Do you ever experience any kind of anxiety around groups of Mormon people?

I was walking through campus and passed the institute building at the same time they let out of one of their classes. I had no choice but to merge in with the stream of people coming out of there and I started to panic.

Yesterday, the one lone Mormon at my office that has more than 1000 employees, interrogated me why I don't go to the Mormon church anymore. I only gave him the partial truth, I'm scared of the home teacher. He said maybe you should go to another ward. I said no.

I don't know him that well and didn't owe him any explaination. It was none of his business. After this encounter I felt like I was having a panic attack for a couple of hours !

If he asks again, I would simply tell him that you don't go to church because you don't want to.

If he corners you again tell him plain out that you don't care to discuss religion or politics at the work place.

Laugh at him and say, "Explanations are not required. This is the workplace."

Report him to HR if he doesn't back down. Forced religious conversations at work make a hostile work environment.

was taken once by the mo ex to a birthday party full of mormons. all very nice people actually and no one pushed anything on me, but after i saw them all sitting outside, i felt this very strong reluctance to go out there and the anxiety was bubbling up and i didn't want to let go of my then bf's hand or stray too far from him - i also became paranoid that they would try to convert me, especially when one woman got into gushing about someone's upcoming baptism. nothing was said to me. i wonder if they just assumed i was a member. i was very uncomfortable and anxious, and normally i'm a social person, ready to dive into the middle of a party.

but i was so glad to be getting away that i forgot my handbag.

I'm actually relieved that other people feel this way around groups of Mormons. I thought I had "social anxiety disorder" or paranoia, or something. However, I deal with people all day at work, and I enjoy going to parties. I'm friendly, but I say very little around Mormons. Any information they try to get from me will work to my detriment, or will elicit an answer such as, "If you went to church, your life would be even better."

You are right to listen to your gut reactions, and to be wary. Mormons know no boundaries, and ask personal questions, such as:

"How much money do you make?"
"How much did your son pay for his house?
"When is your daughter planning on having another baby?"
"Are you going to sell your house anytime soon?"

I'm a great neighbor (our house is the neatest one, and we are very quiet) and a good person, and I don't deserve to be maligned and disrespected. Some of these Mormon neighbors pushed and kicked my sons, just because they were late for priesthood meeting. The bishop's ugly older son tried to molest my little girl at a church campout. A wife accused me of pursuing her husband (he was icky, and I never would have wanted him), a mother said her daughter couldn't come to my daughter's overnight party, because "there was no priesthood in the home." When her daughter invited my daughter to play, I said I would not allow it "because you keep guns and ammunition at your house, and your daughter took a loaded gun to school."

If you seriously (and I suppose this is being judgmental) evaluate each Mormon in the group as an individual, to see which people you share common interests with, which people are honest, which people you can trust with confidential information, which people you can leave alone with your children, which people are not putting their cult above friendship and loyalty--well--you might not choose many of these to be your friends.

After trying for many years to salvage my closest Mormon neighborhood relationships, I ended up with zero. Even after all these years of personal success, and success, I cringe in the presence of Mormons.

I love the story about the handbag! That says it all! Just keep running, and let them keep it. Many of us lost more than just a handbag!

>
> I love the story about the handbag! That says it
> all! Just keep running, and let them keep it.
> Many of us lost more than just a handbag!


actually, i got the bag back - but i sat in the car while the BF went in to get it. He offered to do that even tho he hadn't been comfortable there either(transitioning from inactive into fully brainwashed TBM at that time). tho in all honesty had he not i probably would have been happy to leave it and keep my blood pressure at bay, lol.

after reading the many shocking and horrifying stories on this board about what this cult does to people and cause them to lose, i consider myself extremely extremely lucky to have 1 - been raised without it. in a good loving home of nevermos if you can imagine, lol.

and 2 - that my brush with it was brief and enough to put me off for life ever joining this nasty nasty organization. I'd sooner be attacked by a shark.

my sympathies and greatest respect for all those who have lost much more and bravely came out the other side (ie, cutting yourselves loose).

ps forestpal - you are definitely not alone, and although exmos certainly have more reason to fear, i can tell you that whenever i told my story of dating disaster with the mo to a considerable amount of nevermos, the reactions were always "ugggh, a mormon? run!" combined with shivers and grotesque looks of disgust. i actually made my friends brother stop, shiver and not want to come to close to me just knowing i'd been in mormon church that morning. and he has studied all kinds of religion, quite rightly calling the BoM and BoA total BS.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2013 12:07AM by wideawake.

Yes - not all Mormons but Mormons that attend the ward we live in and Mormons I don't know, because I've learned to expect the worst. Mormons who I knew before we moved into this house, into this area, don't make me anxious.

One thing that's damped down the anxiety is to learn to ignore them. A number of ward members also live in the school boundaries of my kids schools. I'll go to an activity, game, concert etc. and I don't worry about talking to them or making nice. They have to approach me - at which point I'm polite. But making that mental shift to categorizing them as strangers helped put distance between me and any harm they could do.

That being said, it's funny that they would actually think I'd go to their stupid Relief Society craft days or Ward Barbeques or go to a Stake Christmas party. Most of them not only aren't the sort of people I want as friends but in groups, they actually make me anxious and stressed. Once or twice when one of the nicer Mormons talked me into going to something, I've come home and needed a drink. I may have one or two drinks a month max. But after being with Mormons en masse, I need a drink every single time. With Mormon friends, I can detox with just a coffee but with people from the ward and stake, they stress me out on a much higher level. I think it's because I've seen how rotten they behave when their masks are off and the pressure is on and my trust level with them is less than zero.

I get anxiety when I see men in white shirts and ties.... weird. I know.

Tell him you don't want to worship a child molesting criminal. That should shut him up!

For once in my life I'm relaxed around Mormons. I know view them only with curiosity (even DW and DDs) and for the ass-hat Mormons, with scorn. I am now, in short, superior to them in a way, and I know it. It's kinda parallel to like when I was enlisted military, I was always wary of the officers. Now that I'm a civilian, I call the officers by their first names.