Such good responses! I agree with you in that we can learn from our experiences and we can only better ourselves because of what we went through. It certainly is not the end of the world that we were once in the cult called Jehovah’s Witnesses. We have gotten out or are in the process. That’s a wonderful thing!!!
Do You Feels That Your Life Was Ruined Because of Ypur JW Experience?
by minimus 35 Replies latest jw friends
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Xanthippe
I got out at thirty so was able to make up for lost time to a certain extent. I would love to have physically gone to university instead of getting a degree through distance learning. I would have liked to have had a more interesting career but I graduated in my forties with a young child so that made it difficult. Of course that was a happy thing because I'm so glad I had her.
Losing all my family and friends? What kind of friends ditch you because you have a different view to their religion. As for my siblings, they're still hanging on to that ridiculous pretence that after 28 years treating me like a leper it's because of their deep love for me. I am well out of a family like that, damaged, manipulative people who can't admit even to themselves that my leaving shook their belief system to the core and that's the only reason they want to pretend I'm dead.
Did it ruin my life, it didn't help that's for sure but in some respects it saved me from the abusive elements in my life I needed to ditch.
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lriddle80
The good thing is how much of the Bible I knew because my sister and I always read my book of Bible stories together.
The bad thing is that I am separated from my family, but since I am not disfellowshipped, I can still be around them a little.
Another good thing is that it constantly makes me read the Bible and pray in order to stay grounded about what the truth really is.
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stan livedeath
i have no contact from my daughter, and younger son. never met their children, know nothing about them.
dont even know where son lives--no way of contacting him.
daughter lives a few miles away, might as well be on the dark side of the moon.
their mother--my first wife has no contact with our older son--who was d/f a few years back. ( i do--spending boxing day with him )
so--yeah. lives ruined thanks to the watchtower cult.
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millie210
The Fall Guy
Years ago, certain steel components were heat treated in baths of molten salt and then a furnace, in order for them to withstand the stresses of the rigours to which they'd be subjected. Some components were twisted by the experience and discarded. The parts which endured could then take whatever came their way.
Ruined? Definitely not. More determined and resilient.and...
mentalclarity
I did need a huge learning curve when I left to get some life skills I didn't posses as a born-in. The choices I make now about my life are very intentional - that includes being responsible for becoming aware of how my JW upbringing might have skewed my thinking. Being a JW took time away from me and I am not willing to let it take any more of my time. As soon as I got out I hit the road running and I am now reaping the rewards. My life is far from ruined.I copy pasted the replies above because they express how I feel better than I can. On a good day and even a so - so day the above is exactly how I view it.
On a really bad day (usually precipitated by hurt due to still in family members words or actions) I remind myself that many people walking the earth today - in fact most, struggle with something. Some of their backgrounds are less than ideal, far less.
Being raised a JW was an obstacle but not the only one. Most people have situations from childhood of one sort or another they have to overcome, and overcoming them is the true heart of the matter.
This helps me when I think along those lines and I can honestly say the bad days come less and less the further away you get from the whole JW experience.
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Xanthippe
Being raised a JW was an obstacle but not the only one. Most people have situations from childhood of one sort or another they have to overcome, and overcoming them is the true heart of the matter.
This helps me when I think along those lines and I can honestly say the bad days come less and less the further away you get from the whole JW experience.I love this Millie, it mirrors the way I think about life.