Undoing Watchtower Damage

by metatron 5 Replies latest jw friends

  • metatron
    metatron

    Undoing years of damage caused by the deceit of Watchtower ideology
    isn't easy. I'm still adapting to "seeing the world anew" and
    dealing discreetly with relatives and friends. I am able to
    transmit a few suggestions I've found helpful in this difficult
    process:

    1) Reach out to your non-Witness relatives and associates. Treat
    them the way you should have treated them all these years. Send
    a card or a present once in a while - even celebrate the holidays,
    if you can get away with it. Learn to love - again. If you are sincere
    and try hard, you may be surprized at how forgiving 'worldly'
    people can be - make a conscious effort to let go of the obsessive
    judgementalism that marks Witness life. Take a walk thru a shopping
    mall and tell yourself "these people are no different from me,
    they have just as much right to life and happiness as I do".

    2) Get an education, if you need one. There are plenty of non
    traditional ways to get a degree or training. Look at Charter
    Oak in Conn. or Thomas Edison College in New Jersey. BYU offers
    excellent courses for about $100 a credit. Using spare time this
    way helps with the healing - after decades of feeling guilty,
    beaten-down, "never good enough as a Witness" - it is wonderful
    to feel tears of joy roll down your cheek while Pomp and
    Circumstance is playing - and you get handed your diploma.
    They can take away your house and repossess your car, but a
    good education is yours forever, period!

    3) Treat your own life with kindness and love - You don't
    have to become wanton and deranged just because you gave up
    the "truth". Why waste your body with smoking, drugs or unsafe
    sex? Success is the best revenge. What effect will it have on
    your zombified Witless relatives if your LIFE and HEALTH improves
    after years of emotional degradation? Get a subscription to
    Life Extension magazine (www.lef.org) ADD SOME years to make up
    for what was wasted. I kid you not, REAL treatments for aging
    are close at hand - stay informed!!

    4)Know that the world is changing rapidly - for most people,
    there has never been a more exciting or interesting time to
    be alive. We are entering an age of miracles - in time, by learning
    to personally adapt NOW, you may pave the way for your tired
    Witless relatives and friends to throw off their stupifying,
    deadening chains of Watchtower misrule.

    The future can be your friend

    metatron

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    Preach it, metatron.
    I agree, get the best out of life and don't let the past dictate your future. Expecially when it comes to your happiness!
    Randy

    Ex-JWs.net
    http://www.exjws.net

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    Good advice, Metatron. I wish I had such advice available to me 25 years ago.

  • patio34
    patio34

    Hi Metatron,

    As I was reading your fine post, I was thinking "yeah, i'm doing that' repeatedly. "Great minds run in the same channel." I'm ingratiating myself into your fine intellect!

    Actually, i figure i've 'lost' 2 part-time jobs this year and given me lots more time for self-development. One was the JWs and the other was a family situation.

    One was a leech and the other a parasite. The leech just sucked your energies (the WTS) but the parasite could get inside your brain and make you sick (family ties that bind and gag!). But both problems solved now and i'm enjoying the philosophy you recommend. Taking a couple of classes, looking for book discussion group, and reading tons on philosophy, etc.

    Thanks for the tips!
    Pat

  • patio34
    patio34

    P. S. Your opinions on 'worldly' people was one of the 1st attitude changes I noticed. I actually had quite an awakening and still do viewing them as not 'wicked.' When a JW, we were constantly wrestling with WHY so many nice people were adjudged 'wicked' and going to be destroyed. So we were looking for the worst in people to justify our narrow, judgmental views of them.

    Whew!
    Pat

  • larc
    larc

    Metatron,

    I know you are a brilliant man, because I agree with everything you say. heee heee. Good advice bro.

    One other piece of advice I would give. This advice was in latin on a wall in Pompi, some graffiti. "Don't let the bastards wear you down."

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