shazdancer

Yeah, herbie, I think that as more and more people go through this experience, it will be harder and harder to deny that longer courses of antibiotics can improve tough cases. A lot of good studies are coming out of Columbia Presbyterian these days, including one that recently proved that a second course of IV antibiotics could help patients who had relapsed after a first course. Favorite Lyme links: Lymenet International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society Columbia Lyme Research Cheryl's Lyme Info page Regards, Shaz

Wow, Bramble, unbelievable.This is the age when children should be learning about life by moving and discovering, not by pushing a pencil. They shouldn't be holding anything more pointy than a crayon! This is when they should learn to love learning. Regards, Shaz

Hi, Greasespotters, this is my annual post to remind you all to BE CAREFUL out there hiking in the woods, tall grass, and seashore, as it is once again tick season, and ticks can spread Lyme disease. This past year has brought several people into the spotlight who have joined the list of thousands severely affected by this disease: Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Opposite of Fate Rebecca Wells, author of the Ya-ya Sisterhood books Brooke Landau, who works for ESPN and appeared on the Today show to talk about her treatment There are two very different standards of care out there. Both protocols have been published in peer-reviewed journals, and are the subject of much controversy. One states that late-stage, disseminated Lyme is easy to test for and treat with a short course of antibiotics. If your symptoms return after treatment, too bad, you have an autoimmune disorder, learn to live with it. The other protocol says that severe cases of Lyme disease should be treated based on symptoms, and that antibody tests for Lyme are not always accurate. A longer course of antibiotics in different combinations may be needed, as well as treatment for other co-infections carried by the tick. The Lyme bacterium hides out in cells and can be difficult to eradicate entirely, but it is realistic to work toward reducing the bacterial load so that the patient can get back to a fairly normal life. You may never see the tick that infects you. It can be as small as a period on the end of this sentence. It may be in your hair, or behind a knee. You may not get a bull's eye rash. (But if you do, take a picture of it in outdoors lighting -- it is definitive for Lyme.) Please suspect Lyme, and find a Lyme specialist, if you have any of the following: 1.) Flu symptoms at this time of year -- it is not flu season! 2.) Sudden onset of swelling or pain in the joints for no reason 3.) Overwhelming fatigue 4.) Numbness, tingling, or paralysis, including half of the face (called Bell's palsy) 5.) Trouble concentrating, recalling words, depression 6.) The feeling like you were healthy before, but now you're falling apart with weird symptoms This is only a partial list. Please take it seriously. Regards, Shaz

Bramble, I recently had a similar experience. I wanted a part-time job as an assistant in a nursery school. I have over 20 years' experience teaching movement to preschoolers, but I just wanted an easy, low-stress position. The pay: $6 an hour. Within less than a week, they were leaving me alone in classrooms of 8 or more children. So much for assisting. I was often bounced from class to class, sometimes every hour, to cover for other teachers' break times. No curriculum to follow, make up your own. Very little structure. As you can imagine, the place was chaos. The pre-kindergarten class had a boy who was a head and shoulders taller than anyone else in there. He had a violent streak, and could hit, bite, push, spit or kick with little or no provocation. The kids tried to be friends with him, but it often dissolved into fights or crying. He could be sweet at times, or he could erupt. His teacher knew the family: mom used cocaine during her pregnancy. At various times when I was minding that room on the teacher's break, I had that kid cross the room to kick me, hit me on more than one occasion, hold out a foot to trip me, and push me from behind with all his might. My recourse was to take him to the office and have the director call the parents to come get him. Sometimes, there was no one in the office to help. The parents were in denial that anything was seriously wrong. The state came in to observe, but the kid held it pretty much together when he knew he was being watched. The state offered to help train us in ways to "work" with this child, but no one was offering to assign an instructor to work with him one-on-one. His teacher was threatening to quit. I did. Regards, Shaz

Wow, you guys, interesting stuff. Sirguess, you must have had an interesting childhood. Say on! Infection can also play a role. Children who have late-stage Lyme disease (neuroborreliosis), for example, are often misdiagnosed with ODD, AD with or without hyperactivity, depression, bipolar, or other psychiatric, neurologic, or cognitive disorders. Disease can prevent people from being able to cope with everyday environmental stresses, and they become hypersensitive to light, sounds, touch, foods, or smells. Kinda like if you get a migraine headache, and want to sit in a dark, quiet room. Regards, Shaz

I won't equate Wierwille to Hitler. But I will compare him to Michael Jackson. :D--> The Michael Jackson trial is going on right now. It has been revealed that Michael slept in the same bed with many children over the years. He probably sexually molested some of them, though probably not all of them. He has also given thousands of dollars to individual kids and helped generate millions to feed the starving. If you were a child whose life had been saved due to Jackson's largesse, how would you feel about him? If you had received all that aid, and Jackson invited you to Neverland, wouldn't you just be thrilled to go? If he then invited you for a "sleepover," wouldn't you still trust him? If he touched you briefly, would you be suspicious? And if you find out, years later, that Jackson touched a lot of little boys, how would you feel about him then? And how would you feel about your cancer treatment that he helped pay for? Just thinking, and as 3Cents said, it isn't all one way or the other. Regards, Shaz

Give me my walnuts! "The face of squirrels"... still laughing, Mr. H. Loved it! :D--> Shaz

In a civil lawsuit, all the plaintiffs can get is money. It would take criminal prosecution to bring about jail or other punishments. When civil litigants have settled with TWI in the past, they got what they sued for -- money damages. The only thing they didn't get was the chance to air TWI's dirty underwear in open court. But there's always the court depositions and the judges comments, which have revealed quite damaging facts in the past.... Just so's ya know, Shaz

The smell of Murphy's Oil Soap always reminds me of TWI. I'd never used that cleaner before Rome City, and it has a very distinct smell. (What is that -- creosote?) You're not gonna believe what brought that smell memory back one day. A few years ago, I was renting a house that was infested with carpenter ants. They mostly left us alone. But one day each year, the winged males would swarm on my front porch. By the hundreds! One time, I tried stepping on them. They gave off a very pungent, distinct smell -- Murphy's Oil Soap! Gawd, the ants reminded me of TWI!!! (Your own punchline goes here....) ;)--> :D--> Shaz

Dear diazbro, For sure, as a result of having been abused, I find myself less trusting of others, or more importantly, less trusting of my own intuition about others. I also find I can be more extreme in how my gut reacts under stress. I want to be sure I am surrounding myself with good relationships with supportive people. That was one of the things that most helped Grace Tower in her recovery and litigation -- she had a network of people who understood that what happned to her was not her fault. Dear mj, Good point. I hope that, in the end, I am able to take what has happened to me and turn it into making me a better person. I know that having a chronic illness has made me more understanding of those who are ill or handicapped. Being an ex-cultist has made me more closely examine what I truly believe. Surviving abuse had made me more determined than ever to contribute to making my little corner of the world a more peaceful place. Getting ready to sing "Kumbaya," ;)--> Shaz

Thanks, exy, you said it for me. Wierwille was more the monster, because he knew what a godly man should act like. And so he was that godly man, some of the time. And in the act of doing good, the man believed he deserved special privileges. Evil privileges. After all, he worked so hard studying the Word, leading God's people. (And boy, aren't they a bunch of idiots!) "Happy is he who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." Time to meet the Moggy's needs so he can better move The Word, right? The only thing Wierwille didn't bother to think about was how indulging his needs negated the very Word he purported to live by, and destroyed the lives of the family he claimed to have fathered. One more time, and I fixed the grammar, WordWolf: The face of evil is not scowling and drooling. It is not ugly. The face of evil smiles and is soft-spoken. The evil man indulges in evil because he is convinced he is entitled. We are fooled because we cannot believe that such evil could come from someone so good. Regards, Shaz

Thanks, GrouchoJr. That absolutely said it for me. I was not especially abused by TWI in the manner that some were. But knowing that my participation helped keep an organization going, so that it could hurt so many so grievously, made any fun times or Biblical knowledge not worth the price. Regards, Shaz

Dear def, Not all things to all people. Better than all people. Regards, Shaz

Hi, everybody! Just wanted to pass along this quote from the book Fish in a Barrel, by "Grace Tower." She was sexually abused by her therapist, and she took him to civil and criminal court over it, and won both cases. She speaks a lot about how the perpetrator went through a process of breaking her down so that he could victimize her: Learned about her background, and her weak points, to use against her Alternated between praising her and belittling her, and used triggering words and jargon to keep her off balance Isolated her from other people and experiences that she could use to compare Increased her dependence upon him, by not helping her get well Gradually crossed more and more professional boundaries, making her believe she was special and that their relationship was personal and mutual Instilled fear in her, fear of his rages and of his disapproval Sounds a lot like Wierwille to me. Then there was her take on recovering from the abuse, 9 years after it occurred: Hope that helps in the understanding, Shaz

Wow, topoftheworld, nice post. You started out with a bang! :)--> I think the immediacy of live posters retelling their stories and their points of view is more helpful than a bunch of archived threads. You can't dialogue with archives. And not everyone would bother to scroll down and search through them for the information they need. Thanks, Paw, for keeping this thing alive. I have 2 reasons that I hang out at the 'Spot. One, is that I hope my posts contribute to helping others avoid the pitfalls of committing to an organization called The Way International. Making lemonade out of the large lemon of that corporation, I guess. Like AA-ers telling their experiences, no one knows what it is like to be a Wayfer more than another Wayfer. The other reason that I have hung around for so long is that I had a husband that came from TWI2, left the group to marry me, but has returned to the group since the divorce. I wanted to understand more about how the group is today, and how it could overlook, welcome, and contribute to the abuses that he perpetrated. I have a child to protect. Regards, Shaz

Aw, it was still funny, SJ! :)--> Shaz

Dear ToadFriend, I can be tolerant of you and your beliefs, but I hope you don't mind if I disagree with you on this one. The "we all sin" argument comes up from time to time. Sure, we all sin -- but Wierwille lived in sin, it was habitual and ingrained. Adultery? He pursued the young women he wanted to molest. He sometimes used others to procure these women for him. He made it a habit to stay in his motorcoach at Headquarters so that he could freely carry out his indiscretions under the nose of his wife. People who protested were often maligned and kicked out. Drunkenness? His drinking was legendary. Lying? He invented the hook shot, could've been an executive at A. B. Dick, a Doctor of Theology, snow on the gaspumps. Stealing? Plagiarism, slave labor, using ministry money for his personal "needs" while requiring everyone else to sacrifice all but bare subsistence. Even the Bible that Wierwille held to be The Word of God says that he was not qualified to be a leader of the church, because of his sins. Not because he was human like the rest of us, but because he was inhuman. See, even God doesn't look upon every sin the same. That was another of Wierwille's lies. Regards, Shaz

3 year-olds love discovering the real world. They don't need fairies and dinosaurs, because everyday things are just as magical. Go on a nature walk around the block. In fact, make sure he goes outside every day. The fresh air and running around will help tire him out, too! Teach the little kid songs and dances: "Old MacDonald," "The Hokey-Pokey," "The Wheels on the Bus," etc. Be prepared to sing them a zillion times. Put on some music and let him bang on the kitchen pots and pans. Buy earplugs. Let him help you match up socks and sort laundry. Give him some old clothes to play dress-up in. But put away the scissors unless you're watching him -- this is the age they try to cut their hair! Have fun -- it is a wonderful age. You might feel like you aren't giving the next baby enough attention, but the baby has the added attention of big brother. Priceless. Regards, Shaz

Dear Sharon, Love your name, BTW! ;)--> And I'm ROFL at this... I think there is a "message board" mentality on a lot of boards on the Internet, where people just spout off some really mean stuff, because they are anonymous. I wonder of that carries over here sometimes. But I agree with you, I don't blame people for using biting humor (like "silver tights") to feel like they have overcome TWI, but I also think our message is more effective when we don't bite each other over disagreeing. Regards, Shaz, the "other" Sharon

Dear Lindy, So sorry to hear you got hurt! It is so distressing to wreck a body part. It feels so much a part of you, particularly when it is what you do your work with. It's also amazing how such a little thing as a finger can put one in such a state of shock afterward. I hope you're feeling much better, soon. Take care, Shaz (Ow, my ring finger -- I crushed the tip of it with a gymnastics bar a couple of years ago -- aches just talking about this! There, there...)

I hear that, Jim. I guess my biggest shift is that I don't "know that I know," I hope that I know. Regards, Shaz

I can think of one instance in TWI where "personal prophecy" was used: the laying on of hands and prophecy spoken over a couple at their wedding ceremony. But this CES version has such a "I know something about you that you don't know" flavor to it. Like depending on a psychic, or horoscope. Save your money, and learn to make your own decisions. Regards, Shaz

Ah, Frank Perdue. Not only did we identify the man with his product, but he kinda looked like his product.... :D--> Shaz

I can't ignore ME. I like ME. I talk about ME a lot. I probably mention ME every day. In fact, I now live in ME. I hope you all will come visit ME sometime, and enjoy the beauty of ME. It's easy to find ME -- just turn left at PA, and keep going past MA. Continue north 'til you get to ME. Just watch out for moose along the way. :D--> Shaz

"...being grieved for the hardness of their hearts..." Shaz