Eric: Jehovah's Witnesses Use Pain, Loss, and Sadness as Power

I was raised in "the truth" by my mother. When I was 9, she married my stepfather who was very strict in religion. I had to study technology at school while I actually wanted to work in healthcare. But he wanted us to study engineering because that's what we needed in paradise. My childhood was hell, I was depressed and contemplated suicide several times.

Everything went wrong around the age of 20, I was unhappy in love, excluded and returned to the Jehovah's Witnesses out of sheer desperation. I became inactive and literally lost my mind. I started drinking, taking drugs and getting involved in crime. I was arrested abroad and ended up in prison. There I was approached by a pastor and told that I was actually a Jehovah's Witnesses. He looked at me carefully and said he felt sorry for me. He told about social workers who helped deprogram former Jehovah's Witnesses. I was shocked by that and continued to investigate.

I came back to the Netherlands and met the love of my life. We got married, had 2 beautiful sons and soon the Jehovah's Witnesses were at the door. My father-in-law had just died and my wife became interested in the resurrection hope and the idea of ​​paradise. My wife studied and I saw how they drew her further and further into the faith. She wife was baptized and I warned her but also left her free to do so. In the beginning it was still nice and cozy. but that soon changed. We noticed that many witnesses led double lives.

Our eldest son had a hard time at a young age and we soon had to go to the hospital because they thought he had a brain tumor. Fortunately, that was not the case and it turned out to be a severe migraine due to autism and overstimulation. We went to church less and not at all in the evening because of our son's heavy medication. Then we were visited by the elders who thought we should go to church at all costs. They said, "Your son will definitely not die if he goes to church!" They didn't take us seriously as parents and that was the moment, together with all kinds of strange events in church, that made us decide not to go to church anymore. We also believe whether or not you believe that you don't need a church for that.

We were very happy and a close-knit family, which the Jehovah's Witnesses did not understand because we no longer went to church, so then you could no longer be happy, was their idea. We started doing our own research and discovered some terrible facts about JW.org. The organization is a bad apple that only shows the good side. It's scary how deep the mental pressure goes.

Our eyes were completely opened by a special documentary on Videoland on Dutch TV. We got to know some of the people who were in the documentary and then noticed the profound pain, loss and sadness that the organization uses as power. Since then, as a family, we have joined the group of brave people who expose all abuses and I have already climbed over the fence at Bethel in the Netherlands.

The people we have around us now really show what unconditional love is meant to be! Most of us are very damaged but know that you are absolutely not alone!