ESCAPING A CULT

IN A SHOCKING NEW BOOK, JINGER DUGGAR OPENS UP ABOUT HER FUNDAMENTALIST FAMILY AND HOW IT HARMED HER.

THEY were the darlings of TLC, an ultrareligious, supersize family that seemed to enjoy the simple things and represent a wholesome approach to life. Of course, not all was as it appeared with the stars of 19 Kids and Counting. Led by parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the kids were subjected to bizarre rules about modesty, dating and even what music they could listen to — or else face the wrath of God. “Fear was a huge part of my childhood,” daughter Jinger Duggar Vuolo has said. “I thought I had to wear only skirts and dresses to please God. Music with drums, places I went or the wrong friendships could all bring harm.”

What she’s only recently discovered is that the harm was coming from within her own family. In her new book, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith From Fear, the 29-year-old details how she suffered anxiety and developed an eating disorder because of her family’s beliefs — and how she broke away from their strict dogma. Now married to Jeremy Vuolo and a mom of two, she says of her isolated upbringing, “There are a lot of cult-like tendencies.”