...........and just for the hell of it I'll answer the question.
Everyone of us that left, left during their 18-35 except me I left at 17, when I left home to get away
How Many 18-35 year old JW's have Exited the Cult in Your Family ?
by flipper 41 Replies latest jw friends
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sammielee24
There are 5 people in my family in that age range - 3 + 2 nieces. All five are in. All five are also married to JW's - so that makes 10 of them in that are all in. Three of those 5 also have children - those 5 children are all in. Of those 5 adults, every one of their parents are JW's and still in except one. Those 5 adults and their spouses, have grandparents and out of those 10 adults, all grandparents still living are active JW's.
Summary - 100% of those young people are JW's .
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Scarred for life
I'd like to add one thing, Flippepr. Your question is complicated, at least in my family. Out of the 11 cousins in my family that "left" the JWs by the age of 35, I would only say that 5 of us completely left and have moved on to successful lives without any emotional ties to the JWs or severe emotional damage. Actually, I'm going to change that to 4. So 4 out of the 15 have left the Borg, left the state that the family is centered, made new friends and a life of their own. 3 of us are educated and able to support ourselves reasonably well. And the other one, though not educated has supported herself in various ways including a housekeeping business. She's a fighter and a survivor.The other 7 have:
1. run off to travel on the carnival circuit and died young probably drug and alcohol related,
2. suffers from debilitating depression and is not able to work and lives on "welfare",
3. comitted suicide at about age 34,
4. has been arrested for numerous DUIs and been married multiple times and currently lives in a duplex beside his uber-Witness mother(He spent several years at Bethel) He knew Ray Franz.,
5. has no friends and lives in an isolated world,emotionally paralyzed,
6. and a paranoid schizophrenic that lives in a group home
7. Married, has a child that is being halfway raised by her uber-JW grandparents. She's doing OK but I really worry about the JW influences on her child.
So, I don't think the success rate is as great as it looked initially. It's hard to pick up your life when you don't have a strong foundation. Very hard. You have to be tough and mean and determined to look after yourself.
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flipper
Wow ! Great responses everyone . Very interesting.
BRIZZZY- Nice to hear from you. So aside from you and your aunts - it sounds like all your JW relatives are still inside the cult. I feel for you , I'm hopeful that you've made a good network of friends after exiting the witnesses .
UPNORTH- It seems that most of your family has exited the witnesses except the one brother . That's a good thing. Hopefully he will also in time.
SAMMIELEE 24- I know that you came from an ultra fanatic JW family as we are friends. Mine was pretty fanatic in increments ( some family members more fanatic than others ) but you had the unfortunate occurence of dealing with ALL fanatic JW family. It must drive you nuts actually. I REALLY feel for you my friend. If you can just keep your siblings and JW mother from getting on your back - you'll be accomplishing something. A tough road to hoe for sure. My wife says Hi ! say Hi to the Mrs.
SCARRED FOR LIFE- You make a really good point. Young people 18-35 may exit the JW cult- however they have suffered so much damage that they train wreck their lives. I agree that a person to be a success after exiting the cult needs to develop toughness and determination to look after themselves . And I might add- getting a new network of friends who care for us unconditionally is a big thing as well ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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Ilovebirthdays
I am the only one in 3 generations on both my dad and mom's side of the family who have been JW's who have left. No, I take that back. I had a 2nd or 3rd cousin or something who got DF'ed far before I left. I never knew her, but everyone kept talking about her for several years after she left.
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flipper
ILOVEBIRTHDAYS- So it sounds like many of your relatives are still JW's also. Just you and one other have left. I do hope you have been able to get a network of friends and a support group of people to draw close to through your exiting. That is an important part of healing I feel in moving on after the witnesses
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skywho
just me in my side of the family. my husband left, and his 15 year old brother knows that its a lie.
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mentallyfree31
This is a little off topic Flipper - but kinda related and I think you will find it interesting.
My former congregation had 100 publishers in 1990. Between now and then, I have composed a list of 62 persons that are gone. That's a mixture of 4 disassociations, lots of DF's and a ton of people that just quit and never came back. And most of those people were between 17 and 35. But that's 62%, and that's just from my memory in a ten minute span when I quickly jotted down the list. I'm sure there are a handful more that I forgot about.
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Ilovebirthdays
Mr. Flipper, thank you for your kind wishes. I didn't really think of it until now, but today is the 12th anniversary of the day I walked out. (I walked out on my 25th birthday, which is why I love birthdays.) In that time, I've developed a wonderful network of friends, and have a loving and supporting husband and family of in-laws. While it may not be the quantity of what I had before, the quality of people are much better, and none of my relationships have conditions attached to them.
I tend to be quite interested in threads like these, because so many ex-JW's know of so many of those who left, and I know for a fact that all my family and friends I grew up with in the area are still in. I saw the Pew survey a few years ago that said something like 67% of JW children left, and I never would have believed that until I found ex-JW sites. I often wonder what it is about this area that the JW's have such a high retention rate around here.
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White Dove
Zero.
I was 37 and my uncle was about 50.