There was one person that I ended up DMing with on Discord. We talked every day about all kinds of things.

Our friendship seemed genuine. Yet, because I had spent the last decade in a cult, I didn’t understand many pop culture references and hadn’t seen any recent shows, etc.

That was one of the factors that made me feel like I had to disclose everything about my cult involvement to explain why I was so out of the loop.

I also felt like I would be deceiving my friend if I didn’t tell them I had been in a cult—like if they found out down the line they would want to end our friendship.

I felt like I had to show all my cards right off the bat and let them decide if they still wanted to be friends.

So I did confess everything. At first, my friend told me that it was all fine and that nothing I confessed made them want to drop me as a friend. 

But later, they felt burdened by my honesty. They told me they were afraid of triggering me due to my past trauma.

I didn’t understand at the time. What past trauma?, I thought. I didn’t think I had gone through anything traumatic.

One day, that friend suddenly stopped talking to me. I was devastated, as they had been my only real friend in ten years. It plunged me into a deep depression.