POLL Do you think the average JW is happy?

aSphereisnotaCircle

I noticed on another thread a poster stating that he felt that unhappy JW's were in the minority.

What do you think?

I think your average JW thinks they're happy, because if they're not, then their doing something wrong, because Jehovah's people are supposed to be the "Happy People". They are programmed to believe if they leave they will never truly be happy. I know of a lot of JW's who take anti depressants. If they left, they might find they didn't need them at all.( that's not to say there aren't people who truly are clinically depressed ) I was never happy as a JW, but I always pretended to be. I was a great actor that way. Now that I'm out, I am the happiest person around, and I don't have to fake it!!!

possible-san

A feeling of happiness is up to persons.
So, in the same situation, a certain person is happy, and a certain person is unhappy.

But since I was unhappy in the organization, I left from Jehovah's Witnesses "for me."

IMO, it is unhappy to finish life as a Jehovah's Witness.

possible

P.S.
Rutherford used people and did extravagant life in the period of the Great Depression.
If we are in that organization, we will be used like a slave for those leaders.

Incidentally, Mr. Rutherford's "preaching time" was zero.

Homerovah the Almighty

Not in a true sense, its more of a forced happiness instructed and designed by the authoritative figures,

call it an arranged smile of pretentiousness.

Not what psychologists would consider healthy.

When people are continually told that this world we live in with most people in it are about to die

are smiling because of this, you can assume there is mental illness there.

Scarred for life

I can only speak for myself and my immediate and extended family observations. The happiest years of my life so far have been AFTER I left the JWs and the home that I was raised in. There is no denying that. My life began when I left the home I was raised in and started my own independent life in another state. I had graduated from college and was able to get a decent job and pay my own way. I have married, had 3 children and raised them in a totally different way than the way I was raised. I have a good marriage and 3 children that do not live in fear nor dwell in negativity nor believe that the world is coming to an end. They are happy, have many friends, and look forward to the future and believe they have many choices.

My sister and I have discussed in the past year what a nightmare it was for us being raised as JWs. She also feels that her life is better after leaving that cult.

As far as my extended family that are still JWs or were raised in the cult. All I see is depression, some frustration and bewilderment from some of the older ones about why Armageddon has not come yet, and more than one set of cousins that have no money at all saved for retirement. These cousins are all 55 and up. Several relatives I can think of are severely, severely depressed. One is so depressed she cannot even function or hold a job. She was abandoned for a worldly woman by her "faithful" MS husband about 25 years ago. She has never moved on.

Another cousin who spent several years at Bethel has a severe drinking problem, has been married 2 or 3 times and now lives in a duplex beside his mother. He has been disfellowshipped more than once and I think is no longer attending meetings at all.

Another cousin that died, her husband has remarried a JW from the Phillipines. Someone he met online. He lives in a house that is in terrible condition. He has a very low level, low paying job in heating and air conditioning. His wife from the Phillipines probably thought she was marrying some rich American. Surprise! She hates it here, is very unhappy and wants to go back to the Phillipines very badly.

One uncle that I sometimes have email correspondence with just recently emailed me with some comments about "having" to go to these assemblies and the time that it took. Then he sort of backtracked and said that he really enjoyed these assemblies he didn't mean that he "had" to go. He is 75 in great health, full of energy and very creative and industrious and talented. He became a JW when he was 60. I can see the time commitments and everything else sucking the life right out of him. I emailed him back and told him that I did not believe that he enjoyed the assemblies and he was making the choice to spend his time that way. I told him maybe he should be spending his time in a more meaningful way like with his children and grandchildren. I haven't heard back from him.

So in my opinion, the average JW is extremely unhappy and their only "hope" of happiness is in the "New World". Very, very sad.

OUTLAW

Your average JW thinks they are happy....Because..The WBT$ says they are happy............................OUTLAW

DeanOs

ah .. ... just couldn't help but start with the bright smiley -- little ironic ?? maybe, or not..

Truth be said, I was not terribly unhappy in the Org. But then too i think this harks-back to what one own's personal background is..

(Please allow me to briefly elucidate? K? ) Thanks, and I mean 'briefly' as there's a full-blown unedited version - for sale ; (when you're really bored and/or need 'help' with 'assisted suicide' ) . Yeah, so what I mean; quite seriously is that if one's background has been oppresive and overbearing & parents who have opposed any association with the " Jehovah's Church" ..then strangely enough.. one 'joins' in an act of rebellion and voila! and Eureka!! finds... yep.. the eternal elixir of eternal joy on earth, in a spiritual paradise of course!

Seriously, more serious I can-nay be! See, when your 'enemy' are those of your own family; be they dysfunctional.. and moooorR.. then the WT soccer-team seems the side that (a) at least picks 'me' and (b) gives automatic family 'n friends...

This is my first post, thanks... hope it wasn't too long.. anyone ever interested in 'da whole 30 years in the Tower' ..jus ask Α to Ω . Safrican. [email protected] or msn: [email protected] . Anyone 'wat de Taal praat' no isiZulu khuluma, most welcome :) -:))

megaflower

Iam in aggrement with all the posts. JW's are told they serve a happy God so they must be happy. In reality, they are not which is what leads to all the frustration and depressed ones. It is a vicious cycle.

passwordprotected

No.

allelsefails

Ignorance is bliss. A child is happy beieving in Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy. Believing that your parents are omnipotent and wonderful and can do no wrong. This is the state that most JWs are in - absolute ignorance. They study and study and read and read only things that reassure their own world view. As long as they stay children in their minds they stay happy, any attempt at true maturity of thought and reasoning leads to troubling ideas and a loss of identity. It becomes a matter of willful ignorance to protect their make-believe world.