Try Non Chaotic Living For a Change...

by Sentinel 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    I recently came upon the following bit of information, which I shall put in quotes. The other is just my own thoughts.

    “Some of us may have grown up in chaotic households where we witnessed caustic, unhealthy marriages,” ...relationships with organizations, etc. “Others may thrive on high audio and physical output. Still others combine the unhappy childhood” ..or experience, “with an appetite for adrenaline,”….. or a feeling of superiority, power and control. “Relationships usually provide each party with fulfilling a need.”

    ”Many people feel most alive, not to mention important, when an emergency is unfolding.”……or if they are on the edge of some prophecy of doom and gloom. “Some even desire that type of rush at the breakfast table. They thrive on arguments and dissension.” They enjoy being different from everyone else. “If they had a clear moment, they might have to examine their direction and life plan.” …It’s much easier to follow carefully laid out rules and regulations from someone else, like the borg.
    ”Some chaos magnets are so afraid of silence and loneliness that they will put up with anything.” They stifle their own mind, and constantly suppress the natural tendency for real objectivity. They become robots. “They will provoke arguments just to fill up the void. An unpleasant partner is a conversation piece. And they need a conversation piece because they are terrified of their own company. Can chaos magnets be cured?
    “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.”
    — Albert Einstein

    ”Instead of merging with another human, chaos magnets need to forge lives of their own. For instance a certain woman goes for uninterested men who hook her into financially symbiotic adventures. They also show up with tag-alongs, everything from ex-girlfriends to assorted children. She cries, she rants and she goes back. Every time.” ….JW’s go against the very thing they so adamantly insist they have: LOVE. It’s easier not to think.
    ”Perhaps we feel more comfortable reacting to what we have been “given” than defining our universe from a personal perspective. We see ourselves outlined by others. To solve our dilemma, we would have to force ourselves to be alone long enough to figure out our own behavior.” This is very painful and it takes time and effort.

    “Co-workers and friends can aid the process by speaking the truth: “Your situation seems unhealthy. Perhaps you should get some help to sort this out.” And please — don’t ask for gory details. That just fuels the fire. Check to see if you secretly enjoy pandemonium from a safe distance.”

    ”A competent counselor can offer the chaos magnet a weekly dose of desperately needed attention, but solving the problem is difficult because it leaves a void.” We feel this so deeply when we left the borg. " What will the person do with all that spare time was once used to call friends and complain,” or on the other hand, participated in an unreal existence. Do we go on allowing them to discuss the subject of unfair treatment until we feel like shoving a bag over their head? “How will they pass the days if they are serene and stress-free? What will they talk about? They will need a new collection of behaviors and responses. And a different template for their next relationship.”

    Leaving the borg, or being df’d leaves a terrible empty void. We not only lose our belief system, but we lose actual people, and many times the very foundation of all our perceptions. Gone are those people that we have built a relationship with. Friends and family are gone. We feel abandoned and lost. But, there is hope. We can survive this. We just have to work hard at fixing ourselves and make steps day by day, to begin building on a new foundation. The first step is to fix your own self.

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    .....Sometimes I wonder why I bother here at all..

  • patio34
    patio34

    That was an interesting point of view, Sentinel. I'll bet it has significant application to a lot of JWs and ex-JWs. Do you have the link or source of the info?

    This bit seemed to apply almost universally to JWs:

    Many people feel most alive, not to mention important, when an emergency is unfolding.”……or if they are on the edge of some prophecy of doom and gloom. “Some even desire that type of rush at the breakfast table. They thrive on arguments and dissension.” They enjoy being different from everyone else.

    I think that must be the main hook that they got me on, besides sheer bullying that I had to do "God's will."

    Thanks,

    Pat

  • Satanus
    Satanus

    What did you call these, chaos addicts? They can't bear silence, for fear that they will hear their own voice deep inside. They love a job where things are always popping. At their homes, they constantly have a tv or radio going, sometimes 2 tv's. They are hiding from themselves.

    SS

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    Let me see if I can find that source of information. I believe it was in an article in Good Housekeeping, dealing with those who repeat behavior that is damaging. I will get it on here for you.

    Thanks for the replies. I just thought that it made some good points. And, SS, the chaos is what they "hear on the inside--constantly, but never address in the right way". They go about complaining about their life, but are unable to "see" any pattern of damaging behavior on their part. This is where many choose to stay as well.

  • bikerchic
    bikerchic

    Sentinel great information I especiall liked this:

    ”Perhaps we feel more comfortable reacting to what we have been “given” than defining our universe from a personal perspective. We see ourselves outlined by others. To solve our dilemma, we would have to force ourselves to be alone long enough to figure out our own behavior.” This is very painful and it takes time and effort.

    Too many in the b'org are so busy being human doings they haven't the time to focus on their problems and are counseled NOT to look outside the WTS for help. Not to mentioned it does take a great amount of time and effort to make personal changes as well as you said it's painful to admit you have a problem, harder yet to spend the time to fix it (you).

    I knew for myself I had gotten "better" (worked hard on the "being well") when I became an ACTOR IN MY OWN LIFE AND NOT A RE-ACTOR. I had to shrug off the b'organization stuff and become the person I knew I could become. I like me now, I didn't like the old me, the one who conformed who was addicted to the problems of myself and others.

    Good stuff, I liked it!

    Katie

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    Happy to say I found the main article, which appeared in the MSN front page as a reference item. I had incorrectly recalled that I'd read it in a magazine; but then remembered that I had actually "copied the article" and pasted to Word, to add my thoughts--so it couldn't have been something "off" the internet because I don't have a scanner.

    It's in the MSN-Women area. Under Love & Marriage, by Rhona Raskin. She also quoted someone by the name of Robert W. Service, who said "It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out; it's the grain of sand in your shoe."

    http://www.womencentral.msn.com/relationships/articles/rhona_0813.asp

    Enjoy

  • Thunder Rider
    Thunder Rider

    Sentinel,

    I call them "Tragedy Vampires". Sheila's family is full of them. They will call to "see how things are", and when Sheila tells them that we're doing fine, the kids are good, school is good and so forth, they don't have anything to say.

    No one wants to hear about "boring happy people". Look at the media. Society is fed a steady diet of high octane violence and tragedy. If it bleeds it leads. You never see a program break to announce some ones 50 wwedding anniversary. Couples that get along are not worthy it seems of note. Let them kill each other and the whole world wants to get in on the picture.

    Chaos in a family to some extent is unavoidable. My son and I are currently butting heads and it's just a testosterone thing. When my daughter was living at home and there were two "visits" each month form the "cardinal", things got a bit chaotic. Suffice it to say that I keep a lot of garlic and holy water on hand, to chase away those "Tragedy Vampires" away. I like the peace of a quiet and uneventful life. It gives me the time to write and to do what makes my wife a happy girl.

    Thunder

  • Sentinel
    Sentinel

    Thunder,

    I appreciated your post here, and I agree with you. JW's do dwell on the negative, don't they? Just as you described Shiela's family, I believe my own mother is much the same. She absolutely cannot believe that her children are happy. I mean, how can we be happy? It's like their brain is unable to accept that XJW's are living happy and fullfiled lives. She would rather tell us that we are now "blinded as to truth", and we are not being allowed to "see". If our lives are normal and we are happy and not wallowing in the evil dark side, then it must be that we are "being allowed" to experience some deluded type of false happiness-- some good now, prior to our total destruction. This type of behavior scenario is played out in so many families. JW's become the judge and the jury, so where is god in all of this?

    If someone is def'd or da'd, they just gather round and wait to hear the devestating news of their mental breakdown, and total collapse as a human being, unable to function in the world, unable to survive. That's why this place is so important. We can support each other and give hope to those who flounder, without natural love and support of family when they make their decisions in life. Our love is unconditional.

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