If you grow up speaking English and you move to Mexico you don't automatically speak Spanish, know customs, understand currency, possess skills
for self-support or have any special insight into Latino mindset.
Why would you expect leaving Jehovah's Witnesses would leave you any less ill-equipped to navigate the real world?
What you KNOW......in fact.....ALL you know is tied up in layers and layers of self-referenced DOGMA, DOCTRINE and THINKING.
Jehovah's Witness BIAS against ordinary people is still embedded.
The day before you walked out of the Kingdom Hall those outside world people were the enemies of God.
The day after what has changed? Nothing. Now you expect to see them as equals and be comfortable about it? Less likely than you think.
Your emotional reaction to the world around you is strongly motivated by the core values you possess.
Your core values may well have been distorted and corrupted into a false deconstruction by JW Doctrines.
Guess what? That is ALL YOU HAVE TO GO ON!
Your sense of everyday values are warped when you become a JW.
Ideas have been tainted which are foundations for thinking!
What is your idea of Good? Bad? Justice?
How do you feel about Education? Authority? Government?
What about your ability to reason from a premise to a conclusion? What NOW guides it? The same scriptural world of Absolutes?
Is everything a matter of Interpretation by some NEW AUTHORITY? Or, are you suddenly gifted with an amazing ability to THINK for YOURSELF?
If so, How?
You might well think of yourself as a Stranger in a Strange Land or a newborn for all your expertise and ability to proceed with everyday life.
What are you to do?
Here are a few useful suggestions you may want to think about, explore and "try on" like a pair of store bought pants before purchase.
1.Examine your vocabulary. Take words that represent VALUES and define them in your own words. Then--examine your definition. Is the source Jehovah's Witness doctrine? Or, is it what any ordinary person would say?
2.Examine your opinion of the bible. Have you ever read anything other than JW books about scripture? Have you tried mainstream scholarly texts? Or, popular books by Bart Ehrman? Have you read the "other" religious views with other than a slanted starting opinion?
3.When you talk about religion or spirituality---is it founded upon a questioning thirst for explanation---or a superior idea that you already know something? What is your source authority?
4.Do you find strength in being an individual or do you crave a union, fellowship, group or cause greater than yourself? What if you flew solo for a year before jumping into one of those groups?
5.Do you hang out with Positive people or Negative? Complainers, conspiracy theorists, political junkies, ideologues are KINDRED SPIRITS of controlling religions like Jehovah's Witnesses. It may feel strangely "comfortable" to keep company with fringe thinkers. Avoid the urge!!
6.How do you actually FEEL? Do you feel at all? Or, is there a vague sense of doom floating around you because you once KNEW EVERYTHING and it was ALL TRUE? Absolute thinking is a drug. Just like any street drug. You will have withdrawl. Expect it.
7. Do you get plenty of fresh air and exercise? Take walks? Ride a bicycle? Join a gym? Exercise takes you OUTSIDE your own dark thoughts and jumpstarts your health. You will gain energy to move on and move forward.
8.Do you feel like unless you understand everything---you understand nothing? Avoid Black and White choices. Explore the middle ground in most things. Allow moderation into your life. Relax and give yourself permission to simply ask questions and be ignorant for awhile.
9.Read REAL books by genuine authors and not fringe, wacky, highly opinionated promoters of this or that. Read about history, Math, Science, Logic, Finance. All these things WERE DENIED YOU as a JW. You may be harboring crazy notions of how the Universe really operates.
10. Read Science magazines. Read the Skeptical Inquirer. Listen to Podcasts on Skeptical thinking. Learn HOW to question and explore.
Don't jump from the frying pan of Jehovah's Witnesses into the fire of yet another myth. Take a deep breath. Declare a TIME OUT.
Think, doubt, ask, test. There is no hurry to jump to an absolute CONCLUSION.