It looks like all the post-cult after effects are caused by the cult experience. However, it may be no so simple.

In the beginning, I will share my personal experience. I read Steven Hassan's Combatting Cult Mind Control 3.5 years after I left the group where I was. During that time, I had never had any floatings. I had the first floating in less than 1 month after I read that book. Why? What was the source? Cult experience or Hassan's book?

There is such a thing as suggestion. If somebody left a cult and then reads a book that gives a definite description of what an ex-member of a cult should experience, he or she might really experience that because he/she "knows" what he/she "should" experience. Then, of course, he/she will be sure that he/she experiences post-cult after effects. However, if he/she did not experience that before reading the book, it can be suggestion and not post-cult after effects.

The same may be true when a former cult member learns about the symptoms of post-cult after effects from an exit counselor. Again, he or she may experience some post-cult after effects not because of the cult experience, but because of learning about post-cult after effects.

Probably, regarding the lists of post-cult after effects, it is important to notice that it is not necessary to experience every symptom mentioned there after leaving a cult. For example, I have never experienced some of the symptoms mentioned in Hassan's list, including: "Problems with decision-making dependency" and "Retarded psychological development - loss of psychological power." I did not have problems with making decisions and did not have any loss of psychological power, though I had never had any leading position in the group where I was.

Then, leaving a cult itself may be quite a painful process because it may involve many disappointments and other negative experiences. For quite a long time, I was considering why it seems that so many cult members are quite happy and do not look like people having depression. However, reportedly, many ex-members of cults have depression. What is the source? Of course, many people have very negative experience in cults, but not all of them.

For example, reading Hassan's story about his experience in Moonism as he described it in Combatting Cult Mind Control, I did not find that he had any negative experience. On the contrary, he had a very successful career in Moonism. He was there only about 2 years. However, as he writes, he was Assistant Director of the Unification Church at National Headquarters in Manhattan and was highly praised by Moon himself. Then, Hassan was deprogrammed. As he described, he experienced a serious disappointment when he realized that he was mind-controlled. Then, as he described, he experienced depression after leaving Moonism. What was the source of this depression - his experience in Moonism or his deprogramming? Well, I do not know.

Then, not all the problems after leaving a cult are related to the cult experience or to leaving a cult. People who have never been in cults also have problems sometimes, and these problems may be the same as mentioned in the lists of post-cult after effects. Ex-members of cults may get some problems which have nothing to do with mind control after leaving a cult or in the cult. If a person left a cult, this does not automatically mean that all his or her problems can be caused only by cult mind control. For example, if an ex-cult member lost a job or divorced, he or she may experience depression which is mentioned in the list of post-cult after effects. However, this depression has nothing to do with mind control.