by minimus 42 Replies latest jw friends
When I first found JWD I was really grateful to find posters I could identify with and share how I felt. It was comforting and helpful in many ways, and even though I dont use the site very much now I still look in at times. Some of the posters have a wealth of knowledge and I am grateful for the encouragement I received from them when I was very distressed.
Maddie
I have to say that coming to this site has made me feel much better on many occasions. When I first found this site around the second half of last year, my husband and I had been fading for a couple of years and had just started looking on the internet for information about the history of the organisation. That was a real eye opener in itself. However, it was the posts I read on this site that made me realise that I wasn't the only one who thought the way I did about the beliefs I had been inculcated with during my 40 years as a JW. Reading the comments here made both my husband and I feel much more 'normal' about the way we felt about the organisation as well as giving us even more insight into the scandals and coverups going on in JW land. It was on this site that I first read about the WTS involvement with the UN. By that time we had decided we were never ever going back to the meetings, in fact last year we missed the memorial for the first time.
I would have liked to join the forum then, but by that stage it was closed for new registrations. However, I kept on reading more and more of the older threads as well as keeping up with the new ones. Doing this gave me much reassurance that it was OK to feel the way I did, that I wasn't evil or bad or any of the other names I knew I would be branded with (and eventually was) when my family found out we were not going back. It was in January this year that things came to a head with my family. I emailed PurpleSofa for help and she posted my request for help here - the replies I received on this forum gave me a lot of courage to stand up to my father (a staunch elder) and say "No we are not coming back". My brother had sent a letter in December saying he was shunning us, now Dad said the same thing. My sister also now shuns us. Those few weeks around that time were emotionally tumultuous to say the least, so being able to read on here of others who went through or are going through the same thing and how they coped was an enormous help to us.
So thank you Simon for making this forum possible and to everyone on here for the support you give to others.
Hopscotch
Welcome, Hopscotch (and hubby!)
mini...i was out and falling apart...or had fallen apart with a wicked abrupt wake up....i had googled "old watchtower scans" or similar......and taaa daaa..........here i am.......oomps
this place prob saved my life...really......if you could have seen how wet my face and keyboard was the first week or two i was here.....even stonehearts out there would cry....and no....i was not posting as oompa....cause after just a week or so....my wife and dad found out and turned me in to daelders.....now that hurt........and i have never even posted about what happened or the week after...............oomps
and kinda weird nobody spit wine, beer, or fruitloops when i posted earlier that i rarely post here anymore!........oompa
Oompa..Check your PM`s..
...OUTLAW
I feel like I am home when I am here. I feel like we are a functional-dysfunctional family of sorts. I feel like everyone gets it. Even the "crazy uncles" and "bitchy cousins" have a connection to my feelings of abandonment, disappointment and rage. Our stories and circumstances are different but the abusers are the same.
I love this place and it saved me.
Initially - it did - it gave me a platform to rant and rave, to question, to say what I had to say without judgement.
Then it got a bit iffy - some are waaaaaaaaaaay to serious and since the site had helped me I didn't visit it for about a year or so.
Then I came back on - I don't really get involved with rehashing Armegeddon stuff, 1914, 607 bce or the latest tower - I'm not interested in that anymore - look if I had to help a Jw out I'd go back into proving this or that....but right now it's not part of my life.
I come on this site to spy, for when I make my monthly report to the mother ship.
This site has helped me to let go of the guilt and "loaded language" that the WT has used to manipulate me in the past. It has also given me relief not to be in fear of Armageddon. I don't have to worry about the fates of good people who aren't JWs.
Most of the time this site is a definite positive. You have to take a few bad apples here with a grain of salt, though, just like anywhere. Some people cross the line but they are a minority.
The board hasn't destroyed my faith in a higher power, either, even though a lot of atheists post here. I still have affinity for the teachings of Jesus without feeling any organization has a monopoly on God. But I don't limit my spirituality to Christianity alone and enjoy posts by others who, like me, are open to other forms of enlightenment like zen living. And I don't condemn atheists because I can somewhat understand why they are where they are in their life.
It's a great feeling to be able to talk about all those WT things that have been bottled up for years with people who understand.
