Posts by Alexia

31

Were U Depressed Because U Were A Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

people get depressed for various reasons.

but do you know of people that actually suffered from depression mainly because they were witnesses?.

i know of more than a few witnesses that were always discouraged and feeling down.

Alexia

I was depressed when I was in.

The bottom line, I wasn’t good enough and I was going to catch h3ll at Armageddon. When you’re constantly told you’re going to die if you don’t straighten up and fly right, it’s not hard to believe that many JW suffer from depression.

Because my mother couldn’t divorce my non-JW alcoholic father (said the elders) my upbringing was hellish at times. That contributed to my depression as an adolescent and adult as well.

Now that I’m OUT, I can get therapy, practice Yoga (a no-no in the BORG), mediate, and all the other things that are banned in the borg to heal myself.

Thinking back on the other friends in the congregation, the one thing we were allowed to do is D-R-I-I-K; as long as we didn’t go to crazy around other friends. Every event, BBQ, gathering, etc (except weddings) had beer, wine, and hard liquor. Nothing wrong with drinking because I love wine, but it was something about they way they drank – almost like an escape.

10

Ex-JW's near Morgan Hill, CA

by donny in

if there are any ex-jw's in or fairly close to morgan hill, ca please drop me an email at donnyreed!yahoo.com.

Alexia

Welcome! I am not in Morgan Hill, but I am in the Bay Area.

115

Self -Employed or Otherwise Gainfully Employed - Gas Prices Eating You Up?

by flipper in

jw
friends

last night at the gas pump i had a verbal , emotional outburst , swearing to no one in particular - just the gas pump , until i saw 2 guys at the island down from me - so i figured i'd let it rip !

frustration over these insanely rising gas prices finally took it's toll on even -keeled mr. flipper !

i started my rant , wanting these guys feedback , " what is it with these #ucking gas prices ?

Alexia

I pay about $35 a week for gas to go to and from work (6 miles away). Public transportation cost slightly more, 4x longer and I cant combine trips (ie: go the the store or farmers market on the way home). I pay a little more if I use my car on the weekends for mostly highway dirving. Its a '07 Acura TL S and NOT fuel efficient LOL. Our other car (mostly weekends) is a after market '07 335i and obviously uses more gas but we take it on the highway. Gas for the cars is about $4.35/gal

44

Singing at the Meetings is so mindless...

by logic&reason in

i was always uncomfortable singing at the meetings when i was a kid.

as an adult, i rarely if ever sing anymore because i think it is a joke.

sit down, listen for 45 minutes.

Alexia

I don’t miss the “brothers” and “sisters” with the God awful singing voices. I remember this one woman whose voice sounded like she was crying with something caught in her throat. Horrible. Me and my brother tried sooooo hard not to bust out laughing during the song. The worst was when it was happening right before the opening or closing prayer. We were busting out eardrums with tears streaming down our faces and snot coming out of our noses trying not to laugh during the prayer.

37

For the Sisters: Were you ever happy you couldn't have male "privileges"?

by Open mind in

watchtower policies clearly make women second-class citizens.

i don't see it changing anytime soon.

this thread is not about how ridiculous it is that a female is not allowed to hand out mags, territory, books or carry a microphone if a qualified male is present.

Alexia

Sitting in on judicial committees so you can hear how once again Brother Slimeball was insisting on his pioneer wife giving him oral sex.

LMAO!!

37

For the Sisters: Were you ever happy you couldn't have male "privileges"?

by Open mind in

watchtower policies clearly make women second-class citizens.

i don't see it changing anytime soon.

this thread is not about how ridiculous it is that a female is not allowed to hand out mags, territory, books or carry a microphone if a qualified male is present.

Alexia

Oh yeah!

I didn’t have to be the first ones at the hall stay until 11:00PM doing the accounts, counting magazines, etc.

No running up and down the isles with microphones.

Asking people to share embarrassing details about their sexual experience(s) (elders).

Having to prepare for and conduct meeting, service, etc – it was nice to just f*** off sometimes.

Wearing a suit and tie (after the age of 13, I stopped wearing tights and pantyhose).

23

What were the things that troubled you as a JW?

by Mickey mouse in

jw
friends

i'm not necessarily asking for the big stumbling blocks here or things you discovered once you started doing your own research outside the borg.

i'm talking about the smaller things.. for me one thing was the talk of no one being able to become a witness unless "jehovahs drew them to him".

as a born-in this never jived with me.

Alexia

1. The whole Noah’s day accounts. The fact that God wiped out the entire Earth because the people didn’t believe Noah. They claimed that it had never rained on Earth before on the other hand; everyone was supposed to believe him – a man they did not know. Why didn’t God just speak up himself?

2. Evolution.

3. Masturbation.

4. Discouraged from getting a college education aside from two year technical schools (that cost an arm and a leg and practically useless anyway!)

5. Discouraged from getting mental help from a doctor. Advised not to see psychologists and psychiatrists. Depression happens because we are “spiritually weak”.

6. Treatment of DF individuals.

7. Discouraged from attending weddings and funerals in churches.

8. All of the nasty, sexual details you have to tell to an elder if you were “immoral”

9. Out of control gossip and rumors and gossip in the congregation.

10. The poor guys who everyone knew they were gay and kept trying to quietly push them into marriage as soon as they turned 18.

11. They way they treated those of us who had “unbelieving” parents (especially fathers) – like we were invisible. Never got parts on the programs, never invited to outings, etc.

12. Always worried about “stumbling” others. Don’t buy that BMW, don’t wear that watch, don’t let anyone see you go to the R-Rated movie, and on and on.

13. 4-day (then eventually 3-day) conventions. The only enjoyment was hanging out with your buddies and dressing up.

14. No prom.

23

Stupid Knorr! Should Witnesses have Sunday school just for kids?

by Witness 007 in

imagine sitting thru the watchtower study on a sunday with your 6 year old and 9 year old kids....the topic "fornication" the discussion explains how oral sex and touching of genitals is still fornication...why do kids have to sit thru this??

or the bible reading is about lot having sex with his daughters....this type of thing is not for kids!

and why should kids be forced to sit quietly while someone drones on for 2 hours?.

Alexia

I remember the images from the Live Forever book and other publications that had graphic Holocaust and other photos and illustrations – but we couldn’t see Schindler’s List because it was R-Rated??

Also the flood account in the MBoBS had a illustration of a woman holding a baby and being stalked by a wild animal right before they drowned in the flood. That haunted me for years.

Being spanked, pinched, swatted, and smacked was a fact of life in the KH. Two hour meetings was torture. The assemblies and 4 day conventions was unbearable – especially when we met at the Oakland Coliseum baseball stadium before they moved to the (indoor) Cow Palace. Sitting all-day baking in the hot sun watching people get baptized wishing you were the one going into the pool….(sigh). The food (especially the HOT breakfasts) and danishes was the highlight of my day!

19

Are Pioneers NOW wasting their time?

by Fisherman in

could pioneers better spend their time instead of putting in hours?

Alexia

To echo what everyone else said, we mostly spent time driving around, dropping magazines at Laundromats, coffee, lunch, more driving, visiting people who were not baptized for a social call, but still counting that as “time” because we mentioned the bible once or twice, more driving, more coffee, then it was time to go home.

Its was more social than anything else.

26

What about those INTELLIGENT JW's? Did you have any in your cong'?

by nicolaou in

i remember as a child being impressed by several older 'brothers' who were well educated and articulate.

we had guys with degrees and one had a ph.d in some branch of physics - a professor.

now you know as well as i do that that level of education was, and still is, mightily discouraged by the wt but these guys had managed it somehow.. as an impressionable kid it put 'the truth' on a more secure footing for me, after all if these intelligent men could believe .

Alexia

One elder was a doctor (MD – family practice)
One elder had a degree in journalism, but was discourage from working in his field by the other “brothers”.
Others were very successful in sales, IT, etc but they all had gotten their degrees BEFORE they were introduced to the cult.

The ones who were “raised around the truth” ended up working for UPS, restaurant servers, janitors, and other lower level jobs. The ones who went to tech school didn’t do that much better.