Were You More Depressed & Sick When You Were An Active Witness? (page 2)

minimus

JWs live in a rut. They go thru the motions. They are all little hamsters.

Yes, I used to be chronically blue when I was a jw. Even as a jw I used to acknowledge that the meetings used to depress me. Not just the 'do more do more' demands from the society, but the mind games in the literature and the fakeness of the 'friends'. Althought I was unhappy and privately disagreed with so much, I felt trapped because I wanted to keep on serving jehovah, thinking this was the truth, etc.

I was very depressed and distraught when I first started my exit last year. But that has slowly faded as I have progressed through my grieving and am reclaiming my life and mind.

I realise with the understanding of hindsight that being in a cult was what was so depressing. Life outside the cult is great!

flipper

I have always been a pretty upbeat guy , glass is half full kind of a guy - but being a Jehovah's Witness was just a more stressful type of life . 5 meetings a week, Saturday morning service , cramming my secular employment around it all ! Too much. I didn't smile much because I felt as if I was on a treadmill! I never get sick , very seldom , lucky that way - but I'm much happier and healthier since I got out

cognizant dissident

I was depressed and anxious when I was a JW although I don't blame that entirely on the religion. Abusive parents had a lot to do with it. Cold, indifferent husband. Illness and pain. Generally, I am a really positive, cheerful person, but years of those other things began to wear on me and led to chronic depression. However, now that I am out, I have a much better mental outlook. Even though none of those other situations have changed, I don't have such a pessimisitic, guilty, perfectionistic, judgemental outlook as I used to. Illness, pain, difficult relationships, will always be a part of life for most people at some time or other. It is the way that JW's teach you to look at those problems in a black or white/all or nothing way that is so detrimental and breeds depression I believe.

I still get down because of certain situations, but now I think, this too shall pass. I don't get myself all worked up into an anxious mind set about problems to the extent I used to. I find meditating really helps with depression and anxiety. It helps to keep problems in perspective and not to blow them out of proportion.

Cog

mind my own

My life has improved 100-fold. I hated my life before. I never want to feel the way I did growing up and into my early adult years.

MMO

Aphrodite

YES! I had panic attacks when I went to the Kingdon hall, I was depressed and for some strange reason every Tuesday night I felt sick.

Now I NEVER feel sick on Tuesdays!

Im sure Id still have a panic attack on entring a Kingdom Hall though.

wha happened?

I was so royally screwed up. Looking back now I am really surprised I am alive today

LouBelle

well not really - but I was overweight-ish when I was a witness hoping for the bloody end to come so I could get a perfect body - I mean bodily training was beneficial for nothing remember. But when I left - hit the gym, started eating a lot better, felt good to feel good about me - for it to be okay to show a lil bit of cleavage and to feel sexy. So yes in that regards - changed. I should actually put up my old pics and give the whole long story - one day...

WTWizard

I never had physical health problems to any degree. But, while I was a witless, I would get headaches that were from not getting enough sleep every Sunday from having to go to the boasting session followed by working that evening. I also got headaches from the a$$emblies. I no longer get those headaches.

I also feel that being a witless made a bad situation with meeting the opposite sex much worse. I never had much success in the first place, and they have to sabotage it every time so I got none at all. They even used the April 1, 1995 Puketower study article as a catalyst to go and have the sisters reject me at a$$emblies. That situation probably will never change, especially since I had a share in destroying value, promoting pedophilia, and probably even having someone die while I was a witless. But I do not need to be dragged in to make that situation even worse than it already is.

As for preventing physical health problems, I think quitting the witlesses helped. I got out of eating fast, good-tasting poison for lunch every day by not pioneering (and I am getting out of pioneering by being an apostate). By not going to the Kingdumb Hell, I am staying out of some of the driest air on the planet, and all those unhealthy fumes (dry cleaning fumes and from the littera-trash). No longer do I have to worry about getting tuberculosis at the door. And I am able to sleep without a big fat boasting session in the way, which could easily prevent me from coming down with diabetes in the future.

Mr. Majestic

I don’t feel quite as bad as I did going. There is something that grinds you down when you attend. I don’t know exactly what it is but it is there. Towards the end I used to get a feeling of unease just putting on the suit and tie, thinking about going to a meeting.

But as has been said, when you tell someone about how you feel and they say that it must be you, then that can be quite devastating. The mentality is that Jehovah and his organization cannot be wrong, therefore it must be something that you are not doing right. That puts the pressure and guilt on you. What makes me laugh now is that I started to look into myself to see what it was I was doing wrong. The amount of self-analysis I did looking for what I was not doing right. Then one day I realized that it wasn’t me. That made me feel a whole lot better.

Once you break the mind set that it is actually the organisation that is wrong, you get better from then on.

Were You More Depressed & Sick When You Were An Active Witness?