by minimus 22 Replies latest jw friends
I wish I had woke up in my 20's. My life would be totally different. I truly do not think I would have suffered depression like I have, I would have gotten an education and not struggled with money and then there was all that time I wasted pioneering and taking a vow of poverty at Bethel. OK now I am depressed again. See I know I would not suffer depression if I had not been born in I just proved it to myself. I second BroDan in that I hate this religion.
LITS
Yes the timing was right.
It was 12 years ago and i was on the verge of suicide. I am sure i would have ended up dead or in the looney bin if i stayed.
As for becoming apostate i wish i had found out all this stuff way back then! i may have done some things differently.
But i dont look back much as the life i have now is bloody fantastic!
oz
I wish I'd never gotten involved as most of us do....
Loz x
I wish I would have had the Internet and more resources when I got out of college in 1985. I would have been able to research the religion, perhaps comparing the scriptures they use with what the Bible actually says, and been able to thwart the dingbats that dragged me into the cancer. Or, perhaps, given him some of his own guilt--for trying to get me in on a scam.
I left, and went back!!!
Idiot!
Syl
I guess my exit was about the right time - I left just before the Ray Franz blowup in the late 1970s. Probably, it could have been a couple of years sooner, but that was how long the deprogramming took.
I wish I had listened to the nagging doubts much earlier in life. I wish I had made a break when I was young and single. The longer you're in, and then married, and then kids, the harder it is to break free from it. I think it's even harder for an adult child to leave the organization, when their aged parents had grown accostumed to them always being there in faith. Leaving as a young person gives a parent time to cope and eventually accept their child's life as it is instead of as what the parent wanted.
I see that two posters are going through hard times.. bottleofwater and BrotherDan are both at a crossroads where remaining in the orgnization is no longer viable.
The difference is that bottleofwater is young and single. While what he's facing is hard, he has no baggage. No wife/significant other, no kids, no real responsibilities. He'll struggle early on, but by the time he's in his mid-20s this will be in his history and he'll still have his life in front of him...free of the cult. In time his dad may come around and accept his son for who he is instead of shunning him for who he isn't.
BrotherDan is in bad place as well. He's married with kids. He is the spiritual head of this JW family. His relationship with his wife is precarious, at best. He has children, who will be affected. Dan's decision to leave the organization behind just doesn't disappoint a parent, it could possibly end his marraige and cause children some emotional trauma. I don't know about parents, but if either one have JW parents, then it's even tougher as they tend to stick their nose as well.
Even though I wish I had escaped earlier in life, I don't regret my life in the JWs. I did meet my wife that way. I did know some good people, made some friends over the years (still connected a few now even). Also, in a weird way, those years ended up being an education. It is enlightening to a degree to have been a JW and escaped. It gives you a different perspective on a lot of things.
I wish I had left earlier. While in the Borg, my ex- husband made me cut off my disfellowshipped brother. Now that my brother is gone, I would do anything to have those years back!
It is enlightening to a degree to have been a JW and escaped. It gives you a different perspective on a lot of things.
For sure it has given almost all of us a lifetime vaccination against joining other religious cults.
I never regret the past, no wouldve, couldve, shouldve, in my life. I'm out and I know I won't go back. And jwoods says, I have a lifelong vaccination against joining other religious cults.
