What poison is to food, self-pity is to life ..Oliver C. Wilson
Imagine yourself married to a mate that is hypocritical, would tell you to die if you needed blood to stay alive, would tell you to shut up and get over the sexual abuse of your child at the hands of his friend or relative, would cut off your family ties to relatives that fell in bad grace with him, and made you feel constantly shame, guilt and fear keeping you perpetually depressed.
As hard as it is to imagine this, JWs are married to a publishing company that does this and many other injustices all in the name of God. The paradox though is that many of these JWs would defend their marriage mate tooth and nail at the slightest criticism. As we have seen from current events, they turn a blind eye to reality and vehemently attack everyone even a disinterested third party like the press, when they report the facts about their dysfunctional marriage. These people have been programmed to believe that if they divorce their mate, God will curse them. So many are just quietly separating from this marriage hoping their partner forgets about them. Of course how can the abuser forget the mate, when the victim provides monetary support, time, and energies to recruit new partners to keep the abusive partner in power?
Those who awaken to reality and see it for what it is either pro-actively divorce or force the abuser to sever the ties are left with painful feelings to deal with. Part of the hurt is the regret of spending and giving some of the best years to this failed dream or dysfunctional relationship. On the baptism altar the abuser vowed to take them into a paradise earth where their every wish would be handed to them. The abuser vowed to treat them with love in the spirit of Christianity, instead the partner got nothing but deceit, lies, mistreatment, and ambiguous promises of some day maybe even after they die to deliver on the paradise earth.