In Reply to: Re: I concur posted by my thoughts on February 12, 2005 at 08:53:26:
There are a lot of things working for me now. One of them is being part of the online support group we have here on the boards. I'm very much a believer in self help and support groups.
Check out the Cult Survivors Handbook by Nora J. Muster: http://surrealist.org/norimuster/handbook.html
For example Nora refers to 12 Step AA &/or Al Anon groups. This has been mentioned here on the board before. As Fam members we renounced our biological parents and adopted Berg as our father, a self confessed alcoholic who never experienced genuine recovery. Zerby/Smith was the archetypal co-dependent partner. We called her “mama” and Berg “dad”. Al Anon groups are support groups for family members of an alcoholic parent –the suffering is known to be long term. Our Fam experience has many common factors to what children of an alcoholic parent suffer from, even when they become adults. At an Al Anon group a former Family member would identify simply with “my adoptive father was an alcoholic”. Of course if you have any problems controlling alcohol &/or substance intake, I’d suggest going straight to an AA or NA group, the steps works great for the addiction recovery and simultaneously for recovery from Family cult experiences.
The other suggestions Nora makes are very good too. As far as I’m concerned whatever works, if religion works for your recovery wonderful, whether it be Christian or pagan. If it takes therapy then so be it, or a combination of things.