In All Honesty, Are You A Happier Person Now Than when You Were A JW?

minimus

JWs say, "The apostates are miserable!!".....Do you feel miserable? (I don't).

Yes leaving it made me very relaxed and the feeling of freedom, like a door opened in my mind. Being a cult member i was suffocating and always afraid of doing something wrong that would cause my children to die.

Really i have never met a happy jw, i mean really happy.

StinkyPantz

I was a happy JW. Back then I had my family and a ton of friends. Now that I am out, I am equally as happy. Although I do not have my family and I have less friends, I derive my happiness from the mental freedom I now have.

Bubbamar

SOOOO much happier!!! I wasn't at first - for a while I was miserable, alone and scared. Just as they would have it. But no more! I have a great life!

My mom is a happy JW martyr. If you took away her misery she would cease to be happy.

DireStraitJacket

I'm happy in that I can pretty much do what I want without thinking what the

consequences would be if 'the elders found out'

that I've got a lot more time I'm on my hands, not having to spend time making

up excuses for not going out in field service and not going to meetings and

not preparing properly

happy to be free of a mind controlling cult, jc who wouldn't be!!!

unfortunately there is plenty of unhappiness that has come from coming out

as well, family relationships are now none existent, all the questions about

creation, etc have suddenly become unanswered, trying to figure out how the

world really works, how to interact with people, how to react to situations

i've never come across before etc.

On the balance of things though, I am a lot happier now than I was the last

couple of years I was in, and the time period immediately after coming out.

What does trigger feeling miserable is seeing what the society is doing, and

the large number of people that are still deluded and new one becoming deluded

and getting sucked into something thats going to have a real negative impact

on their lives if not ruin them completely

doogie

wow...this is a tough one. i'm kind of with DSJ on this one.

first of all, i was not really happy when i was in it. my truly happy memories were always when i was doing things that would eventually get me in trouble...

i gotta say though, that so far for me, being out sucks. it doesn't suck the same way as being in, but it still sucks. i know these things take time and i hate that i'm proving them right in a sense by not being happier than i am right now, but i think this will pass with time. the emotional and mental abuse you sustain while in the org just doesn't allow for happiness at my current stage of the detox process. i just don't think it's possible right now. i still have to grieve for my childhood and my future with my family and friends.

it's all relative though...knowing what i know now, if i were to go back to the religion, only then would i realize what unhappiness really is. so in that respect, i'm basically jumping up and down for friggin joy right now.

Lostreality

Im happier...and sadder. Dont have any friends anymore...gotta go make some.

L_A_Big_Dawg

Happiness is an emotion.

I am more joyful since breaking the WTS chains on my life.

LABD, of the joyful aposto-hunk, class

Sentinel

Absolutely. My happiness doesn't come from adhering to rules and regulations in order to allay the fear and guilt of destruction at armageddon. Any big change is scarry at first--leaving something that you've been attached to and that has attached itself to you. It's called "co-dependence". First you have to learn to trust your "self" again. It can be a long journey but immensely satisfying and worthwhile.

/<

funkyderek

Yes I am.

But even if you're not, it's worth bearing in mind the following quote from George Bernard Shaw:

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.