by rockemsockem 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I'm still a child playing with cars.
The cars just got bigger.
Being a born in JW, I haven't experienced any normal socialization. Even today, I have great problems entering into long-term relationships. Conditional love has been planted extremely deep into me - especially since I have never experienced real love myself from my parents and relatives.
Religion has made me a one-man fighter.
I believe that being raised a JW is very destructive. You don't form the relationships in society that normal kids do. You are not allowed to join in any of the secular activity's the normal kids do. You are taught you are part of a very special group that is going to be treated very special and everyone else is doomed. You have all the answers to life's questions while everyone else is lost. I went to therapy for a bit and when I told the therapist I was raised a JW she told me that she deals with a lot of damage from this cult. And she used the word cult. She said it was widely known among her profession of the danger and damage done by the JWs.
I think every child, and parents and congregation is different. I would say some are not quite as damaging as others but for me I have been part of 4 different congregations and although that is not a large number non have been anything but destructive. I have seen what they have done to myself and others. Children raised in the cult are exposed to beliefs of imminent violent graphic death and destruction via My book of bible stories or in my case the Paradise book and down playing of the self. You as an individual are not important. Only Jehovah is important. The viewing of others not believing the same as you as less than and the list goes on. You may not know it but if you were raised a JW you were damaged.
Not mine; I was selective about what I believed from the WTS. I laughed at most Awake articles that were about science, the dumbed down, filtered crap. I was embarrassed presenting such magazines d2d. I was with a brother once who told a man who came to the door, how much he hard learned about science from the Awake, as the brother started spouting nonsense. It was neighborhood where most of the professors lived from the local university. I jumped in and changed the topic. Later the brother even proudly told me he had not even read the magazine he had been presenting. I told him if he had, he would realize what he told that man was foolishness. He was not happy with me, an upstart sister.
I was absolutely damaged by this cult, I suffered as a child with nightmares, sleepwalking, stuttering ( due to one major JW cause) the stuttering came upon me from a shock, I had hives which the Dr. said was nerves. I didn’t fully mature til I was almost 30. I know this is due to being raised JW and believing it was the”truth.” I was a very scared, nervous child, I never got to do the normal things all middle class American children do. I vowed when I was quite young to never bring a child into the world if I had to raise the child as a witness. And I didn’t, my daughter came when I was 32 years old.
i was also bullied in school due to being a JW
I never had the nightmares but my mother did. She was upset later in life as she woke up at the damage she suffered. Not all situations are the same. Some were never raised in a real witness home. Or were never really witnesses. I would say from Blondie's post she never really was a JW. Maybe she was raised not really to the standards of the cult. For those who were strictly raised as the cult taught its extremely damaging to children. I know of several family's who go to the hall and "play" Witness. But tell their kids to go to collage get an education and make a future for themselves. These are not real JWs. They play at it. If the truth be told no pun intended the true JWs in the cult looked down on these people as not strong or real JWs. We had several in the halls I went to. They were accepted to a deg. but looked on as not people to do much socially with. If a child is raised in the cult as the cult dictates they are damaged. Its just that simple.
Ya think? How was mental growth not stunted? Don't ask questions. Everyone else is gonna die at Armageddon, everyone else is controlled by Satan and is trying to lead you astray. Don;t try to learn from any other sources but us. WE HAVE THE TRUTH.
I could go on for days, but my point is made
The Truth Will Set You Free
I feel it had a good bit to do with my husbands inability to have forward thinking, to plan ahead, to even imagine what he wants out of a future. It's as if the executive fuctioning part of his brain, responsible for prioritizing, questioning, planning, reasoning, etc, was stunted.
I am looking forward with much anticipation that some near future planned sessions for my husband with a neurofeedback specialist, will help undo some of that stunting. I hope even after all the years it can help him free up his mind.
Or, am I the crazy lady that just keeps expecting a different outcome.
I try to put my past with the Watchtower behind me, but instead, I am extremely thankful that I left it before my children were affected too much. I got out and my eldest son only suffered one nightmare as a result of being in that cult. He is now a grown man and doesn't remember much from his time at the meetings. About the only thing he recalls was making the great escape from mom and running from me like a wild child. He doesn't even remember the nightmare.
My high school counselor (a family friend in the community) was almost in tears when I said I was not planning on college. Instead I was going to be "a minister" (free door knocker for WTS).
There are countless "born-ins" that were kept from pursuing their full potential in life.
If I compare my life with my 6 other close friends (non-JW's), my life turned out 10 times better than them, despite my JW upbringing.
My mother was a strict disciplinarian (even before becoming a JW) and that helped us to excel in everything we did. We didn't go to a university or dated girls but still did well in our business and in our marriage, mostly due to our parent's values. Even during adversities, they worked harder rather than blaming anyone. Guess that helped us a lot.
My mom always taught us not to look back on lost opportunities. You never know if your life would have been worse if you have taken up that opportunity.
Some JW's in my congregation didn't have a successful life and went from one dramatic situation to another and always had someone in the congregation to blame. But it was mostly due to their own habits and choices. They would have been that way no matter what religion they belonged to.
