JW's are LOSING IT (page 4)

GetBusyLiving

I have a feeling there are going to be increases in dub related sucides, hardcore depression ect. in the future. That quiet realization that it's all just bullshit seems to be increasing among the rank and file. They're trapped.

GBL

TheListener

I agree with you GBL. Although one could argue that depression and stress related illness is an epidemic within the society already.

It's dificult to tell how many come into the truth with the stress and depression;

or how many develop stress and depression due to the rigid schedule and regular floggings;

or how many develop stress and depression due to the end not coming. Perhaps some get it due to all three.

Years ago the society totally disparaged depression and seeking outside advice. Now they print articles on Fibromyalgia (a real disease), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, etc. They even state that "in some cases" outside counseling may be necessary.

For years the elders were all that were needed to help the friends. If you were depressed you were told to get over it. Perhaps in some congregations it is still that way.

tetrapod.sapien

i don't know about being trapped. i would say that yes, those who cannot get over their dissonance, will be trapped. but, i mean, hey! we got out, right?

sonnyboy

I can't imagine them getting any more paranoid than they were 10 years ago when I was a cultist.

Anytime someone would bring up the future (in this world), someone would say, "The world won't be here then anyway, so it doesn't matter."

I got so sick of hearing that.

potleg

Recently I had a conversation with a JW relative, they were teling me how near the end must be. I told her that I'd heard that same line when I was a kid back in the early 70's and yet we're still here. Infact the JW's have been predicting doom and gloom for over 100 years now. Her reply was "well it just shows you that we are that much closer now" No said I, it shows that the society was wrong 30 years ago, 80 years ago, even over 100 years ago...they were wrong then and they're wrong now. That was the end of that conversation. How can an "organization" that is supposed to be so right be so wrong so many times for so many years? Who is misleading them? the great deciever?

ballistic

Well they say that 92% of statistics are made up, but anyway... what do you think the statistics are for the average JW's expectancy of the imminence of the end over time including at times of the famous false predictions? Has the expectancy ever exceeded a decade. It would be great to construct a graph.

M.J.

Don't forget that many of the R&F silently contribute to their 401k's now, save up for their kids' college education, etc. So there appears to be a divide among the ranks with respect to how seriously all the rhetoric is taken.

Sunspot

I know this sounds very simplistic, but for the 30 years that I was a JW, I never thought about our "Golden Years" or what things would be like when the kids were grown and parents themselves; that kind of thinking, ya know?

We didn't "allow" ourselves to think that far ahead, or even try and put this into any normal perspective. All we focused on was "what it will be like in the New Order" and then dropped it right there. This was especially tough for those of us that had nonJW mates.

Hopes, dreams, hobbies, self-improvement, etc were all lumped together into one bucket and not thought of. WE were waiting for the END of this system of things----that has yet to occur.

Annie

zulukai

The last time I talked with a jw friend ( who now doesn't speak to me because I am NEVER coming back to the shiteness religion) she was babbling away about the end having to come soon. If she said it once she said it ten times in the course of our brief conversation. I was struck by her flat facial expression and the look in her eyes. It was fear, plain and simple. They cling to their desperate hopes for the promised New World Order and repeat the pathetic mantra over and over: the end is coming any day now, any day now. I'm sure a lot of them have the fearful suspicion that it's all a lie, that something is terribly wrong, but they CAN'T LET GO....like the drowning person can't let go of the straw. It makes me ill. I feel both contempt and pity for a lot of them, but I feel nothing but loathing for the shitheads at the top for their cynical, evil manipulations.

Spook

A conversation that makes a difference would be...

"If you feel the end is near, and that the way the world is shows that, are you willing to be responsible for that and put your money where your mouth is? So, if the world is still around in five years and you are still being told 'just around the corner...' do you COMMIT TO ME that you will consider that the organization may be wrong about that and other things? If you're not willing to put your belief on the line, then I request that you don't bring the conversation of apocalypse into my life, and that you look at why you won't commit to that."

This opens up the space for them to get "oh yeah, we have said that...how would I know?"

JW's are LOSING IT

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