by TweetieBird 22 Replies latest jw friends
Tweetie,
Why not ask him to try talking to God on his own? The Bible does say that any two gathered together in his name, there he will be. He doesn't have to belong to an organization to be close to God.
Show him this Bible verse. 1st John 2:27 It plainly states that we do not need man to teach us.
Shari
Hi TweetieBird,
Your husband sounds exactly like me during the first 10 years after I walked away from group activity. I had a terminal case of untreated Witnessism. I hated them and didn't believe a thing they said and I loved them and deep down I knew they had the truth. I was living a life of contradiction. My father's mother was a Bible Student. My father introduced my mother to Witnessism and she found a wonderful environment for her personality in the fear and hatred of the group and embraced those elements as her own. I was raised with Witnessism as my core beleifs.
Long term use of the Witness self education materials and repetition of the chants and rituals involved in establishing and maintaining the Witness clone produces a form of mental illness that has real and invasive elements. I was unhappy as I practiced rote Witnessism, and restless, discontent, and irritable when I was away from it. Practicing produced discontent and not practicing it produced discontent.
The draw back to it is the withdrawal symptom. When those floating episodes occur, it is absolutely time to seek help from an exit counselor. If help with the exiting process is not utilized, many of us, like me, struggle back and fourth, in and out, our entire lives. It is very difficult to establish a healthy outlook on life, finances, the earth, and other people with the Witness mind still functioning, even if it is still functioning beneath the surface, unseen and unaware.
Most hosts are unaware that there is a programmed operating system operating beneath the surface, working against the host's best interests. The program disables it's host emotionally, pragmatically, financially, and physically. It tells the host that friends and family are all dispensable, education is a waste of time, financial planning is foolish, certain modern medical treatments are wrong, death is soon, impending doom lurks, comfort is a sin, rest and relaxation are for the wicked, and appreciation of the beauty of the planet and happiness are tentative and fragile. All elements and situations in life are resets and bring the host back to the program. There is no real freedom unless bit by bit the operating program is disabled and overlayed with a healthy system.
Many of us here have accomplished this and many, like me, are work in progress. There is much hope. The anxieties do go away and the depressions do lift and the desires to return to the group leave. Some still want the group to change so they can return again and be comfortable. Some want their group member relatives to leave the group so they can have those people back in their lives so they will be okay.
Many of us have put together a whole new life with new friends and with relatives who accept us as we are today. Most of us eventually have to live in an environment where we can be comfortable being ourselves without an act or facade.
Best wishes whatever happens,
gb
The Way I See it http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm
Hi TweetieBird:
Please write me at my email address shown. I have "advice" from a mutual acquaintance.
Thanks.
bjc
