How Does Having Been A Jehovah's Witness Have An Impact On Your Life?

by minimus 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  crazyblondeb

  What I thought were true friends,shunned me on a dime; My stepdad molesting me, and it being covered up; Having my family tossed into chaos that we are still healing from; Not allowed a normal childhood; JC meetings that were emotionally abusive, almost letting my little sister die because of no blood.....

  yea, I still have trust and self confidence issues. BIGTIME! Among other things. I can think of nothing good they have brought to my life. I have battled suicide attempts, drug addiction, etc......because of them. The healing has just begun.....
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  DesertRat

  In so many ways..

  The biggest frustration for me is that consciously or intellectually I realized long ago that I was fed a lie (the false doctrines & prophecies, etc.) for so many years, yet the emotional & psychological issues (friends left behind, will I really die at Armageddon, etc) have up to now refused to go away..

  AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
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  minimus

  I don't worry about dying at Armageddon.
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  done4good

  Probably much of the same of most people here: Don't know how to handle holidays. Even though I have always been mentally tough enough to deal with it, sometimes I have a low measure of self worth, (remember the 5 weekly "beatings", etc...). I tend to find myself thinking negatively unecessarily. Not close to any non-Witness relatives, (BIG peeve...). Very unsure about my current "religious" belief system.

  OTOH: I think some of my mental toughness came from being a Witness, (the whole "that what dosen't kill you makes you stronger" thing).
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  FairMind

  There are many positives. I stopped smoking, became moral, acquired good communication skills and generally stayed out of trouble. On the negative side there has been a lot of interference in my life by men who have gone out of their way to hurt and humiliate me for taking back control of my life.
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  sunshineToo

  I'm more self-confident, thoughtful, reasonable, rational, and liberal. Looking back I can't believe how much insecure and naive I was. If I was as strong as I am now then, I would have made a different choice. Sigh....as they say, "Live and Learn."
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  sammielee24

  I think it's impossible for one raised as a JW to have any idea what might have been if they weren't. When we say - being raised in it helped me stay away from drugs etc., how do we know that being raised outside of it, would have made your morals, values or good experiences any different? swife
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  minimus

  I believe that being raised a certain way, in this case as a JW, makes you who you are. The rest of my non JW family were not the most upstanding individuals. I believe that if I had my father's guidance vs. my mom's (JW) nurturing, I would be very different. However, I'm not thrilled that I was raised a JW because I gave up a "normal" life.