For instance, he had trouble making decisions. Hassan wrote that such trouble is common among people who have recently left cults. Most psychologists misdiagnose ex-cultists, Simon warned, because they don't know about mind control. They may think an ex-cultist is schizophrenic. Or they say it's your problem, start calling you a neurotic idiot.
Counselors disagree on ex-disciples' attitudes toward other religions.
A colleague of Yeakley's estimated that three-quarters of those who left the BCC have no faith in God anymore. Hassan says most ex-disciples he has met left the church because of their faith in God. Simon observes that those who leave the BCC but remain Christians tend to be involved in missionary evangelism. According to Yeakley, counselors in Boston who specialize in helping ex-cultists say they are seeing more defectors from the BCC than from all other alleged cults put together. The same is true, he wrote, for BCC affiliates in Toronto, New York City, Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco.