Posts by Pickler

35

I am exhausted emotionally.

by PaintedToeNail in

jw
friends

i have been reading ashley judd's 'all things bitter and sweet' autobiography, and it has exhausted me.

she paints a picture of neglect and abuse from early childhood on.

as i sat reading, i realised i was identifying with so much of what she wrote.. why, when having an emotional breakdown as a teenager, major obsessive compulsive disorder, obvious depression symptoms, would you refuse to get medical help for your child?

Pickler

PTN, and everyone on this thread, I feel so bad for you all. I had similar experiences in my childhood.

I think being ignored in this way is the worst kind of damage. I've met lots of people (non JW) who laugh about their poor or brutal childhoods, but when you question them more deeply....no matter how bad the family there always seems to be memories of happiness/joy/excitement & love, the Xmas,birthdays, fun times.

You see documentaries in some of the poorest parts of the world, and you see love between parents and children.

I've noticed a lot of JW just don't have this.

my childhood has resulted in me being so repressed emotionally, sometimes I've wondered if I'm autistic, but, no, I think it is just a defense that was a natural response to how I was being raised

now I am a parent, I see that they were wrong, not me.

can I recommend reading on child development? I found that really helpful, learning what is normal for children has helped stop me from judging myself to harshly over what happened in the past. Being a parent has made me realize that I can feel love.

Im sorry your childhood was this bad PTN,

12

Discipline or child abuse? Still going on in the hall?

by Pickler in

does anyone else remember all the discipline of children at the meetings?

i was just thinking how i never see anyone physically punish their children anymore.

growing up attending meetings there was a constant stream of children being taken out & hit, as well as all the whispered threats, arm squeezing, pinching etc.

Pickler

So it seems that this culture has died out then....that's good.

interesting troubled mind & cofty it's because of legal changes in the world & fear of what the neighbors will think, no change for the better driven by elders or the WTS!

Girl next door......good for you, I wish I'd seen you stand up to that elder!

Cptkirk you say it sounds kinky, it was. I thought it was so wrong, one of those things where you feel sick afterwards, but, everyone seemed to think that this mother was completely within her rights to do this. No one would have dreamed of saying anything.

Thats my 10 posts gone....catch ya later

12

Discipline or child abuse? Still going on in the hall?

by Pickler in

does anyone else remember all the discipline of children at the meetings?

i was just thinking how i never see anyone physically punish their children anymore.

growing up attending meetings there was a constant stream of children being taken out & hit, as well as all the whispered threats, arm squeezing, pinching etc.

Pickler

Does anyone else remember all the discipline of children at the meetings? I was just thinking how I never see anyone physically punish their children anymore. Growing up attending meetings there was a constant stream of children being taken out & hit, as well as all the whispered threats, arm squeezing, pinching etc

Some dads even took their kids out, and then you knew they were in for it!

What was horrible was the approval amongst a lot of the elders & older ones in the hall, you could sometimes see them nodding their heads in agreement as the poor kid was dragged out. In a strange way parents got a lot of social approval for harshly disciplining their children. In the meetings discipline was equated with love. There was never anything about the dangers of giving angry, repressed people free reign to lay into their kids.

I once saw a sister slap her daughter really hard in a meeting, this girl was 18, and so mortified.

My Mum bought wooden spoons in bulk because she got sick of breaking them on us ( I know that sounds funny, but it's true !)

The thing is, in my generation we were all hit, a lot. None of us would say anything about it, it was sanctioned in the hall, if some of these children were then sexually abused, well......where could they go? What could they say?

I really hope someone is going to post that times have changed & this is not seen as OK anymore?

7

What will kids say when commenting at meetings

by darthfader in

i was just mailed this today -- thought it was funny.

(please forgive me if this is a dupe - i tried to search for similar jokes on this site).. .

oops too much tv time watching those commercials!.

Pickler

I remember a 2/3 year old calling out "help me Jehovah!" As he was being dragged out by 1 arm for some loving discipline during a meeting......

how everyone chuckled smugly (heartwarming !). poor kid still got whacked though

13

1973 versus 2013 (40 years later)... How much confidence have J-Dubs lost in the Slave's "End-Time" estimations?

by Calebs Airplane in

back in 1973, when i was just a pre-teen, i remember that meetings in general were chock full of persecution talks, great tribulation talks and armageddon talks.

so much so, that there was a hightened sense of anticipation that the end was really just a few years away.

most j-dubs really believed, without any doubt, that freddy's estimation about armageddon in 1975 was a certainty (give or take a few months... not years).

Pickler

Desirous of change, I haven't been to meetings in a long time, but if that's what they are like, then they have become just like Christendom. When I went it was all urgent! Urgent!

In a strange way what you are describing sounds a lot more relaxed & social, so maybe more people will just stay in in a half assed way....in this diluted JW?

i know I could not stand the stress of constantly being exorted to do more, more, more before the end, never feeling good enough, never being ready for Armageddon, the fear that I would be found lacking.

25

Addressing The False Claim That Jehovah's Witnesses Do Not Think "Independently"

by Bangalore in

jw
friends

addressing the false claim that jehovah's witnesses do not think "independently.. .

http://defendingjehovahswitnesses.blogspot.com/2013/02/addressing-false-claim-that-jehovahs.html#.

from a wt apologist.. .

Pickler

Hahahah.....so you must independently look for the truth...oh here's something called "The Truth" so stop looking & thinking now....

This is so bad, I almost feel that it is a joke...but sadly it probably isn't.

3

Do the JWs practice devotional time or quite time?

by FingersCrossed in

like what jesus did and christians are supposed to have quite time/time spent with god.. .

matthew 26:26. mark 1:35. luke 5:16.

Pickler

I don't know when a JW with a job, family & meetings to contend with would ever find the time to meditate?

37

Health - has anyone else suffered long lasting health effects from years with the Borg?

by Chariklo in

does anyone else feel or know that jehovah's witnesses damaged their health?.

i know many have emerged with depression, and i'm very relieved that i am not one of them.. but, being the age i am, (a large tribe of grandchildren) i was nonetheless pressured to go out door to door in steep countryside often in bad weather, and because i was doing my best to keep up that ended in an injury which has proved to be long lasting.. and that's not counting the stress-induced consequences...i won't cite them all here, but physical.

a few days in hospital and a summer spent on compulsory almost complete rest can all be laid at the watchtower's door.the trauma of actually extricating oneself from the borg is not stopped when one has finally written that letter that disassociates oneself from them.

Pickler

I had Depression & self harm as a child/teen ..which I would say was 100 percent related to being a witness & being so alone & anxious about Armageddon.

It took me a long time to learn how to look after my own health, so maybe neglect of my own health was a long lasting effect of being a JW.

Where I grew up, there were so many obese people in the congregation.

A lot self medicated with food or alcohol.

oh, and my feet are shot due to the hours I spent on field service & at meetings in inappropriate but pretty shoes! That's totally my fault though...vanity!!

30

Elders- Have any of You faded Because of participating in a JC where the Arguments from the accused made sense to you?

by truthlover in

i know the question is long, but it has occured to me that there are a lot of newbies here but before that, many ex elders, some co and do's that are no longer jw's.... did the publishers comments at a jc about the misconceptions,dates, and lack of holy spirit, etc.

make sense to you and did you start thinking about the failed prophecies, fudging the "new light" etc.

which caused you to slowly fade away.. .

Pickler

This is interesting, I never thought about the cost to the psyche of the elders who sit on the JC.

Im also amazed when I hear about people who go to the elders with problems, they really expect help? Or feel better for confessing their sins like in a Catholic Church? I feel like this is similar to going to the Police to confess a crime.

I feel sad for you guys too, not all elders obviously!!!! But I see how you are trying to do your best, they are always asking you to "reach out". Before you know it you are sitting in a JC, listening to things you don't want to hear, making decisions you don't want to make.

I'm sorry about this

20

My name is GLADIA... :-) Rijk Janssen :-) :-)

by Rijk in

jw
friends

hoi,.

my name is rijk janssen.. seven years ago i have a few posts related to an open letter, as "gladiator".. ( http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/88095/1/seventh-open-letter ).. i knew the email address and password of that account any more.. my english is not good so i never came her again.. now with translation sites it might better weather to read along.

( http://www.vertalen.nu .

Pickler

Hey Rijk, welcome to the forum again!