’ll report you to the elders and you could lose your position and good standing, which will change the way the congregation treats you.

What really tipped it over the edge for me though was their doctrine that all non-witnesses deserve to die at Armageddon by gods hand, simply for not being witnesses. Armageddon is supposed to be urgently imminent, and over 99.9% of the world will die just because they’re not witnesses. That didn’t sit right with me. I had been working in retail for some time, and the people I worked with were every bit as intelligent, compassionate and loving as any witness I knew.

Eventually, these issues became too great for me to bear, and I committed the ultimate sin, researching information that criticizes the religion. We were taught to be terrified of anything that remotely criticizes the religion and it’s leaders. I finally pushed against that fear and did the research. Woke up instantly. Realized why they taught us to fear “apostate” information so much, it’s because they know it’s all true and they don’t want us to see it

When I realized that God does not use flaming swords to force little girls to shag old dudes.

When I realized that any of those old dudes could still technically ask for me or my daughter as a “spiritual wife” and we’d have no choice.

When a devout member very seriously told her son that she’d rather have him graduate from the Church’s education program than from high school. (Seminary gives neither credit, nor real world experience—It’s just brainwashing.)

When the same member told me that—though it might be hard—she’d offer her children up like Abraham did with Isaac, in a heartbeat, if the Prophet commanded it.

When I realised that medication and painkillers existed, that other people gave them to their children when they were sick, and that my parents could have helped me when I was suffering but chose not to.
And that watching television doesn't make someone a bad person haha.

When I found out I was gay and because of that, I would forever burn in hell, regardless the fact I didn't choose to be gay.

When they told members to park behind the church to hide their cars so they wouldn’t get reported for gathering during the height of the pandemic.

Then they made the choir sign NDA’s over hymns.

Then got really control-y during online services. They made you angle your camera a specific ways, wear certain clothes, not sit so close to your spouse etc

In a prayer, said they loved the leader of the church more than anyone else.

The pandemic really helped my family and I to step back and really examine the organization we dedicated our lives to

I realized it when I was told in order for me to reach the highest level of heaven I would have to participate in "The Blood Atonement" inside of The Mormon temple and that my husband would be required to have multiple wives to reach that same heaven.

I YEETED THE F**KITY F**K OUT!

When my step bro only had to pray for forgiveness after molesting me, no other actions were taken.

Raised in a cult in ireland knows as dippers ( cooneyites)

It was absolutely crazy and my family are all members and had to disown me and shone me when i came out as gay. The other members within the family discussed it and decided it was necessary to strip me of any inheritance and any relationship with my family and other members of our religion.

When I realized I had been running two versions of "truth" in my head my whole life. One was the empirical, fact-based reality we actually live in - the other was my church's version of that reality. One day, it clicked that both can't be true and I was living a lie.

I left and had to reevaluate how I wanted to live my life, and I found my genuine life.

I was fortunate to have a spouse who was not a member of my church to support me. My family, not so much.

My mom being like “we are NOT a cult! I mean sure ex members got hitmen sent after them a couple times but that does NOT define us!” Yeahhh Also the fact that even though me and my siblings repeatedly asked what our religion was, our parents refused to tell us until we were all 16-19 because they didn’t trust us to not look it up or tell other people.

Nothing is wrong. Our Supreme leader knows all and loves us all equally. Sure, he only has sex with the cute teenage girls, but that is his right and responsibility as the one true representative of God. May his seed be strong and plentiful.

I wasn’t supposed to make friends with any other kids unless they went to our church.

I was raised in a very strict manner by Church of Christ parents in an extremely legalistic Southern Baptist church. I was extremely sheltered, allowed only one movie (maybe) and one hour of TV a week, ONLY Christian movies, books, TV shows, radio, etc. I never interacted with kids outside of the church bubble, as my parents started a Christian school so that I "wouldn't have to go to the evil public school and be brainwashed."

For me it was when my pastor and my youth pastor took me aside during a church camp and said they were worried about my salvation as I hadn't led anyone in the sinners prayer and didn't go on "visitation," which was door knocking on Sunday afternoons to talk about Jesus. Instead, I played harp as part of the instrumental group every Sunday and Wednesday and sang in the choir when I wasn't playing, which practiced during the same time as visitation.

They basically told me that since I showed most of the other fruits of the spirit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc., they thought I was Christian but since I openly boycotted visitation and hadn't borne any of the "bringing new sheep into the flock" fruit by leading anyone in the sinners prayer, I couldn't possibly be a full Christian and they wanted me to work on that. I was 15! I never interacted with non-christians and was part of the instrumental group and choir which practiced during visitation! How could I do that if everyone I knew was already Christian??

It led to some serious questions, but I couldn't really do anything until I escaped to college 3 years later.

Not in a cult per say, but was in one of those evangelical megachurches. Started as a nice corner church; the piety was genuine.

I dont think that the pastor planned the whole thing - he seemed a genuine preacher until the church grew exponentially. Like went from a few hundred members to 15,000 in less than 2 years. Then his main focus was maintaining (entertaining) the masses, which drove him to do stupid things.

Many weird things started happening. Especially, one day he "had a revelation" that the congregation needs to expand further and members have to, I am serious, give out all the GOLD they were wearing. I know a lady that got into serious trouble with her husband because she gave away her gold wedding band.

My last straw was when he promoted himself to Apostle and renamed himself "Paul". Apostle Paul. Okay.

My church made me throw away all of my first edition hard cover Harry Potter books because they were “evil”

I wasn’t even allowed to sell them, so that I wouldn’t cause others to “stumble”

I think about it probably once a week...

Raised in a very culty Church of Christ congregation. At 13 I realized how judgmental everybody was and that nothing anybody did ever seemed like enough. I began suffering from depression because I realized nothing I do will ever be enough. I tried to be perfect but it was never good enough for the church or for "God." I noticed the gossip and negative attitudes toward one another when backs were turned, but when speaking to each other everybody pretended they weren't just talking s**t about them. I noticed it was unusual that we were not allowed to hang out with anyone other than people who were in our church. Was weirded out when people from church starting arriving at my house unannounced and inviting themselves in to talk about my church attendance recently. Noticing the s**tty attitude and weird social rules of the church was eventually followed by realized none of it made logical sense, either, as I slowly became a lover of science.

When my other friends came to my church for the first time. Most of my friendships were isolated to church members until middle school.

I started going with my other christian friends to their churches which were all similar to each other. When they came to mine they were uncomfortable and they all started telling me my church was weird.

Around 13 years old a friend's mother asked me a few questions about my church and I had recently gotten the internet so I started asking questions at my church, and the questions were not welcome.

My church was an offshoot, home based, from what is known as "The Way" ministries.

Recently a coworker told me a long story about almost getting indoctrinated to a cult while he was in college. I mentioned how it sounded like "The Way" and his eyes lit up.

When I learned that, if a women was going to be raped, it would be better for her to kill herself than risk having her “blood lineage” tainted.

When I started attending a school run by my cult after years in public school and it wasn't just the rules that were different, but the social norms.

Example: only allowed to sleep 5 hours a night. Intense bullying for talking to boys after breaking up with my boyfriend. Odd forms of physical/psychological punishment when students broke rules. Being taught that masturbation is unhealthy, that getting piercings put holes in your aura (that can only be filled with diamonds lol), and that sleeping with men puts holes in a woman's arc line (which impacts her ability to bond with her infant).

Most of the things were relatively benign at the beginning. Rumours floating around over the years were always dismissed as people trying to disparage the image of our teacher, or profit financially, or they were 'crazy'. It wasn't until the beginning of last year when the truth about the abuse and corruption in the community started to surface!

When I heard myself saying, "I'm so lucky I was born into the right religion."