feeling blah - angry at the cult...

by EyesOpened 27 Replies latest jw friends

  • EyesOpened
    EyesOpened

    Greetings all,

    I posted awhile back, been "lurking" pretty much daily over the past months and from reading everyone's posts - I actually have gotten to know some of you... sort of... if you read my profile you will know I was a lifer, pretty much knee deep in the 'Borg (picking up the slang...) was in the "club"... pioneer, elder... basic typical drone...

    I stopped cold turkey last fall - didn't go to memorial, special assembly day, district convention, circuit assembly... no field service in almost a year... these are all firsts... and I am 40 years old...

    Guess what, I have ignored phone calls, messages from the cong elders, everyone was panic'd for the first 3 months or so... then it all stopped... no calls... they have written me off I guess... of course it has helped that I moved 45 minutes south of my congo, back to my home town - where everyone in the congs around here know me... the rumor mill has told them something is up, but since I'm not DF or DA, they don't know how to act - so they just ignore me...

    I just need to vent abit - feeling down lately because of the things I have learned - feeling betrayed by my parents for joining such a cult. Blaming JW's for ruining my sister's lives, blaming JW's for wasting my life... I want to go to a meeting and yell during the public talk about how foolish everyone is for belonging to this cult...

    It seems I have accepted the loss all of my conditional friends - hundreds of them in Central Indiana... I see them at the mall, at restaurants and they look right past me... kinda funny now, but it still hurts when my former friends - even the best man at my wedding - refuses to talk to me or even call to ask what is going on and why I stopped... I am invisible. I am free. I am ME!

    Lots of emotions... lots of changes...

    My father has not talked to me since last September... I left my wife of 20 years last October... She took a while to come to grips that I am trying to find who I am - outside the cult... that we married at age 19 because it was the "thing to do"... good examples we were! we regular pioneered in poverty for years... I had the typical janitorial business... We were so young - we didn't know each other, we didn't know ourselves... I hung on faithfully for 2 decades... not knowing myself... not even really knowing what love was, because the Watchtower didn't tell me... long story short, we get along better now than ever before - she actually has become inactive and rarely attends meetings - if only I was honest years ago, things may have been different... but the cult makes you put on a veneer and a "happy face" and you can't even be honest to yourself much less your spouse about how you really feel - don't want to cause trouble... the cult makes you weak and fearful... don't want people to think you are spiritually weak or have them gossip...

    I read an economic article about belief in the future and capitalism and a comment really jumped out me that I'd like to share:

    "Belief in the future is perhaps the most important value for a free society. It is what makes so many interested in getting an education, or investing in a project, or even being nice to their nighbours. If we think that nothing can improve or if we think the world is coming to an end, we don't work hard for a better and more civilised future. And we will all be miserable."

    How true these words ring. Think about it... JW's do not plan for the future, they don't enjoy life now, they don't have goals that bring physical benefits... I was raised in a family where all energy was put towards field service, meetings, conventions, bible... yada yada. Hobbies were not encouraged, recreation was limited, no real family vacations except to go to the convention... creativity was stifled. My parents did not raise me - they let the Watchtower raise me. LAZY. Entire generations of JW's now that have no desires, no real tangible goals - what a waste!

    I'm rambling now... too many thoughts pouring out and it's difficult to put into words my feelings - typical of one who has broken the bonds of a cult - and is repairing the damage... for those of us how spent decades in the cult and giving so much of theirselves - we are exhausted mentally and even physically when we realize it was all wasted effort. Each day I thank myself and nobody else, not god, allah, jah or whoever that I was finally man enough to stand up, think for myself and say "no more".

    Question: what have you done/doing now to diffuse the anger/dismay/hurt ?

    I've read many comments about getting a new "support" group of friends - and that is going well - I have lot's of real friends now - at work etc... so the social scene is good... I'm talking about how at night, when I close my eyes - I flash back to things that are so obviously cultish and controlling... it's almost an obsession with me... when I talk to my wife (we are still married... for now...) the conversation always ends with a rant from me about how I blame JW's... one day I looked to the sky and gave god the finger... we were talking about money and the lack of enough...

    enough for now... thanks for letting me ramble...

    EO

  • fullofdoubtnow
    fullofdoubtnow

    Hi eyesopened, and welcome to the forum

    Your anger is understandable, most of us on here have felt or still feel the same way. I know I did when I first realised I had been duped for so long.

    The loss of all your friends is kind of hard to take at first, isn't it? It just shows you how controlling this cult is, that lifelong friends will walk past you as if you weren't there because you no longer believe as they do. I took a while to get used to that, but however bad it gets, it's worth it to be free.

    Linda

  • parakeet
    parakeet

    ***what have you done/doing now to diffuse the anger/dismay/hurt?***
    Living your life as best you can and lots of time will eventually blunt the sense of betrayal. But it will never go away entirely.

  • poppers
    poppers

    Hello EO - this is the place to vent.
    It's true that working towards a future goal may better your circumstances, so getting an education is a worthwhile thing. What isn't true is that your happiness lies in the future and depends on what may or may not happen. "Now" is all you have, so happiness can only happen now. When distressing thoughts overwhelm you take time to notice your surroundings right now - just notice, just look, no need to think about anything, no need to judge anything, including yourself. Feel your own presence by focusing on your breath and how that feels going in and out of your lungs; put attention on what's happening inside your body - just observe what's here in this very moment. This will help you disengage the mind and the stories it will dredge up from the past or imagined future. Return to this immediate moment whenever you find yourself thinking about things, especially those that are upsetting. Now is always here, and now has no past to contaminate it or future to disturb it. Discover this simple truth and everything will change.

  • thecarpenter
    thecarpenter

    what have you done/doing now to diffuse the anger/dismay/hurt?

    Start living your life and don't look back. There are many, many positive things that you can start doing for yourself and wife... start doing them.

    When I finally left, I took about 2 months to read everything I could about the jdubs to dispense with many of the concerns I had. I also started to develop friendships with my coworkers, with non-witness family members, joins some clubs (such as ex-jw yahoo meetup group) and so on. It has been about 5 months since I've been to a meeting and now I'm going to finish my college education (classes start august 30th).

    As for the more difficult part I'm talking about how at night, when I close my eyes - I flash back to things that are so obviously cultish and controlling... it's almost an obsession with me... when I talk to my wife (we are still married... for now...) the conversation always ends with a rant from me about how I blame JW's... one day I looked to the sky and gave god the finger... we were talking about money and the lack of enough... I went through this for awhile before I finally left the witnesses. Yes the organization took away many of your years, Yes they took away much of your resources, Yes they misled you... it's a cult, what you expect? Personally I no longer focus on what they took away but what I can do now. I can't control what happened in the past but I can control what happens in the future. Look at what other people have went through and yet made a success of their life, you can do the same. It may take a little time, but slowly move on with your life, there is so much out there.

  • xjwms
    xjwms

    I know of what you speak

    when I was 20...I was offered a free education...and a career job...............instead............

    I got baptised and pioneered... it was 1968 the nam war and I was drafted...I should not have got the wt pioneer thing and took

    a desk job that was offered by the draft board...continued my schooling and took the job.

    Now at my age....I want 36 years back.......How different things could be.

    Maybe just maybe I would have a better life.

  • troubled mind
    troubled mind

    You ask how to diffuse the anger ? .......You're doing it ! Give it a voice , have others hear your pain . It takes time but I have found the more I let out the better I feel . My hope is that eventually I will have lightened my mental load enough that I will no longer need to vent as much . Time will tell I've got 40 yrs. of pent up anger too!

  • Warlock
    Warlock

    Welcome to the club, my friend.

    Warlock

  • done4good
    done4good

    Welcome eyesopened!

    Some of that story sounds very familiar.

    j

  • itsallgoodnow
    itsallgoodnow

    welcome, eyesopened. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. Cults are horrible. You are at the lowest point now, though and things will get better.

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