by Trying2understand 13 Replies latest jw friends
I pretty much know the answer, but would like to hear other peoples opinions.
This is what I have been seeing. They can be so nice and then act so cold at times. While been disfellowshipped they discovery that there is more to life and start to rebel. They then have their family pulling them one way, when they want to go another. They are then in the middle.
Is this what makes them act this way or is this a personality trait the JW's have?
Thanks!
no...in answer to your question.
I think there is great spiritual, mental, emotional and intellectual conflict in most JWs that have been disfellowshipped. All that chaos in your mind can cause people to behave erratically and may seem to have split personalities. They are learning and coping with the fact that everything they have been taught to believe is a lie.
Thank you for the reply. Then I guess I didn't know the answer? : ( How mind boggling. : )~ I guess this attitude is more of a personal issue or just being a jerk?
Thank you scarred for life. That does make a lot of sense.
OK Let's clarify something.
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD now known as Dissociative Identity Dosirder - DID)is a medical diagnosis and requires a very particular set of conditions for it to exist. Most often it is the direct result of early childhood severe and most often repeated abuses.
The vast majority of people raised as JWs, or raised in any cult, do not fit into the criteria for MPD/DID.
However, what cult members do have is a cult personality and the real self. The real self can be expressed when outside the field of the cult world where they can let down their guard. The cult personality is triggered by anything that has to do with the cult. Even an innocent question about the cult is enough trigger the cult personality to take over.
At meetings or when with other cult members the true self is suppressed. The true self may or may not be aware of the changes in how they behave. Those who live the double life will find the stress of living this way more and more difficult as time goes on. Over time they will allow their true self more expression.
Being DFed and still going to meetings is an extremey stressful thing to do. Sitting in a room and being ignored by everyone - I did it for one meeting and that was enough for me. My heart goes out to those who sit through it to get reinstated.
Lady Lee, thank you for breaking it down.
He was fine the other day(Past couple of months to be exact) or should I say he seemed fine. Lastnight when he met up with us, he seemed very cold towards me. I was the one closest to him and he decided to say hello to the people besides me first. It's like I wasn't even there. LOL! When he did decide to say hello, it was so fake. He knows that I am 100% against his Borg, but this is nothing new to him. I was just trying to figure out why he was acting like this now.
He has somewhat acted like this in the past, but with my daughter.
I agree with Lady Lee's take on this. I think JW's in general (and especially those raised in) have to be good at compartmentalising their lives and emotions in order to survive the whole experience. IMO this mentality can give way to a degree of duplicitous behaviour in some people.
Thanks for the reply Mickey Mouse.. : )
All said, in my experience, there do seem a disproportionate number of multiple personality disordered people attracted to and left zombified by the Jehovah's Witness religion. Whether their Watchtower induced anxieties exasabate a pre-existing condition or expand on one already present can only be judged on a case by case basis.
One of my sisters has this condition (most likely bought on by early child abuse), my ex-wife likewise and a disfellowshipped woman I work alongside. All three have the condition complicated no end by Watchtower brainwashing and Kingdom Hall snobery/hierachical oppression.
unclebruce
