I don't like the drugs, but the drugs like me?

by Pathofthorns 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  Pathofthorns

  Is it just me, or is there an unusually high number of young ones in the truth smoking and doing drugs like Ecstasy and dope?

  Is it that these people are doing this out of rebellion or simply that they like to live in a fantasy world?

  I've talked to a number who seem to think that they will live a double life for a while, then come back in five years "because they know its the truth". This sort of reasoning is driving me insane.

  Its like these people like to fool around as long as there is some "anchor" in their life to come back to. If its the truth, why doesn't it exercise any influence in how they live their life?
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  Andyman

  I know that there were a few young ones who got involved with drugs back when I was still active. Most of them around here get hooked on "alcohol" which of course isn't so bad if you are a JW!

  Many JW young ones come from homes where alcohol is widely used, and abused. They see there parents using and it just becomes natural for them to pick up the habit.

  Prescription drugs are also a big problem with many JW's. Anit depresents like "prozac" get passed around like candy. I have seen "pain killers" and "valuim" abused by JW's also.

  They condem worldly people for "using" drugs, yet they "share" what ever they have with each other. Doesn't make sense to me.

  Experimenting is a common thing among young ones, expecially when they see there parents doing it. Doesn't matter if they are JW or not, it happens. I think many young JW's are trying to cope with the problem of being "different" from everyone else, and drugs and alcohol help them, they think, to cope with this stress.

  Just my 2 cents worth.

  Andyman:
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  Zep

  Drugs are everywhere...its a culture thing, to want to be normal...there a lot of peer presure when your young to take drugs.....Sometimes i'd smoke dope, not cause i wanted to but because i felt i had to cause everyone else was doing it...and i mean everyone smokes the stuff where i am, it just not spoken of.
  I met a JW, though i didn't know he was a JW at the time... he was a speed freak, shot up all the time....dont know if thats got anything to do with JW or not...doubt it, he seemed like everyone else...he just shot up!.A friend told me of a conversation he had with him about the end of the world....he said his feeling is that it was going to happen within the next few years...that was in 93.That didn't really make him unsual, we all use to talk like that...i use to say that the world was going eat itself with 10...tha was 10 years ago, and the people i said it to would agree with me.My Generation is/was pretty pessimistic.
  Most people i know these days who smoke dope, do it cause they like(sort of)....when your a teenager theres more pressure to do it, more at stake for sure!
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  waiting

  Hey, guys,

  I'm old for this discussion - but I was young in the '60s. Drugs were easy to find then - now it's amazing the amount of damage one can do.

  My sister's boy was raised a JW in southern California. IMO, not an easy place to raise children. He was never really "in" the organization. My nephew is now 19, 2 kids, divorced, living in his car, doing crack. His life expectancy, according to statistics, is between 2 weeks and 2 years.

  Some things are aren't worth experiencing. He was a nice kid. Loved his skateboard and his wife. Now he carries a gun and a needle.

  Edited by - waiting on 1 July 2000 11:57:11
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  AlphaQup2nite

  I got big into the drug scene for a few years ago, and got out. For me, it was mainly experimentation, different ways of looking through the looking glass so to speak, and i actually resolved several problems that were causing me to become depressed while on X one night. I was 19 at the time and had recently had the time and disposible income to spend time with the "worldly" people in the first time in my life post JWs. I personally dont think of drugs as addictive, having tried almost all of them except for the stronger opiates. I look at it more as people not willing to deal with life, and instead take short cuts, easy way out instead of dealing with the issues. Its just another facet of the "blame game" everyone seems to love to play these days. I have also quit smoking 2 times, for atleast a year each.

  I can see the appeal to the younger kids tho. Being a JW brings a lot of extra stress into your life. Not fitting into the social construct of normal life, extra time spend on meetings and meeting prep and studies and feild service. No drive to suceed b/c university is discouraged in most cases. Living a double life. Doubts that you can never bring up or question without being marked as a bad kid. The list goes on and on. If i was in an area with easy access to drugs when i was a teenager, i would have prbly used while i was still being raised in the "truth."