@SevaelSea

The "grew up in a cult" to "was in an abusive relationship without realizing it was abusive" pipeline is STRONG. Speaking from personal experience

@alch3myst

Hey, I’m from Utah and a counselor. Your story aboht getting sent to a “residential treatment center” that even further primed you for cult recruitment into what I have to assume is Mormonism just makes me sick. Yours is a story ive heard many times, after folks get older and find the courage to leave. For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you. Great video.

@Haleywambam

THANK YOU for being brave enough to call out MLMs for what they are: a dangerous CULT

@elizabethdumm8659

I'm not even 1/4 of the way through this essay and your commitment to citing your sources, even for simple graphics, is so impressive AND refreshing in an era where every other video seems to be an AI-compiled string of contextless scenes and a bland auto-generated script. Thanks for taking the time to share your perspective in an engaging and honest way :)

@OliverFrog

while i’m not in a cult, you have completely reframed how i look at survivors/victims of cults.

@skinnerld4182

I grew up in an extremely devout Mormon family, and left the church in my twenties. I'm what they call "pioneer stock", meaning my family has been Mormon on both sides for 7 generations. The cultural and familial ties that keep people in the church make sense to me, but I've never been able to quite wrap my head around why adult converts could come to believe a word of that weird nonsense. 

Thanks for sharing your story, helped me understand the other side of things.

@jjeez1977

I grew up in a cult, good video. Do not look past "non religious" cults, plenty of them exist as well. 
Thank you for the video

@phocarrot

People really underestimate the pull community can have. I grew up in a conservative Christian household and even though religion never sat right with me I knew leaving would completely change my relationships with everybody I grew up with. For a long time trying to play the part of good Christian seemed like a better option than losing all those connections. When I eventually left it was absolutely worth the cost, but the fear kept me in a miserable place for so long. Humans just want to be connected so badly and it's so easy to exploit.

@CharismaticMegafauna

Learning about cults was actually how I realized I was in an abusive relationship, since they act so similar, no? Being told I was being abused, or hearing people talk about abusive relationships didn't help, because I didn't conceive of what was happening to me as abuse. I thought I was just acting up and being a jerk and getting what I deserved. In actuality, I was letting my unhappiness slip to the surface and was reaching a breaking point where I couldn't take it anymore, and I didn't even know it. So I wouldn't remember the things this person did, like manipulating and pressuring me and hurting me, I was only remembering that I was reacting more negatively to it and starting to 'fight back' almost instinctively, and I was so bought in that I thought I was the problem, this person was perfect, and I just needed to suck it up and be happy again, even though this person straight up was not afraid to hurt me in front of other people. At the same time, I became interested in cults after learning about them in psychology courses. I was obsessed. I watched documentaries, read tons of books, read the blogs of cult survivors. And that was when it actually clicked. That I was in an abusive relationship with someone who had preyed on my insecurities, pretended to care about me, and then slowly, slowly turned up the heat to the point that I was willing to die for this person. By the time I left, this person had threatened my life. 

It isn't exactly the same as being a cult survivor, but I'm so grateful for the words of cult survivors for helping me realize what was happening to me. I'm fully convinced they saved my life. I had my whole future pinned on this person who I had invested years with, who I believed I would be nothing without. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I would have died if I didn't. But it is never too late to start over, and if people could find it in themselves to leave cults after investing 30, 40, hell, even 50 years and actually be happy, then there was no reason I couldn't start over after just four years, right? Thank you so much for making this video and sharing your experience. I was so sad to find that you only had one video, but I'm excited for your future projects!

@island4603

I was in a workcult. 
Red flags;
•Could not criticize or accept critical thinking 
•slim to non boundaries between work and private life
•Gifts all the time and fake praise 
•T-shirts and hoodies with company logo where preferred, as a kind of uniform 
•troubles and obstacles were swept under the rug 
•troubled, boundary-/law breaking employees were praised and good  professional critical thinkers were shunned away 
•The leader created a fantasy world where we had our own rules and cast away reality of the real world 
It’s so confusing when other members/employees are drinking the cool aide and chose fantasy over reality.

What I have learned is, you can’t change other people or make the see what they are not ready or interested in seeing. It’s not your job to save them and it’s a form of codependency if you keep trying. You just trust your own judgment and move away. They have their own reasons for staying and when they finally learn the truth, they will react out.

@micahw83

I was in something that could be called a cult.  It was a 'troubled teens' residential treatment center.  As I was 17 when I was sent there I just kept my eyes on my 18th birthday (most of the kids were no more than 16 so they had little hope of "aging out" anytime soon) and never complied with the very intense manipulation, threats, etc...  It gave me an interesting perspective as I would watch people transform over a period of a few months there, integrating the perspective the camp wanted them to have in to their psyche as their own.  Very disturbing and it led to tremendous PTSD and paranoia for well more than a decade afterwards.

Anyways, don't know why the algorithm brought me here but I'm glad it did.  I hope your message reaches the people who could benefit hearing it.

@alexal6045

as a fellow survivor of the troubled teen industry, i can attest to the fear and overwhelming nature of finally being free. i spent 14 months in utah practically cut off from the real world. i turned to partying for a sense of community, but i truly believe if i had been approached by any cult i would’ve joined.

@meriguild

It’s so interesting watching this as someone born into this cult that never really ‘bought’ into it. You watch them lovingly throw themselves onto non-members while completely excluding and isolating bad eggs already within the org. As a kid you naturally blame the non-member for that, but then one day you figure out you were both victims. It’s so slimy.

@miffy_1998

I've watched a lot of video essays about high control cults but this is the first I've seen with a personal experience perspective! excellent video, looking forward to future uploads :)

@diminarchy

Cults also target autistic people disproportionately due to our naivety, sense of justice, feeling "out of place", and need for routines

@Rosemarybun

Kathryn! We went to school together, glad to see you’re doing well and I wanted to say I really enjoyed this video! Super informative and well made :) was happy to see you on my feed! Glad you’re out and thriving. <3

@portablesun_

Girl, HOW do you not have more followers? This is high quality!!!! Thank you for sharing your story, im gonna go down a deep rabbit hole now

@moriahnightingale4240

I love that you never say the name, but those of us who know will know. Congrats on getting out!

@autoingrement

My brother is currently in a cult, it's impossible to talk to him as he is unable to see reality and immediately becomes hostile and violent if confronted. I pray for him every night it's the only thing I can do at this point. I hope this video gets recommended to him as well.

@AKA253

i grew up thinking "i'd never fall for cult tactics" and then i fell for cult tactics. i was emotionally abused and financially exploited by people within the cult that had a higher ranking than me. it's not like i could bring the issue to anyone because the folks in those ranks WERE the people i was supposed to report that to. everyone on the bottom rung was free pickings for terrible people who had unmoderated power within that cult. while i wasn't directly affected by the catalyst of the cult's downfall (the closest circles were drugged and manipulated by the leaders), the cult itself provided a template for abuse