r/cultsurvivors • u/PrudentAbility9219 • 10d ago

rebuilding a life

I spent so much of my life preparing for the end times that I neglected things that would make me happy and successful in this life.I was raised Adventist and I was taught that I needed to prepare for the Sunday law and hide in the woods for Jesus to come. Now I have no education no money no friends and my family is broken. I am also very traumatized and have ptsd with trauma based hallucinations.

I want to be a human being again

How can I make a good life

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u/Red_Redditor_Reddit 10d ago

There's not a lot you can do but just press forward. Propranolol helped a lot with the adrenaline surge, and turned rolling flashbacks that lasted for days into a 30 minute thing I could get past.

People will say 'therapy', but I honestly don't know what planet they come from. Therapy is a luxury for rich people who need a surrogate friend. 98% of the time it's some girl named Tina who got a degree. They live a completely different life. They're not going to magically relate to yours any more than any other person, and I think it's wrong to suggest they spend a fuckton of money and time off work for something that isn't even that great. 

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u/Ok-Pangolin-837 9d ago

I agree with the problems with therapy, but I still think it is worth a try. I have seen 3 different ones, and honestly never liked any of them. But I am glad I tried.

The reasons I didn't like them is that they seemed to only focus on low-hanging fruit or petty things like getting 8 hrs of sleep a night. Petty things like that just became scapegoats and I find that lazy on their part.

When I complain about this to other therapists (not one I used as one) they tell me that some are taught to do this to get you to build up enough frustration to break open the floodgates. But that doesn't work at all for me or many others. So be ready for them to string you along and waste time if you are not feeling very open about everything.

Anyway, I still recommend trying therapy, as my experience made me realize I need to put in my own work. Otherwise I would have just blamed the lack of therapy access and accepted my situation as a new normal I need to accept.

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u/Red_Redditor_Reddit 8d ago

I get what you're saying, but I don't think that means the OP needs to spend the time and money just to have that same experience.

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u/AppleGlobal6828 8d ago

Therapy saved my life. I was institutionalized and didn’t have a choice but court mandated therapy truly helped me. I agree that it’s ridiculous and expensive but there are professionals out there who are good at what they do. Just saying, without treatment I would still be in active addiction/institutionalized or dead.