Erica Bailey

It started off with these conversations, and then it very quickly escalated into formal excommunication, which is I had to move out of my apartment where I was living with another member of the church. I lost contact with my immediate family at the time. Thankfully, we've reconnected since then.

It started off with these conversations, and then it very quickly escalated into formal excommunication, which is I had to move out of my apartment where I was living with another member of the church. I lost contact with my immediate family at the time. Thankfully, we've reconnected since then.

It started off with these conversations, and then it very quickly escalated into formal excommunication, which is I had to move out of my apartment where I was living with another member of the church. I lost contact with my immediate family at the time. Thankfully, we've reconnected since then.

And I lost connections with pretty much every single person that I knew, including people I would consider family at that point.

And I lost connections with pretty much every single person that I knew, including people I would consider family at that point.

And I lost connections with pretty much every single person that I knew, including people I would consider family at that point.

It was really destabilizing and it was really, really painful. Some of these relationships have still not been repaired. I still feel them like open wounds of these people that I really cared for. And what I try to remember is they believe that they're doing the right thing. They think that you have to cut someone out of the group in order to maintain the functioning of the group.

It was really destabilizing and it was really, really painful. Some of these relationships have still not been repaired. I still feel them like open wounds of these people that I really cared for. And what I try to remember is they believe that they're doing the right thing. They think that you have to cut someone out of the group in order to maintain the functioning of the group.

It was really destabilizing and it was really, really painful. Some of these relationships have still not been repaired. I still feel them like open wounds of these people that I really cared for. And what I try to remember is they believe that they're doing the right thing. They think that you have to cut someone out of the group in order to maintain the functioning of the group.

And also in order to teach that person a lesson that if we release you out into the world, you'll sort of learn the world is wrong and you'll want to come back in. So slowly but surely, every person that I knew gave me a call and said, hey, you know, I'm sorry, but we can't we can't talk anymore.

And also in order to teach that person a lesson that if we release you out into the world, you'll sort of learn the world is wrong and you'll want to come back in. So slowly but surely, every person that I knew gave me a call and said, hey, you know, I'm sorry, but we can't we can't talk anymore.

And also in order to teach that person a lesson that if we release you out into the world, you'll sort of learn the world is wrong and you'll want to come back in. So slowly but surely, every person that I knew gave me a call and said, hey, you know, I'm sorry, but we can't we can't talk anymore.

Yeah. So this feeling we refer to as inauthenticity and inauthenticity has a couple of sources or variants. On the one hand, you can feel inauthentic because you don't know who you are. So you feel like yourself is somewhere separate. You feel disconnected from that true self and it feels inaccessible almost to you.

Yeah. So this feeling we refer to as inauthenticity and inauthenticity has a couple of sources or variants. On the one hand, you can feel inauthentic because you don't know who you are. So you feel like yourself is somewhere separate. You feel disconnected from that true self and it feels inaccessible almost to you.

Yeah. So this feeling we refer to as inauthenticity and inauthenticity has a couple of sources or variants. On the one hand, you can feel inauthentic because you don't know who you are. So you feel like yourself is somewhere separate. You feel disconnected from that true self and it feels inaccessible almost to you.

On the other hand, inauthenticity could also be, I know very well who I am and what I want to say in this moment, but for whatever reason, I'm choosing to deny that. I'm choosing to express myself in a way that's counter to that internal experience.

On the other hand, inauthenticity could also be, I know very well who I am and what I want to say in this moment, but for whatever reason, I'm choosing to deny that. I'm choosing to express myself in a way that's counter to that internal experience.

On the other hand, inauthenticity could also be, I know very well who I am and what I want to say in this moment, but for whatever reason, I'm choosing to deny that. I'm choosing to express myself in a way that's counter to that internal experience.

Yeah, I knew very clearly, or I felt at least that I knew who I was internally, or I had some sense of inner self, but I was not able to access that or bring that forward in the group.

Yeah, I knew very clearly, or I felt at least that I knew who I was internally, or I had some sense of inner self, but I was not able to access that or bring that forward in the group.