Is Your Life In Ruins Because You Were A Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus 45 Replies latest jw friends

  • mamochan13
    mamochan13

    No. Not in ruins. I lost a lot of productive years and I would be much better off financially if I hadn't. But I believe in looking forward, not back.

    I went to university the year I turned 42. Finally graduated with a masters when I was over 50. Now I'm trying to start my career, but I'm hitting a lot of ageism walls. Lost most of my family, but not my kids, thank goodness. I don't have many friends, nor do I have a network of support. But I'm okay with that now. I take my negative events and turn them into valuable lessons for my future.

  • straightshooter
    straightshooter

    My life could have been better like many have already stated. A lack of a higher education is a big problem. I admire ones who could go back to school in their later years of life, but I am just too old in my mind. I also am better off than many. I am grateful for what I have, such as a job, family, good work associates, and being a member of this forum.

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Many of us lost opportunities for success that we will never get back. How many lost college in the 1975 disaster, could have had a decent job (and that was back when college debt was manageable and the payoff much more certain), but lost that and now either can't go to college, would endure a mountain of student debt, or they lost so much income that the damage is done? Those who would have entered college in 1969 are now near retirement and have lost an average of the equivalent of thousands of ounces of gold in income. That opportunity is gone forever.

    Others are even worse off. Their whole lives were built around the washtowel. Childhoods ruined by field circus. Field circus instead of playing in school. No memories of parties of any kind--just field circus and boasting sessions. They were not taught to function outside the washtowel, and they wasted time at Beth Hell. Many had their lives built around pious-sneering, which they were supposed to have been doing until they got old. Later, they are badly treated by hounders that exploit the situation or they realize that the washtowel is leading them to final damnation, and want out. They get out--usually after being harassed by the hounders and with threats of having their lives ruined. Once they are disfellowshipped, they are harassed by the witlesses and cannot function outside the cancer. Some are stripped of apartments or jobs as they have witless landlords and/or bosses.

    Regardless of whether your exit was traumatic or you suffered blatant abuse while a witless, missed opportunities cannot be gained back.

  • Satanus
    Satanus

    Due to the poor conditions in my early family life, the jws actually helped me. However, i would have done a lot better if i had moved on from them, a few yrs after that. However, i did not see a better way than the wt way, nor did i find any antiwt stuff at the time. There was a period in there, where i was susceptible to outside information, and if i had run accross it, i would likely have read it and possibly started on a journey away from tower land. However, it didn't happen, and i dove into wt world, to reside there for another 20 yrs or so.

    S

  • mamochan13
    mamochan13

    I would hope that no matter how badly our lives were ruined by being a JW, that we have the strength to turn things around IF we have the strength to leave a cult that, for many of us, represented our lifetime of thinking and belief, then we have the strength to make our lives better.

    I may not be able to have the career I would have had 30 years ago, but I can still follow my dreams.

  • princecharmant
    princecharmant

    Not really. Being a Witness was/is not as bad as it is sometimes made out to be. Many things are/could be far worse.

    Never suffered the non-college education thing and received all the support from my parents who saw excelling in school as the only way to escape the poverty trap.

    I know it must have been different for many (going by experiences here narrated). But it is usually unfair to use one brush to tar all.

    pc

  • mind blown
    mind blown

    I was molested by a JW brother......was also abused at home and meetings because as I child I was a wiggle worm and everything was evil......pinched, spanked, beaten, scholded....had a deep constant fear of demons and the big A.....later.....hadn't seen my mother in 20yrs because of the WTS...... also was divorced due to the WTS......now my "only" daughter is shunning me.....it also ruined my aunts relationship with her "only" daughter AND another cousin went into deep depression (Pioneered for years) and took to drinking because her promise was not fulfilled in her generation...finally died in her sleep from depression...so you tell me ....

  • Benjie
    Benjie

    Not in ruins, and my wife and I have each other, and our own family are supportive, so we are very lucky compared with so many.

    But certainly it has made a great difference to our lives.

  • Quirky1
    Quirky1

    Yes, my life has been in a downward spiral since I became a JW. I put the kingdum first in my life for so long that I gave up and passed on some great opportunites and now I am cast with doubt. I was once an up and coming and well sought after person in my field. I am ready to go meet up with Oompa...

  • andys
    andys

    Yes it is but I am picking up the pieces, the pain that this religion has caused me is beyond any other hurt, I have been through relationship breakups, deaths in the family but this has been the most top hardest hurt, I live in the same town as my parents, and sister and also my sister is married to an elder, some of the things they have done to shun me, when I left I would get followed around by the elder that my sister is married to, then my sister brought everything over to my apartment that had my name on it that I left at my parents house, they were all trying to forget about me by getting my name out of their house, and then recently my sister told me at work that my brother Randy and his wife were visiting here in Montana but they never made an effort to visit me, its just hurts all the crap they have to pull, also I will post another post how I deal with all this have to get ready for work.................................

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