- Was your non-JW parent ever a JW? NO
- Who was responsible for your religious upbringing? The JW or the non-JW? NON J-W mother
- Did they argue about it? YES fought and argued terribley. My father would have bon fires burning all the JW literature.
- Were you forced to go? YES
- Did the non-JW parent have any real say in how the family celebrated holidays? NO
6.Over all what impact did this split household have on your childhood and even later in life? It gave me an excuse to be
angry and mad at the world. I found myself blaming lifes unpleasntrys on the JW organization. It made me mad at both
parents for allowing me to be exposed to the JW thought process.
7.What would you want therapists to know about your situation? I'm 60 years old. I'm not going to a therapist over this
at this point. I did go to one when I was in my 40's. Its hard to remember 20 something years ago. I went to one session.
I talked he listened.
Then he gave me a book he wrote "How to be your own therapist". His fees were like 250$ an hour. So I read the book
and didnt go back to the therapist. The book answered all my questions at least that as an adult, I was responsible
for my thoughts and anger.
I did go to AA for 7 years. And there I got free therapy, or 1$ a session. I took the therapy
as an alcoholic, but I would say to myself that I was a recovering Jehovahs witness. The problems that the group of alcoholics
had seemed so similar to my JW problems that I related to them and during that 7 years my depression anger and mental
condition improved fantastically. AA worked for me I guess because I was medicating myself over my depression and anger
with alcohol. Over those 7 years I am sure I told the AA group everything about the evil JW's and over and over
they told me to let go and let God.
8 Any other thoughts? I lived a life so far 60 years. In 60 years there is good and bad.
A lot of the bad in my life came from JW thinking.
Not having a good job because of not having an education.
Not having a good retirement plan because of not having an education. That still angers me today at 60 and there is nothing
I can do about it but let go and let God. Or try not to think about it. But how can I not think about it.
Every day of my life I think about it..
