Hopscotch

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Posts by Hopscotch

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  16

  How To Be Dead When You're Not

  by Hopscotch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  step 1: get dragged into jws by your parents when you are 5 years old.

  step 2: get baptized in 1975 when you are 16 because armageddon is coming and you don't want to die.

  step 3: continue being brainwashed and mind controlled for the next 30 years because you don't want to die at armageddon.

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  Hopscotch

  BabaYaga thank you so much for your lovely words of kindness. As you say we did know the risks involved when we decided we wanted out, but it still hurts. But I imagine in some ways it would hurt much more to be living the JW lie, silencing our inner voice and pretending we are happy, just to stay in a family that has been brainwashed by a cult to be so conditional with their love. The resentment and bitterness would eat away at us and destroy us. It is still better to be out and be free.

  Hopscotch
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  19

  How do you replace a family?

  by YoursChelbie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as a result of wanting to have a normal life, away from the dogma of the jw religion,.

  many have lost contact with parents, children and in many cases, their spouse.. my divorce was uncontested and i was fortunate enough to get out of from watchtower control with my children.

  my parents were never involved with the religion,.

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  Hopscotch

  I too wish I had a surrogate family. In fact last year as my JW family was starting to draw away from me I told my husband (half jokingly) that I was tempted to put an ad in the paper looking for a family to adopt me (and my husband and son). I don't know how to fully fill the void that is left when your family shuns you - it is so achingly painful. I have made contact with my non JW cousins and aunt, but it is not the same and they live a bit far away to see them often.

  I have made some lovely new friends as well but it doesn't replace the closeness of family. All my immediate family have shunned me since Dec08/Jan09. My husband's JW mother lives with us but she is schizophrenic and mentally unbalanced and his JW brother is in Brooklyn bethel and has had virtually nothing to do with us for a few years since we asked him to help out more with his mother.

  I look at 'worldly' families having fun times together or listen to others stories of what they did with their extended family with such envy.

  Damn this horrible cult for the pain they cause us.

  Hopscotch
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  16

  How To Be Dead When You're Not

  by Hopscotch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  step 1: get dragged into jws by your parents when you are 5 years old.

  step 2: get baptized in 1975 when you are 16 because armageddon is coming and you don't want to die.

  step 3: continue being brainwashed and mind controlled for the next 30 years because you don't want to die at armageddon.

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  Hopscotch

  Goddess Rachel - I heard someone say recently that family is only a word unless there is love in it. What JWs do to their family members that leave the religion (cult) shows how much JWs have allowed the WTS to warp their understanding of love. Everything in JW world is conditional - love, friendhsip and even being part of a family. So now we are out, we can build a family of friends around us that love us unconditionally for who we really are.

  AK-Jeff - You are so right - the pudding is spoiled alright.

  Heaven - Thanks for kind words. Slowly my husband, son and I are building a new life for ourselves out of JWs. I have actually read Stephen Covey (he was excellent) about 12 months ago when we really decided that we were not going to go back to JWs (BTW we only told my family and got the ultimatum in January this year). I have been reading and reading all sorts of different books on self development, various ones of other philosophies etc, gone to some workshops and have started to make some beautiful new friends. I am becoming very much alive.

  So there really is 'life after death'! LOL.

  As they say, living well is the best revenge, so I guess that what all us 'living dead' can do now to show the WTS and our families who discarded us like a piece of trash, that we can do very well without them.

  Hopscotch
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  16

  How To Be Dead When You're Not

  by Hopscotch in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  step 1: get dragged into jws by your parents when you are 5 years old.

  step 2: get baptized in 1975 when you are 16 because armageddon is coming and you don't want to die.

  step 3: continue being brainwashed and mind controlled for the next 30 years because you don't want to die at armageddon.

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  Hopscotch

  Here's how I did it.

  Step 1: Get dragged into JWs by your parents when you are 5 years old

  Step 2: Get baptized in 1975 when you are 16 because Armageddon is coming and you don't want to die

  Step 3: Continue being brainwashed and mind controlled for the next 30 years because you don't want to die at Armageddon

  Step 4: Come to the realisation that what JWs are teaching is based on lies

  Step 5: Start fading from JWs

  Step 6: When confronted by your family as to the reasons why you are no longer attending meetings, tell them of your concerns re the WTS

  Step 7: When given an ultimatum by your family to go back to JWs or be shunned, tell them you are not going back

  Step 6: Be branded an apostate by your family

  Step 7: Be told that as far as your family is concerned you are DEAD

  So that's how I got to be dead when I'm not.

  Hopscotch
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  28

  Keeping the congregation clean- from the wickedness of the retarded

  by JimmyPage in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well i saw my parents again.

  and i just had to bring up this subject.

  a certain person i grew up with named "megan" is disfellowshipped.. "mom," i asked, "isn't megan mentally challenged?

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  Hopscotch

  There was a brother in our circuit (used to be in our congregation) who suffered from Tourettes syndrome. As time went on his condition became worse and he found it extremely difficult to control. Of course as is usual with Tourettes it got to the stage where he ended up swearing a few times at the Kingdom Hall. He was spoken to and counselled about it. He tried to explain to the elders what was causing his problems. Admitedly there wasn't a lot known about Tourettes back then (about 15/20 years ago) but the elders wouldn't believe him. They ended up disfellowshipping him. He appealed with medical information but the elders didn't want to know about it.

  Another couple in our congregation had two children, one of whom was severely autistic. When we moved into the congregation the daughter was about 9 and their autistic son about 5. The boy seemed on the surface quite retarded and was a handful. The parents were told by the presiding overseer not to waste their time on their son, but to put their time and energy into their daughter and making sure she stayed in the truth. He told them that the new system would take care of their son. Because they were very simple, uneducated, obedient type of people they did what the PO said. At least they did until they moved away a few years later and we lost contact with them. That was 20 years ago and of course there has been no new system. Knowing what I do now about autism, there is a lot that can be done for autistic children with early intervention and a lot of therapy. And while many autistic children may seem retarded they are not. How much of a chance of a reasonably normal life has that little boy missed out on because of this PO's personal opinion given as advice from an elder.

  Hopscotch
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  31

  apostasy is alive and well in scotland

  by ninja in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ninja,iknowall and hobo ken.

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  Hopscotch

  Well I'm doing my bit for the Great Scottish Rebellion - I mean Apostacy - even if it is from Australia. I was born in Glasgow and lived in Scotland for the first 4 years of my life before coming to the land down under.

  Hopscotch
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  10

  A Ministry of Misery: Mental Illness and the Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Bangalore in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if his god isn't jehovah he may not be happy.

  they know they are not happy.

  they teach the only ones who are truly happy are those within the organization.

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  Hopscotch

  Thanks for posting this article Bangalore. It was excellent. As a carer for my devout JW mother in law who has paranoid schizophrenia (since the age of 25) I found so much of what was in this article was exactly what happens.

  In the 4 years since my husband and I have faded from the witnesses we now realise how much that being a JW has contributed to and exsaserbated her schizophrenia.

  The article states:

  "They tend to feel everyone else is bad and out to get them in one way or another". This is one of the delusions that is common in those suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, so you can see how having this view reinforced by the JW propaganda goes a long way to contributing to the schizophrenic delusions.

  Also it states: "They feel alone in the world. They feel, "I am the only one. I am all by myself!". My mother in law has used these exact words to us on many occasions when she is in a psychotic state, even though we are bending over backwards all the time to try and help her. So having this feeling reinforced as a JW only adds to her feeling this very strongly.

  And not mentioned in the article is martyrdom. JWs love martyrs and being a martyr - another idea that has contributed to making her schizophrenia worse.

  And as for depression - I personally have had two immediate family members hospitalised for severe depression in recent years. And I know of quite a few witnesses in this area who have been hospitalised recently for depression, as well as there being an enormous number of JWs that I know who are on anti-depressents. So much for being the happiest people on earth. What a sad delusion.

  Hopscotch
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  48

  Forget all of the stages: Denial, Anger, Sadness - Don't you sometimes just feel STUPID for having believed in the Organization?

  by BonaFide in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know i have been through all those stages, i denied it, then i got angry, definitely sad.

  months and months of this, and i still am in for my family and friends.. but sometimes i just feel stupid.

  why did i ignore basic common sense for so long?

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  Hopscotch

  I was raised as a witness from the age of 5. Looking back I think there were many reasons why I kept believing when I became an adult, but I believe the primary reason was fear. The JW view of the world is the only one you know. To me it's like a child who is horribly abused by his parents but who still wants to be with his parents - it's all he knows, his security. But now (after 40 years a JW) that I've gone through the years of doubts, then the years of fading and am now out there are many times I think "How could I have been so stupid to believe those ridiculous ideas." But then I tell myself I wasn't stupid at all, just brainwashed. Mind controlled with fear and guilt tactics. In fact I now think it's the smart ones who work it out for what it is and are eventually brave enough to leave and start living a 'real' life.

  Hopscotch
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  71

  Hi I'm new here

  by BloominMarvellous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  feeling guilty already about being on here, the familiar words are recalled in my mind "don't go on any jehovah's witness websites except 'watchtower.org'!

  so here i am, desperate for some help.

  i'm 21 and have been studying for 2 years, i was made an unbaptised publisher in february and it was all going great until i had a problem with getting a little tipsy, the elders had to come scrape me off the floor of my witness friends house and take me home.

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  Hopscotch

  BloominMarvellous - I hope you have a fabulous belated 21st birthday party with all your real 'worldly' friends like Heather. It is so good that you are walking away from JWs before you were trapped by babtism. There are so many of us here on the forum that were babtised at a young age and have now walked away but in the process have lost all our families and so called friends. JW friends are not real friends at all. Wishing you all the best as you make your way through your life - living it your way.

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  8

  Amazing JW YouTube clip

  by yadda yadda 2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the work and wit that's gone into this is incredible.

  enjoy!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrzknjkzt4&feature=related.

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  Hopscotch

  Thanks for posting this video yadda. It was so well done. Must have taken an incredible amount of time to make it.

  Hopscotch