CoCo, I'm happy to hear you are improving! I had vertigo back in the day when I was pioneering. My doctor said it was a virus. I was able to drive, but laying down and walking were intolerable. Maybe it's like sailing-- good to go as long as you are looking at the horizon?
Sail Away
JoinedPosts by Sail Away
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VERTIGO: 'My head is moving through space where, in reality, it is not.'
by compound complex ingreetings, fellow posters:.
wishing you well and offering my sympathy if you've ever experienced vertigo.
my neighbor is a physical therapist and told me about the epley maneuver, which i am now researching.. have you ever been through this hell of total incapacitation?.
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Why Do People Become Jehovah's Witnesses?
by minimus inbesides being raised in the religion , why do people become jws?
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Sail Away
Mr. Sail Away and I just visited his only living relative other than his JW parents, his maternal Uncle Ed. Ed was never a JW. He is a retired university professor of Philosophy. Ed and my husband had not seen one another for over 50 years. Ed provided some much needed insight! Apparently, my FIL studied with the Witnesses on the advice of his father who was familiar with them, but was not a Witness himself. He advised his son to become a JW to avoid being drafted into the Korean War. Dad didn't expect it to take. It was just a ploy. He was mistaken. His son became a believer.
My husband and two children were born ins. As a pre-teen I was in desperate need of family and stability. I thought the Witnesses would provide that. Maybe they did for a while, but in the end they tried to destroy my own marriage and family. I reached my tipping point and walked away. My husband and children left before I did, so the next generation is cult free!
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We all "shun."
by stillin inan old friend of mine committed suicide this week.
he was a great guy; pleasant to be around, a hard worker, kind.
everybody at work liked him.. then something changed.
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Sail Away
Stillin, I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your friend, first to addiction and then to suicide. As you said, sometimes the only thing we can do is distance ourselves from toxic behaviors. I struggle with this in my family of origin. When I left the organization, I tried to re-establish communication and build relationships in my non-JW family. It just wasn't possible. There was a reason I chose a cult over family in my early teens, and nothing has changed. Please don't blame yourself.
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DNS Issue (Problem Accessing Site)
by Simon inif anyone had any issues accessing the site over the last 24 hours or so, i finally tracked it down to a dns issue that was affecting users of google dns in certain zones.
the issue was caused by a rouge dnssec entry left by the registrar (godaddy) when they did an update which caused some dns lookups to fail.. hopefully it should be fixed now but may take a while to ripple through to everyone due to caching..
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Sail Away
Now able to log in from Connecticut, USA. Thanks, Simon!
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Just deleted all elders phone numbers
by Chook inflying blind on the incoming calls but i am not fearfully looking around and will approach any religious zealots like a warrior.
there nothing like the unpredictable, because these men it's all about the prediction..
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Sail Away
I deleted all JW contact info and blocked them all from my Facebook account. I just didn't want to see their names anymore. I've never regretted it for a second.
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Lying In Wait At a Bed & Breakfast
by Cold Steel ina few years ago while traveling in the northeast, my wife and i stopped in new haven, connecticut, at a b&b we'd reserved for the night.
no sooner had we unpacked and moved into the living room for tea and treats, our hosts began to talk about religion, and we learned they were jehovah's witnesses.
i didn't mind so much, but my wife was outraged that our hosts would use their place of business as a launching point to do missionary work.
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Sail Away
Cold Steel, I think I may know this couple-- sent you a PM!
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Saw a great therapist and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress. Any one else?
by Beachlover ini took your advise and found someone who could help and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
has anyone else been this route and have some positive feedback or been thru this?.
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Sail Away
Beachlover, a sailor and beach lover here too!
I have been diagnosed with and treated for generalized anxiety disorder, severe recurrent clinical depression and PTSD since the early '90s. The tipping point was a bad car accident in which I was driving and my kids were in the car. I clearly had all of these conditions before the accident, but as a believing JW, they went untreated. I guess I was supposed to wait until the "New System" to recover from child sexual abuse and the fallout from the abuse from a psychotic Mom and an alcoholic father. The nightmares about torture in concentration camps, rape and torture in Malawi and the fiery execution at Armageddon of all of my non-believing family members were just icing on the cake.
I was in and out of therapy and on psych meds for two decades with little to no improvement. I now know that there is no way a therapist can help you without full disclosure. The elders had instructed me to not speak to my therapist about "spiritual matters". I should only speak to them about such things. I would say that I was a JW, but that religion was not up for discussion. I tied their hands behind their backs.
The organization, its policies, procedures, practices and teachings pushed me to the brink in early 2011. I walked away on July 3, 2011. I walked away a believer expecting to be destroyed by God.
A few months later I found jwfacts.com and read Crisis of Conscience and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. That is when my healing began. I have been off of all psych meds for over a year now. I still see my Buddhist Psychologist weekly. His approach is different than many traditional therapists, but it resonates with me.
This is what helped:
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy to help me learn communication and life skills I never learned in my 42 years as a JW. Health insurances in the U.S. usually pay for this evidence-based therapy.
Studying, practicing and now teaching evidence-based tai chi and qigong including sitting, standing and lying down meditation.
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction
I am now training to be a (secular) Mindfulness Meditation teacher based on techniques of Minfulness-based Cognitive Therapy. You can read about the program here:
Free online meditations for the program are here:
http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/
I meet weekly with my Insight Meditation Society meditation group. The teacher has a Zen Buddhism background which I find interesting and helpful. It's a great place to meet people who offer kind support.
I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I wanted to take the time to give a well thought-out answer. For me working with the mind-body connection was key. Even when triggered, I haven't dissociated in years.
Wishing you peace and wellness,
Diane
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My Lawyers Letter To The Elders
by pale.emperor infor those of you that asked, below is a copy of my solicitors letter to the elders in my old congregation.
he sent a similar one directly to bethel and a medical directive to my daughters gp to go on her medical records that i have already given permission for her to have a blood transfusion should she need one:.
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Sail Away
Gayle
The couple cases I know from long ago, that the individuals then were never announced 'on the platform' as "disfellowshipped, disassociated." Though, they were 'off the record' df'd, at least some family members and a few friends felt they could be free to talk with ex-member yet because of no announcementI sent in a letter of resignation nearly a year ago now and threatened a lawsuit if they announced anything from the platform. They didn’t make an announcement because the local JWs still greet me in public. I walked away just over 5 years ago, and the elders know why.
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My Lawyers Letter To The Elders
by pale.emperor infor those of you that asked, below is a copy of my solicitors letter to the elders in my old congregation.
he sent a similar one directly to bethel and a medical directive to my daughters gp to go on her medical records that i have already given permission for her to have a blood transfusion should she need one:.
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Sail Away
No Apologies
I think some of you are way overreacting to that picture. Apparently you never read comic books as a kid or watched any action or sci-fi movies. I can assure you I was exposed to the Paradise book, the Live Forever book, etc. and somehow I survived. Just saying
I was exposed to the same, had nightmares for decades and was later diagnosed with PTSD. A child who is taught that their unbelieving family members will be destroyed by God at Armageddon is being abused. End of discussion.
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A conversation with my ultra dub relative
by joe134cd inhere's a conversation i just had with my relative a few minutes ago i'll let you decide.. relative : would you like to read your grandfather the days txt (she passes joe the phone).
joe : sure.
(then proceed to read it to my grandfather and explain it).. after discussing the points joe says to relative.. hey what's the story arnt they printing books any more.. relative : no they arnt necessary any more.. joe : really why is that.. relative : it's all on line.
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Sail Away
I was called out from the platform during the WT study for reading from and commenting based on a printout of scriptural references. I did this from the WT Library CD ROM just over 5 years ago. What does a lowly "sister" know anyway.Grrrr!