The question “Why didn’t you just leave” is one I’ve heard more times than I care to count and, sadly, I think that’s something many cult survivors can relate to. This is also a question that many survivors of domestic abuse/intimate partner violence are faced with. As a survivor of both, I want to draw a direct line between cultic abuse and domestic abuse. Because the more that we understand about these systems of control, how they are similar and how they function, the better we can understand and support survivors.