Apog: I am sorry that you feel distant from your family. I know exactly what you mean by health problems. I used to think my little JW sister was unique when it came to mysterious illnesses until I came to this board.
You are right many families experience strained relations some caused by religion and some caused by conflicting personalities.
I think mine are a little of both.
My oldest sister ( the scary one lol) was older when my mom converted (9 or 10).
She was a natural rebel and misfit as it was.
This was in the late 50s early 60's. My mom had her "out of wedlock" before mom met my dad.
Dad's family never approved of mom or my sis.
Then when my mom started studying with the JWs(JERKS is what my auto correct typed in lol
) my dads family really hit the roof. ( they were die hard Catholics. )
So my sis didnt fit in at the hall and her cousins gave her a hard time.
Then us girls came along.
So she has a big chip on her shoulder.
And she does blame JWs for a lot of her problems.
I do admire her. She had great survival skills and I know if someone caused me harm, she would hunt them down to the ends of the earth.
I mentioned in some of my previous posts that me and my 3 younger sisters were put in foster care when my mom had a nervous breakdown.
We were fostered by a JW couple. He became an elder. I found out he had been molesting my younger sister and turned him in when I was 11.
Sorry too much backstory.
No wonder we are so missed up.