I went to the meeting today. I had to force myself to go. I entered late, sat with a friend. I wanted to see and hear how the watchtower on alcohol was handled. You see, I am an alcoholic. I began drinking at age 13. I was raised with a mother who was a/is a JW and a father who is not. I struggled with the problems in our family over religion, but made the choice to work at being a witness and got baptized at age 16. I married at 18. That is when the drinking began again. My husband was 21 and all of his friends in the cong. were in their late 20's. We spent the next 20 plus years as serious social drinkers. I have such shame over my conduct. The fact that my husband was later made an elder and he and other elder families abused alcohol. I stopped drinking six years ago, and my marriage began to fall apart. My husband continued as an elder but refused to stop drinking. I believe the other elders supported him in this. Some of those people were in the audience today.
My husband stepped down from his position of elder almost three years ago. He blamed me for this. He continues to drink, and moved out of our home March of last year. Alcohol destroyed my family.