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As for the religion as drug thing, it happened to me. Actually, I did it to myself. I was totally miserable in high school, a social outcast. In English class, the teacher for some reason assigned a "non-fiction" book, "The Cross and the Switchblade," which was about teens but had a heavy evangelical Christian bent. Let's just say that God took care of everything. Anyway, I was in pain and something just clicked. Jesus was my personal buddy for the next six months; nothing hurt, everything was all right, I was secure that He was looking after me in every little thing that happened. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut about it because six months later there was another click, and I was back to normal. I figure that some part of my mind thought I needed a break from reality, and gave me one. And I snapped back when I was rested enough.
Anyway, whatever religious organization she's part of may be giving her a structure she doesn't have in the rest of her life. A structure, and a sense of being loved. But it's conditional, because she has to buy the whole package and _not doubt anything_ to continue to get that love and support from her group. A number of pretty conservative and dogmatic Christian groups prowl college campuses to find vulnerable minds to convert. I'm not saying that all Christians are predatory: but a lot of the more way-out groups control their converts with conditional love. They love-bomb them (as the Moonies used to say), then threaten to take away that love and acceptance if the convert starts to question. It keeps people in line.
But some people do snap out of it, especially young and intelligent people. Most Christian cults are inherently contradictory in many ways, and the intelligent mind may eventually find the contradictions too much to bear, no matter what the social pressure or price.
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