Here are some of the best questions for an ex-cult member survey about mental health support needs, plus tips to design them for real insight. You can build such a survey in seconds with Specific—no expertise required.
Best open-ended questions for ex-cult member surveys about mental health support needs
Open-ended questions let ex-cult members share their stories and challenges in their own words. These questions dig deeper than multiple-choice, making it easier to understand nuanced experiences—especially when tackling sensitive topics like post-cult mental health.
Given that 75% of former cultists report depression and 83% experience anxiety after leaving their group, giving participants room to express themselves is crucial for capturing their real support needs. [1][2]
What have been your biggest mental health challenges since leaving the group?
Can you describe the emotional support you wish you had received upon leaving?
What barriers have you faced in seeking mental health or emotional support?
How have your relationships changed since leaving the group, and how has this affected your well-being?
What types of professional help (therapists, counselors, support groups) have you tried, and what was helpful or not?
Are there specific triggers or situations that make daily life harder for you?
What advice would you give to mental health professionals supporting people who’ve recently left high-control groups?
Can you describe moments when you felt truly understood or supported since leaving?
What resources (books, online groups, helplines) have made a positive difference for you?
If you could change one thing about how support is provided to ex-cult members, what would it be?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for ex-cult member surveys about mental health support needs
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when we want to quantify responses or lower the effort for respondents—especially as a warm-up or when starting a conversation. They can highlight trends, surface group-wide pain points, and help us identify where to probe further with follow-up questions.
Question: What is your current primary mental health concern?
Depression
Anxiety
Loneliness
PTSD or trauma
Anger
Question: Which type of professional mental health support have you sought since leaving the group?
Therapist or counselor
Support group
Religious or spiritual advisor
None
Other
Question: How easy was it for you to find appropriate mental health support after leaving?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
When to follow up with "why?" We ask "why?" as a follow-up when we want richer context—like when someone selects "Anger" as their main concern or "Very difficult" finding help. An example: if a respondent says it was "Very difficult" to find mental health resources, the follow-up could be, "What made it difficult to find support after leaving?"
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add "Other" when you can’t anticipate every answer. It invites unexpected, valuable feedback you might otherwise miss. Follow-up questions after "Other" can uncover experiences unique to ex-cult members that multiple-choice options don’t cover.
Using NPS in ex-cult member mental health support surveys
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question asks, "How likely are you to recommend ___ to others?" It's powerful in our context: we can measure whether ex-cult members would recommend specific mental health resources or support networks to peers. This doesn’t just reveal satisfaction—it taps into trust, which is critical in communities where trust can be deeply shaken. You can instantly make an NPS survey for ex-cult member mental health support here.
The power of follow-up questions
Specific makes follow-up questions automatic and context-aware, driving deeper insight every time. When a respondent gives a short or ambiguous answer, automated follow-ups clarify, explore motives, or surface needs that would otherwise remain hidden. See how automated AI follow-up questions work in detail.
Ex-cult member: "I feel sad."
AI follow-up: "Can you share what situations make you feel sad since leaving the group?"
Ex-cult member: "Support was hard to find."
AI follow-up: "What obstacles did you face when trying to access support resources?"
How many follow-ups to ask? In practice, 2–3 follow-ups strike a balance. That’s enough to dig deep without causing fatigue. Specific lets you control the depth and lets respondents skip forward once you’ve got the context you want.
This makes it a conversational survey—the back-and-forth flow mirrors a real conversation, not a boring old form.
AI survey response analysis is simple now—despite lots of unstructured feedback, tools like Specific’s AI-powered response analysis make it easy to identify core themes or turn raw stories into actionable insights.
Try generating a survey and experience these smart, conversational follow-ups in action.
How to write great prompts for ChatGPT for ex-cult member mental health support survey questions
If you want to brainstorm or expand your survey, prompts are amazingly effective. Start simple:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Ex-Cult Member survey about Mental Health Support Needs.
The real magic happens when you give context. For example, tell the AI more about your project, audience, and goals:
We’re building a survey for individuals who have recently left high-control groups or cults. Our goal is to understand their unique mental health challenges and the support they wish existed. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that would help us learn about their needs and barriers to support.
Once you have your list, ask the AI to categorize them by topic. Prompt:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Drill even deeper: pick a category, then prompt:
Generate 10 questions for categories Emotional Support and Barriers to Accessing Mental Health.
Using these layered prompts lets you branch into rich, highly relevant questions that better fit your survey's goals.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys simulate a natural, chat-like back-and-forth, rather than just firing off a set of form questions. With AI, you get dynamic follow-ups, personalized tone, and the ability to clarify on the fly. This results in higher engagement and richer insights compared to static, manual surveys.
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Boring forms with unchanging questions | Feels like a real conversation—dynamic and personal |
No real-time clarification | AI asks smart follow-ups based on each answer |
Low engagement, higher survey fatigue | Respondents stay engaged, answer more thoughtfully |
Manual analysis, slow feedback | Instant AI-powered summaries and insights |
Why use AI for ex-cult member surveys? AI survey generators (like Specific) adapt to each respondent’s journey, gently probing and clarifying without being intrusive. This is vital for ex-cult member audiences, who may need extra care in how questions are asked and followed up. AI-driven feedback provides both breadth (quantitative data) and depth (rich, personal narratives).
If you want to understand how to create a conversational survey for ex-cult members about mental health support, we break it down step by step—so you can get started even faster.
Specific offers the best user experience for conversational surveys, making it feel easy and engaging for both creators and respondents to collect and analyze feedback.
See this mental health support needs survey example now
Ready to unlock deep insight from ex-cult members? Use AI to create a conversational survey in seconds, tailor follow-up questions to get richer answers, and analyze responses instantly with Specific’s unique survey builder experience.