Bethany Joy Lenz Opens Up About Leaving a Cult, Writing Her Memoir and Penning New Single 'Strawberries'

etonline.com:

Bethany Joy Lenz is looking back at a dark time in her life and hoping to use her experiences to help guide others and to reclaim her own happiness.Lenz recently say down with ET's Nischelle Turner to talk about revelations she made last month about how she spent a decade in an unnamed religious cult, and how she managed to finally leave the cult and recover from the emotional trauma.Now, Lenz is working on her memoirs as part of her healing process, which she thinks might be able to shed light on the issue and help others stuck in similar predicaments.«There are a lot of people that get caught up in things that are abusive and bad for them and we all have these weird pockets inside of us that are vacancies that are susceptible to something from an outside source that's gonna take advantage of us in some way,» Lenz shared. «I think going through that, finding those places in me, and then being able to… put that on paper, and talk with other people who have been through that, [it's] been very cathartic and meaningful.»«I just really hope it helps somebody,» she added. «I want to write about these experiences to help someone.

I want to put it into songs. I want to have fun and get back all the moments that I feel like I lost in life.»Lenz first revealed her experiences with a cult in July, when she spoke about it during an episode of the podcast, telling co-hosts — and her former co-stars — Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan, «I was in a cult for 10 years.