Legacy of being brought up a JW: Weird hang-ups (page 2)

mynameislame

I hate meetings of any kind, church, support groups, even meetings at work.....

I also see cults everywhere. I’m pretty sure my job want’s me to drink some sort of Kool Aid.

Band on the Run - just remember when I stayed at my best friends place a few years back, they had a shelving unit in the spare bedroom, and there was a copy of The Excorcist DVD on the shelf. This is so ridiculous but I felt like I wouldn't be able to sleep with it there - wasnt like I had to watch it, but its mere prescence freaked me out lol. I called my friend and asked her to take it down, she rolled her eyes, then gave me a massive hug before taking it away! Those awful wordly people can sure be good friends at times and totally non-judgy...now, there's a novelty!

Frequent_Fader_Miles

I still get flashbacks whenever I hear a voice on microphone.

snare&racket

Parents and WT underestimate the fear of satan and demons that kids carry around...... it is profound. you never hear WT telling the youth not to watch horror movies...because they aren't watching them!!!

until I asked myself one day...'wait a minute what exactly have I ever seen or experienced personally..." the answer being ...'nothing', i too was in fear even as a young man.

Phizzy

I was born in, and in for nearly 60 years, and I have none of those hang ups, which is strange. I really don't think I have any other things that I would call "hang-ups", but if I ever get a whiff of JW/WT thinking coming in to my mind I ridicule it, reject it, and then make myself do something that is opposite to the thinking, something a JW would not do.

Just as an example, when I first left, I still had a "feeling" about blood, although I knew the whole JW teaching on this was wrong by any measure you use to judge it, so I went and began to donate.

I think what is needed with hang-ups is to examine them fully, actively work against them, and then put them in a mental "box" and bury them.

Vidiot

The closest thing I have to a hang-up is that I find it difficult to read or watch WT publications or productions nowadays.

It's a little weird, because unlike most XJWs, I never really experienced anything directly WT-traumatic while still in.

Vidiot

Really?! - "... I heard somewhere - can't remember where, from my mum, an elder, or the meetings I guess - that 'demons' take pleasure out of watching people 'fornicating'..."

Damn, I'd forgotten all about about that one.

SAHS

I still feel a bit funny around “worldly” (non-JW) people, and in the back of my mind I have this fear that I might end up running into some kind of ax murderer or violent gang person or drug dealer or Mafia person, or otherwise some kind of explosively violent person like they have on America’s Most Wanted. That’s always a fear that I have, not just because of growing up in the WT religion but being shy, timid, and only 5"5' tall. The feeling that “worldly” people are apt to hurt me by beating me up or stabbing me or even stuff me into a car trunk or something is always fostered and nurtured within the JWs, but lately I’ve been realizing that there is really nothing to fear or worry about – at least not really any more than some of the average JWs themselves. (I’ve heard of some JWs turning out to be surprisingly criminally-minded and a bit unhinged.)

Bella15

You know sometimes I ask myself if the first 2 hang ups you described - which I also have - are product of my JW upbringing or just my nature as I seen many people - friends, coworkers, general population with the same problem - gosh I even didn't have the courage to join Toastmaster with a group of friends and coworkers (whom I know they were not going to make fun of me or else).

As far as demons - I lived in Hollywood, CA and due to my job I had access to studios where I saw how they produce the movies and tv shows, duh, I felt very stupid after seing that and I was not afraid anymore, actually I don't like horror movies because I know they are not true.

and in the spiritual sense I am not afraid because I know that they are afraid of me since Jesus lives in me.

Band on the Run

Bella15,

I confided my fear of demons to a high school friend. She is black and spent some of her early years in the South. When a cross was burned on their lawn, they move to the North. She said that she was never afraid of demons b/c everyone is just taught to rebuke them in Jesus' name. I was taking confirmation classes as an adult. The leader of the class talked about demons in passing so I stayed later to ask him more privately. I told him I did not believe at all but of my background. I could never think of them the way Catholics or Protestants do. He heard about the nightlights and room sweeps. Canon West's suggestion was that I read The Screwtape Letters. I never heard of C.S. Lewis. He explained that an uncle demon was teaching a junior demon through the letters.

I bought the book the next day. It is a book I will always have with me. I laughed so hard. Wormwood and Screwtape. Next, I read the Narnia Chronicles and Mere Christianity. I've read all of Lewis' religious books.

Legacy of being brought up a JW: Weird hang-ups

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