You did a GREAT job of emphasizing that she 'is not exaggerating'..... they had us by the throat as kids. We were terrified and would sit in school believing everyone around us was going to be slaughtered. Slightly older than your guest, went to high school in the 1980's.... and this current younger generation doesn't realize how indoctrinated and fearful we were. They destroyed our minds... from the literature to the conventions.... control, no higher education and tacit obedience. This cult destroys children. GREAT interview, thank you.

The WT imagery & constant messages of destruction & death are psychotic!!  Tragic because it creates PTSD.   It’s a form of child abuse.  😢

She had me at "I was," instead of "I am" 4th gen JW.

Another story of a born in person that is heart breaking. Every time I watch one of these videos, I'm sooooo glad that I was not born into that cult!!! The modern day pharisees just make life so much harder than it needs to be and of course suck the fun out of everything!!

Glad this woman is finally free. And it was great to hear about her son reconnecting with her!

I realize how blessed I was to have NOT been baptozed.

J-Dub Royalty is very much a real thing in that cult.

I got baptized at 11.  As the baptism talk was being given my brain was screaming "I don't believe this". I prayed and prayed to Jehovah asking him to make Satan stop making me have doubts.  
I tried sooo hard to just have faith and never could. I believed there was something truly wrong with me.

She is NOT exaggerating.   I would get Christmas songs get stuck in my head.  I would try everything I could to get a kingdom melody stuck instead.  I was convinced that if Armageddon happened while this song was playing in my mind that I would die.
What a terrible way to raise a child. So much guilt over everything.

I was constantly scared that Armageddon would happen while we were at school. I thought I was going to watch them die.

My biggest issue was to accept people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses are just normal people. They are not evil and I am not better than them. I had to learn to accept that there is nothing special about being on of Jehovah's Witnesses. When i accepted these things I started building a community with not Witnesses.

These interviews are getting hard to listen to. It’s heartbreaking thinking of all the people that got hurt by this cult. Happy healing and love to all ❤😢🙏
I really appreciate the work you and your husband are doing.

I don't know who initially said it. But I heard it from singer Wynonna Judd. 'If you don't make decisions in life, life will make them for you'. It's my all time favorite quote!

Oh... i can relate to her story so much. I lost my 3 kids when i left from made up charges. It was hell on earth. This was early 90's... no internet..no support. Darkest night of the soul. Glad she made it thru!! No one knows unless you've been there..they are so inhumanely evil..

I had no cable, internet, cellphones, are anything that would expose this dangerous cult.

Yes! The isolation as a small child, child, teenager is terrible!

For me, I was forced to be around other kids in the congregation who were not good for me.

Then also, not allowed to have friends from the “world” that would have been much better humans for me to be around.

Thanks for this conversation guys! 🥰

I really feel for you. It's so bad they treated someone who wasn't even baptised like they did!

Yes exactly. I recall being a seven year old CATHOLIC in the 50’s, thinking of all my little non-Catholic friends on the block, not just dying but roasting in HELL forever! It was horrible! Then, as a JW, because of no hell belief (a major reason I got sucked into THAT), then my own child going through what I did, imagining all his classmates dying horrible deaths at Armageddon! Oh god, what we do to our children in the quest of religion! 😢

I am so much enjoying this interview. We have a lot in common. I myself am in recovery. I presently live in Van Nuys, California. And finally, finally someone feel the same way I do about  2020😂.
I was glad about being locked down at times during the pandemic.Of course I😮 was doing telephone with with a shot of vodka on the side.
That is so true about therapy. The elder never supported me during my struggle with alcohol instead they kicked me on the curb. Even though I served as an elder for 21 years. But I had the best therapist that fit me. She helped me so much to identify myself. She helped me so much in addition to IOP and sober living.

24:09 yessss I love this for you!! It's so refreshing to have true friendships that are not conditional!! Thank you so much for sharing Pony! Thank you Bethany! ✨️🫶

36:15 I appreciate how Pony says that she can't blame all of her problems on being raised a JW, but that it formed the infrastructure for her later problems. I've said much the same for years, "I can’t blame the Watchtower for all my troubles, but it's a huge barrier to me solving them. The only way my life is going to get better is to make better decisions, and the first decision must be to leave Jehovah’s Witnesses."

29:45.  I got this fellowship after leaving my husband within a year and a half.He passed away. I still loved him and I was going through my own alcoholism and went through recovery program. When I left him, his family completely blamed me. And when they got him into treatment again for the second and third time they wouldn't let me talk to him. I found myself in and abusive relationship.
With no one elle, surround me that with friends.Because everybody shunned me and I had no worldly friends. The saddest thing in the whole wide world to me is not being able to go through my family pictures that was very important to me. And reminisce about memories, I have no one to talk to about those things. Either and I get, I think that's one of the things that is the hardest for me. After leaving my husband and getting with this abusive guy, I woke up from the indoctrination. That was such a shock to me. I was going through so much at the time.As you can understand.
It's been now ten years since I left, i'm remarried, I still live in the same town. The kingdom halted fellowship me. And so I run into people and i'm ignored, like I was invisible.As you know. Used to have panic attacks.I'm doing a little better now. High fisher, not what I would expect it to be, and i'm adjusting.
Enjoyed this interview.Ladies great job and thank you, from western washington warm regards. 🎉❤🎉