Deprived of childhood. The most crucial part of a human life. It was a waste. It was also a crime to have religion forced down your throat and it got worse when I learned about human rights and the constitution. I can't think of anything good that came out of it. I may have a life now, but it's not really living. It's an empty existance. I live the White Knight syndrone just to conceal my inner feeling's of anger and hate. Always question myself about love, do I feel it or do I act it?
What Was It Like To Grow Up A Jehovahs Witness?
by The wanderer 41 Replies latest jw friends
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penny2
To this day I have celebrated nothing EVER!
(((Tyrone))) I hope you get to the point one day, that you want to celebrate.
in my darkest hour everyone of these bastards turned their backs on me
This is so cruel, when young people are abandoned by their families and the congregation. It's hard enough to know how to fend for yourself when being a JW is all you've ever known.
penny2
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The wanderer
Dear Tyrone:
Your personal story was very moving it touched me
in a way that most stories would never have.
Now, I see the difference between a "convert" and
someone "born" a witness.
I apologize to the board and to you Tyrone if at
times I may seem to be "pro" witness.
My experience was the opposite in that once abandon-
ed being a witness helped me.
Tyrone, my friend thank you for sharing. I am not
sure if there are that many stories that I have
read here that are as compelling as yours.
Your friend,
Richard
(The Wanderer) -
Nowman
I felt that my life was normal up until a certain point. It was normal to have a very difficult time at school, it was normal to feel humiliated, it was normal for my parents to beat me until I was 16 years of age, it was normal for me to walk around on pins and needles, it was normal that I would have goals of regular pioneering, it was normal to date and marry someone at 18, it was normal for young person to not truly understand what religion they were apart of, it was normal for me to sit between my parents at the KH watching me constantly, it was normal for me to get in trouble if my parents felt that I did not study hard enough and I wasn't prepared enough in their minds, it was normal for my parents make everyone around me feel uncomfortable because they were so strict (people were afraid of my dad), normal, normal, normal.
I really thought that I was suppose to have this kind of childhood, I really did not know any better. Yet, when I got to highschool, and things were happending at home that were not right, the "worldly" people told me that my life was not right. But, it was normal to think that they were the ignorant ones, not me. The last straw was when I was 16 and had taken clothes that they bought me and changed into them at school, they did not allow me to wear some clothes purchased by them, they found out some how, I got home, I got beat, and then afterwards, my mom cut 8 inches of my hair. I knew something was wrong, why did my parents go insane for changing clothes at school that they bought me? I guess because I went behind their back, this I realize. I felt my parents "snapped" with me all the time. Anyway, too depressing.
Anyway, left at 18 on a Monday night, after I had been out in service all day with my mom, I was a regular pioneer, and never went home.
A JW childhood can make or break you depending how much you can handle as a person, I tend to be a very positive person, and because of this, it helped me get through it, especially the aftermath and how it effects you after you leave! Its been 15 years (almost)! Ya Hoo eeee.
Nikki
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OUTLAW
Wanderer..So my post shouldn`t be too negative or melodramatic..???..By now,you should know with me..You get what you get..LOL!!.....Life as a Dub Kid is Hell..Endless meetings..Constantly tired from being kept up past your bedtime..Forced to join the ministry school and forced to give talks you didn`t understand..Forced to go out in the service..No friends in the nieghbourhood..No friends at school..Constantly singling yourself out at school..Not allowed to join in on sports or any other activities outside of school..Being harrassed for being a JW at school..Being harrassed for not being a good enough JW when you got home....And..I can Identify with all the Dub Kids that have posted to you....We were raised in an Insane Asylum by Retarted Parents..It was not a good start in life...OUTLAW
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TheCoolerKing
What Was It Like To Grow Up A Jehovah’s Witness?
Just one word: MISERY!
Besides the loneliness and the isolation, it was a dreadful feeling of being an outcast. Not to mention the emptiness of a lost childhood that can never be returned.
Here's just one example. One time I wanted to try out for my high school baseball team. I ran home with my permission slip and eagerly waited for my mother to sign it. Unforunately all she did was fold it in half, give it back to me and say: "Tell them you can't join. You are a Jehovah's Witness."
Couldn't even try out for a freaking baseball team! What a twisted way to grow up.
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Crumpet
The wanderer - its not really fair to ask victims of religious abuse and imprisonment to be objective - we'd have to cultivate a dissassociative disorder to do that.
Anyway at best it was painfully boring - I live with a constant fear of boredom as a result and avoid seeing people in case they are boring and I cannot escape them. Sounds ridiculous but I promise you it is true.
At worst it was full of guilt and discipline and no joy.
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happy1975
Basically, it was boring. I realize now that it's an intensely controlling org that doesn't allow you to "find yourself".
I missed out on- Organized sports, dating, higher education.
IT SUCKS.
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The wanderer
Dear Crumpet:
I see your point "The wanderer - its not really fair to ask victims of religious abuse and imprisonment to be objective - we'd have to cultivate a dissassociative disorder to do that."-Crumpet
I just wanted to keep things in proper perspective
and for the thread not to become a contest of
negative comments and remarks.
Scully, Tyrone and Outlaw provided some pretty
good material.
Anyway, Crumpet your point was well taken.
Respectfully,
The Wanderer -
Brigid
So glad you asked, because really, many of us here still need to talk about it. And oh it was loads and loads of fun!!
Born to be 40-somethings, as a sister friend of mine would say. No sense of true Self, instead sublimate your inner nature and model yourSelf after a 1940's mysogonystic, joyless bible salesman turned "Judge".
No real closeness to God--your god is a huge corporate, mean-spirited (jes lookin' for something to smite you over) god who is ever filtered and communicating to you through the Faithful and Discreet Slave.
The same stuff mentioned before. No love. No true friendships. Disconnection with the world around you. No celebrations
Aaaah good times, good times. But it makes you appreciate the world around you so much more once you are out. I liken myself to an immigrant to a new country. Everything seems wonderful and terrifying and new.
~Brigid