By Stacey, an Ex-Christian Scientist Group contributor.

I doubted early in my life but didn’t act on it. It would not have been tolerated by my family. I went through Christian Science class instruction to please my dad, but my heart was never really in it. It was in my thirties after my dad died that I was able to begin stepping away from Christian Science.

One day, I threw all of my Christian Science notes, books and reference materials into the trash and it was extremely therapeutic. I could have sent the notes back to my teacher because he is still active, but throwing them away felt better to me. The only thing I kept was the small set of Bible and Science & Health books that my dad gave me when I was very young. I couldn’t throw those away, yet.

I haven’t been to a Christian Science church service for twenty years now. My attendance had been waxing and waning (mostly waning) for five years before that, and then it became too depressing to go anymore. At that point, I took a stand and decided to never attend again, for my own sanity. It was also about that time that I read God’s Perfect Child by Caroline Frasier, which completed my deprogramming.