Mandi Pagliarini was thrown into Alcohol*cs Anonymous as a teen when her parents caught her drinking, and overreacted. She was lured into loving summer boarding camps with cute boys and fun activities, so immediately following high school graduation, the thought of being full time boarded with the group sounded fun and necessary for her health. Unfortunately, a bait and switch quickly happened when she realized that in this particular group, all sponsors and authority lead directly to the man at the top named Mike. He started micromanaging every single aspect of their lives including specific diets, where they went and even, who he thought they should be sleeping with. Young teens were given to 30+ year old men for “their own good” and this included Mike himself who was in his 50s. If compliance was not given, they were berated in front of the whole group. Mandi’s parents were still under the impression that she needed to be there, even though she had nothing close to resembling alcohol*sm, so she was left feeling alone and afraid of the outside world. After attempting to leave twice, it finally stuck and after drastically overcorrecting, she found her way. Watch our follow up episode with Mandi: https://www.youtube.com/live/rlKRhrlmKvI?si=mGg7HeGcaqainClR Find and Support Mandi! linktr.ee/mandipagliarini IG @mandiptalkspredators https://www.instagram.com/mandiptalkspredators/ Substack: https://mandiptalkspredators.substack.com/ Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/ineo05vp #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Subscribe to our C2C "CLIPS" Channel! https://www.youtube.com/@CultstoConsciousnessClips Support C2C - Any donations are welcome and appreciated to support the making of this podcast. Find our FULL (uncensored) merch store here! https://cults-to-consciousness-shop.fourthwall.com/en-usd Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cultstoconsciousness Venmo @sheliseann Find us on Social media! Instagram @cultstoconsciousness https://www.instagram.com/cultstoconsciousness Host Instagram @sheliseann https://www.instagram.com/sheliseann/ Co Producer / Host @jonathan.rosales_ https://www.instagram.com/jonathan.rosales_ TikTok @cults.to.consciousness https://www.tiktok.com/@cults.to.consciousness Twitter @cultstocon https://twitter.com/cultstocon Chapter Marks **Disclaimer: Thanks for joining us at Cults to Consciousness. This storytelling podcast is meant to be for entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for medical advice. We may discuss triggering topics and we ask that you make your personal mental health a priority. Lastly, the opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host.**