Corvin, Did your Witness family members actually terrorize you so much with this contemptible nonsense that you thought you were experiencing demon attacks? That's so terrible: it's really a kind of child abuse, isn't it? Luckily (hey, I like typing that word enough to do it again), luckily, I got out while my kids were still very young so at least they didn't have two parents laying these fears on them and also my wife couldn't do so while I was around. However, I know she didn't feel so constrained when I wasn't around.
BTW, congratulations on your having liberated yourself from this JW-induced phobia; I think that is a real accomplishment. Was there anything in particular that you did to overcome this?
Yes, the only spin I put on my story is the humor part. But it is true. Mom wasn't as bad, mind you, but Aunt Crazy-eyes Esther sure as hell went into everone's home to seek out and find something that was demonized and insisted it be tossed or burned. She would go into my gramma's house and go through her personal stuff on the pretense of rooting out demonized items. How disrespectful. I remember the slaps, the hits with whatever she had in her hand to convey the idea that we kids were flirting with the devil's music, tv shows and stuffed toy bunnies.
Just a footnote about how evil Aunt Gallon-o-Earnest-&-Julio-Gallo-per-day-Esther was/is; When mom died, she was leaving the Kingdom Hall, fresh from being reinstated. She was killed by a drunk driver only blocks from the Kingdom Hall. Basically, Aunt Esther raised hell and had a fit because my mom had her ticket into the 'new system", she had paid the price and gained access. Auntie Beverly Hill Billy Kookie-pants could not stand the thought that her sister was actually there in the new system and she was still left with the possibility she might not make it. It was all about Esther, not mom. Geez, the bitch stole mom's thunder even in death. The very essence of envy, hypocracy and fanaticism.
To overcome my phobia, I simply stopped giving my power to the fear of them, or at least the idea of them. I said, "enough! Leave me alone and don't ever come back! Ever!" All the crying out to Jehovah during my demon attacks could never compare to my resolve. Once I told them to leave me alone, just like I have done to the JW's here in my area, they stopped bugging me althogether. It has been two years since my last "attack". I only suffer from mild anxiety but it is totally managable.
