I wouldn't call them mentally ill but are being made sick by that religion. Now why I say this is because a few years back I was a member of a smaller ExJW forum. There was a former JW who talked a bit about her life. She was raised as a Catholic, but was swayed by the JW teaching and eventually became one. She was a witness for several years, and during the course of time she ended up on different medications, one of them being for Manic Depression. Eventually, she saw through the lies of the Watchtower and left. By the time one year had passed, under her doctors care, she was able to come off of all the medication she was on for all her issues. She said when she told us that several years had passed by, and even to that day she still had a clean bill on her mental health.
Tameria2001
JoinedPosts by Tameria2001
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39
What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?
by minimus ini tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.
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i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?
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Tameria2001
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39
What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?
by minimus ini tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.
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i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?
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Tameria2001
minimus, Don't worry, she is a very toxic woman. It is ironic, getting shunned by that woman actually saved my sanity, and marriage.
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39
What Are The Differences Between JWs Born In and Converted?
by minimus ini tend to think that many jws who joined the religion in their later years feel foolish or are embarrassed by their decision to become one of jehovah’s witnesses.
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i’m not embarrassed by my years “in the truth “ because i was raised from infancy to believe everything was god’s word and who are we to question jehovah and his organization?
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Tameria2001
I was around 4 1/2 when mom became a JW, and at the time I couldn't figure out why certain things were happening to me, until much later. My mother was one of those JWs who would be very zealous for a while, then she would totally stop attending for a while. Then after some time would go by as an inactive witness she would start back being the zealous JW again. My whole life growing up was like this. There was even one time she actually threw all her Watchtower literature into the dumpster. Dad (never was a JW) and my younger sister went and dug it all back out again. I could never figure out that man, he didn't want anything to do with it, but then he would turn around and do stuff like that.
Whenever mom was what you would call inactive, I would be able to go to sleep peacefully. But every single time she would go back to those meetings, I would start having these awful and horrible nightmares. They always revolved around very graphics visions of death. At the time I couldn't understand why I was having those nightmares, it was so bad that even if I closed my eyes during prayer, I would see stuff. So I asked my mother why is it every time we would go back to the meetings these night terrors would wake me up. I can recall a couple of times where I woke up screaming from them. Her response was this, "Satan is losing his grasp on you, so he is attacking you in your sleep." Later my thoughts turned into something else, and it was, "If this is God's true religion, isn't he stronger than Satan, why can't he protect my sleep?" I had constantly prayed before I went to sleep that I wouldn't have any nightmares.
At the time I couldn't figure out the connection, until much later on when my own son at the age of 5 started having the very same night terrors as I had, and this was a major reason why I decided to research this religion that I was in.
Looking back on what I had endured with those night terrors, and the reason behind them was the Watchtower religion, their publications (the artwork), and their fascination with death and destruction at Armageddon.
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A Cult Tactic: Removing Guilt By Dehumanising Others
by pale.emperor inin the real world, very few parents would disown their own children simply because they read a magazine that told them to do it.
very few people would forever completely ignore their own parents because an elder got up on a platform one day and announced that they no longer follow the same religion as you.. in the real world it just doesn't happen.
and yet, for 8 million jehovah's witnesses it's very a normal part of their world to treat "other people" differently than they'd treat each other.
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Tameria2001
When Simon said and what the OP said, it brought back a memory of what my JW mother told me. She said if it was not for the law of the land, and she would go away for murder, she would have no problem stoning me to death. This goes way beyond not being invited to the family BBQ.
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It baffles me why they would even say this
by Tameria2001 inback in 2001, i left the jws rather abruptly.
i had discovered things about the watchtower that really made me quite angry, angry because i had been lied to, and it took me just to darn long to figure it out.
before i had left, my husband and i wrote 3 letters, one to the elders at our congregation, and two to our parents.
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Tameria2001
That makes total sense, jwundubbed. My mother is still with my father even after all the bull he put her, and me through. He cheated on her a number of times, and there was at least once where the other woman confronted my mother right in front of her children. He had no issues in even trying to hide what he did. He even told his own children that he didn't love mom, and never did. I never even understood why my parents stayed together. I don't know how many kids out there felt this way, but I was one who wished mine were divorced. It was pure hell growing up in my household.
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1975—Were You Affected By What 1975 Was Supposed to Bring?
by minimus infor years , we were told to wait until 1975!.
the end was coming and we better be ready—or else!.
were you around during this “momentous “ time??
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Tameria2001
I sure was affected by the 1975 lie. I had an older sister who had passed away. She was 6 and I was 5, and we were very close. We looked so much alike that people often mistook us for twins. I still remember at that tender age what she was wearing while she was laying in her casket. She was wearing a very pretty red velvet dress with white poofy short sleeves, white ankle socks trimmed in lace, and black patent dress shoes, I was not supposed to touch her while she lay in her casket, but I did. Even to this day I still remember how cold her little arm was.
She was the reason mom became a JW, my sister had died in 1974, and our cousin (a JW) told mom that in the fall of 1975 this old system of things will pass away, and if she became a JW, she would survive it and be reunited with her daughter once again. This lie was, in turn, was told to me, because mom was so excited about this. I didn't quite understand at the time the whole concept of Armageddon and the death of the majority of the population. All I knew was that I would soon get to see my sister and that we would get to play with each other once again. But 1975 came and gone, 1976 came and gone, and so on. The sad part was I would remember going to bed and crying myself to sleep for many years after that because I still was missing my older sister. Where was she, she was supposed to be back in my life, but she was still gone. Instead of allowing a child to go through the normal grief, I was fed nothing but lies which kept my hope up, until I had to face the reality of the real truth about the matter.
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21
It baffles me why they would even say this
by Tameria2001 inback in 2001, i left the jws rather abruptly.
i had discovered things about the watchtower that really made me quite angry, angry because i had been lied to, and it took me just to darn long to figure it out.
before i had left, my husband and i wrote 3 letters, one to the elders at our congregation, and two to our parents.
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Tameria2001
Back in 2001, I left the JWs rather abruptly. I had discovered things about the Watchtower that really made me quite angry, angry because I had been lied to, and it took me just to darn long to figure it out. Before I had left, my husband and I wrote 3 letters, one to the elders at our congregation, and two to our parents. Originally we were just going to fade away, and the letters were there just in case, and the just in case happened in the form of my butt in your business brother in law.
Two days after we sent them off, it was first a couple of elders from the congregation we had attended came by. They were just making sure that I was the one who had sent those letter, and not some imposter. I did, and they asked why, and I told them. That was that.
Four days after I sent the letter off to my mom, she showed up; we lived about two hours away from each other. And again she too asked me why, and I told her why.
Then she said something to me that it really baffles me why she said what she said. Also, my mother in law said this very same thing to her son as well, and both of these women said this; "Even if I discover that this is not the true religion, I will never walk away, I have invested too much of my life to ever walk away." Both of these women became JWs back in 1974, with the promise that this old system of things will pass away in the fall of 1975.
The really sad part with this whole thing is they never got to know their grandsons because they choose to stay away. They never bonded with their own grandchildren, and now they are missing out on getting to know their great-grandson.
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Great tribulation
by dothemath inyou've likely heard all this before, but i had to laugh (silently) at the public talk today.. he focused on how close we are to the end.
we're not only in the last days, but we're in "the final part" of the last days.. also, we are nearing "the end of the final part of the last days".
he didn't read any scriptures backing up how the last days are broken up like this.. i went today since relatives es were visiting, but it was more entertaining than usual.. as well, the gb isn't warning us about armageddon, rather they're mainly warning about the great tribulation, which is "very, very, close!
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Tameria2001
I see they are still beating a dead horse.
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30
There is something I don't understand about the selling off of Kingdom Halls
by Tameria2001 ini have been reading where the watchtower is closing down kingdom halls.
there is something that i don't understand, or maybe i am just misunderstanding it.
can someone clear this up for me?
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Tameria2001
I guess I must have been one of the dumb ones then I guess, but again this was before I understood how it all works. I remember the last congregation I attended when I was still single was an older building. Then later they built a new one, this was what got my interest in the building projects. I didn't even realize that the money that they got from the sale from the old kingdom hall didn't even go to the new kingdom hall.
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30
There is something I don't understand about the selling off of Kingdom Halls
by Tameria2001 ini have been reading where the watchtower is closing down kingdom halls.
there is something that i don't understand, or maybe i am just misunderstanding it.
can someone clear this up for me?
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Tameria2001
Now I see why they want to keep their members dumbed-down. It is to keep the rank and file JWs from realizing they are royally being screwed over with their money and time.
