Shawn Hornbeck, who was also kidnapped at age 11, offers some advice to Jaycee Lee Dugard in this week's People magazine about how to heal from the trauma of her ordeal.
Reading it, I was struck by the fact that this is exactly the advice many of us need to hear when we exit the JW cult.
See what you think:
How Jaycee can heal:"I realize this sounds like I'm stating the obvious, but you have to move on. You can't dwell on the past. You have to keep looking toward the future and telling yourself that it's going to be better than your past … I had a lot of built-up anger afterwards, which is normal. But this anger can take control of your life if you're not careful. You're angry about how unfair it is that this happened to you … Going to therapy really helped me get everything in order. One of the things that really helped me – and everyone is different – is that we talked about was how I could better myself from what happened to me, how could I use all those terrible, awful experiences I had to grow and mature. I know it sounds crazy, but those experiences have made me a better person."