i really don't have the time or the finances for a professional psychiatrist.
i know i am depressed and i know why.
the problem, as i have said before in one or two other threads, is that the solution won't really change my depression and may, in fact, make it worse.. so i am resigned to being depressed but would like to know if there are some coping techniques or other suggestions.
I really don't have the time or the finances for a professional psychiatrist. I know I am depressed and I know why. The problem, as I have said before in one or two other threads, is that the solution won't really change my depression and may, in fact, make it worse.
So I am resigned to being depressed but would like to know if there are some coping techniques or other suggestions. I will likely have to deal with this for quite a long time.
i think i'll go with samuel adams winter specials.......or maybe wine......or sparkling cider.......or apple cider....oh, i can't decide.
somebody help.
what's you favorite?.
Egg. Nog. The thick, fattening, death causing kind that has 200 calories per swallow.
i guess they are just like the wt society, if they don't like something, they remove it.
they have deleted all of my posts, too bad, i was amassing quite a body of work there.
i was too much for their close minded little site..
I stopped visiting there a couple of years ago. I guess it's okay if you are still "Christian", but you're not allowed to diss the Bible over there at all. They still have a cult mentality, just a much broader and culturally acceptable one.
monday night.
service meeting.. we're sitting there and my daughter (9-years-old) is sitting between my wife and i. my wife doesn't like it when she sits between us but my kids argue alot.
so we keep two kids at opposite ends and one in the middle.. out of the blue, she taps me on the shoulder and whispers: "daddy, are you an atheist?".
lostsheep82, they released some new brochures this past summer and I think they may mention what I am referring to. I didn't read them in their entirety, but I do remember an Awake! recently talking about how scientists have proven that the galaxies are moving apart from one another and that only the energy of Jehovah could do this.
However, I do definitely remember that a brother gave a talk during the convention where he described (mocked) how the scientists don't know what caused the big bang that created the universe. He goes on to describe this as the "first cause" which is used by many Christians outside of the JWs. I thought it was odd that they would adopt this phrase as well, but it happened.
monday night.
service meeting.. we're sitting there and my daughter (9-years-old) is sitting between my wife and i. my wife doesn't like it when she sits between us but my kids argue alot.
so we keep two kids at opposite ends and one in the middle.. out of the blue, she taps me on the shoulder and whispers: "daddy, are you an atheist?".
They've never heard me speak against the JWs. However, I do spend alot of time watching science shows, listening to science podcasts, etc. I DVR all of the Wonders of the Solar System and Through the Wormholes and watch them over and over. Not because I want to see them, but I am hoping some child wandering by will take notice. I also take the time to ask them "How did this happen?" questions about the origin of the sun, solar system, Earth, etc. I don't directly deny that a god had anything to do with it, but that never enters into the conversation.
Just Tuesday night we were talking about accretion disks, water ice in the solar system, etc. I do this with my older sons as well, but they are so preoccupied with their teen and pre-teen lives and video games and eating that they barely pay me any attention at all.
I try to stay away from programs that are heavy on evolution so as not to trigger a response from the wife. She's usually in the room, but this stuff usually just goes right over her head unnoticed. If she hears the word "evolution" too many times, though, it's a warning. I have shown her (my wife), however, that the Watchtower no longer directly opposes a "big bang" but that they attribut the "first cause" to Jehovah. In other words, they allow for there to have been a huge explosion which ultimately coalesced into galaxies, suns, and planets. The Watchtower falls off of the science wagon when it comes to the creation of the living species of Earth.
But I digress. I don't know where any of this is going and maybe she won't ask me again for a while. It's precisely for these reasons that I don't dare say anything about my beliefs because I love being with my kids every day. I love my wife, too, but I think I could deal with a split from her easier than I could a separation from my kids.
monday night.
service meeting.. we're sitting there and my daughter (9-years-old) is sitting between my wife and i. my wife doesn't like it when she sits between us but my kids argue alot.
so we keep two kids at opposite ends and one in the middle.. out of the blue, she taps me on the shoulder and whispers: "daddy, are you an atheist?".
Monday night. Service Meeting.
We're sitting there and my daughter (9-years-old) is sitting between my wife and I. My wife doesn't like it when she sits between us but my kids argue alot. So we keep two kids at opposite ends and one in the middle.
Out of the blue, she taps me on the shoulder and whispers: "Daddy, are you an atheist?"
I was shocked. I whispered back: "Why are you asking me that?"
"Just answer the question."
"I'm not going to answer that question."
Then she leans over to her mother. "Mommy, Daddy is an atheist."
Thinking this was some ridiculous nonsense, my wife tells her to quit playing and to be quiet and pay attention.
Then my daughter looks back at me and stares for about thirty seconds. Then she resumes drawing Pokemon characters in her notebook instead of taking notes.
last night during the bible highlights, the brother (an insane and extreme zealot of an elder) said that people cannot expect jehovah to communicate with his servants directly anymore.
not because it wasn't part of his plan, nor because he has the all powerful and all knowing governing body in place, but because we really just aren't that important.
not important enough to warrant one one one communication.
Last night during the Bible highlights, the brother (an insane and extreme zealot of an elder) said that people cannot expect Jehovah to communicate with his servants directly anymore. Not because it wasn't part of his plan, nor because he has the All Powerful and all Knowing Governing Body in place, but because we really just aren't that important. Not important enough to warrant one one one communication. Yikes. Of course, everyone in the congregation sits there like: "Yes. Yes, it's true."
Then it hit me. These are people who are excited about the potential of spending all of eternity enslaved to a God who finds them individually unimportant and only useful for carrying out his physical labor. If you're doing anything other than singing praises to him or trying to find other converts, then you are a complete waste of skin and should be put down.
What ... the ... hell.
And this is a good thing? At least Satan throws you a bone.
It was about this time during the meeting when I started thinking ... I wonder if there is anyone else in this building like me right now ... Someone else who is married to someone who has been conned by the Watchtower but doesn't want the tremendous emotional train wreck that would follow if they left the "Truth".
I wonder.
this is the information for the number 3 talk this week.. how do jehovahs witnesses arrive at their explanation of the bible?.
a key factor is that the witnesses really believe that the bible is gods word and that what it contains is there for our instruction.
(2 tim.
As someone else said, they are in a position now that they don't have to interpret the Bible. The Governing body trumps the Bible. All they have to have is some kind of vague idea - or principle, they will call it - and they can make up anything they want. They will tell you that the decisions that the GB makes are Bible based, but what that means is that the Bible has given them the authority to make up laws and rules willy-nilly.
You don't spend time in the meetings reading the Bible, which might be framed or peppered with WBTS commentary. No, you read WBTS literature and occasionally they toss in a scripture or two so that they can remind you that the Watchtower is Bible based.
this is copied from a post on reddit.com.
while i don't (yet) have the urge to remove myself from life, i can understand the hopelessness part of this.. .
the reason i am making this submission with this title is because i find my life to be mostly similar to a prisoner.
This is copied from a post on reddit.com. While I don't (yet) have the urge to remove myself from life, I can understand the hopelessness part of this.
The reason I am making this submission with this title is because I find my life to be mostly similar to a prisoner. But let me give you some hypotheticals first.
Let's say you are wrongly convicted of a crime in some third world court and are sent to prison and locked up indefinitely. You're 23 years old.
You're not getting out. You get letters from your family and occasionally visits from them. But they can't help you. You're never going to fall in love and get married (unless you're homosexual, I suppose, but for the sake of argument let's say you're straight). You're never going to accomplish anything in life because you don't have one.
You can't travel. The best you can do is read about it in thirty year old books. You can't teach yourself to cook. I don't know what hobbies you could have that could make you take your mind off of your condition.
The only place you can go is your mind, but the more you hang out there the more insane you feel yourself becoming, remembering what it was like on the outside.
Why not kill yourself? The pain of being stuck in this place forever isn't going anywhere. You're not going anywhere.
What is the incentive to keep going?
I have been unable to find many stories about coping with prison permanently. I know there have been books written by people like Viktor Frankl but he was only locked up for three years. There was hope. The hope that maybe he would be rescued or liberated.
I am talking about an inescapable situation.
How do people cope when they are somehow physically or mentally trapped? Maybe paralysis, for example.
I'm looking for coping strategies for situations that are very bad and not likely to get better. When I say not likely, I mean pathetically remote. Like the odds of suddenly sprouting dragon wings or something.
i can't.. some bar-bet between jehovah and satan balanced against all the evil allowed just doesn't wash..
Satan wins this challenge under any condition, and he wins it going away...
Simon, that is one thing that has never made much sense to me. The the Bible writers wanted to paint this awesome image of God as the coolest dude in the universe, they seem to have failed in that regard. Especially in light of what you mentioned. These are all people who have lived at maximum 80 or 90 years in Satan's system and then over ten times their lifetimes in a paraside. And still most of them choose Satan? Either God is the evil one here or he's just an idiot. How can you consistently lose followers on such a massive scale if you're such a cool dude?
