PRAYING.... Is it the answer to eating disorders?

by Gill 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    Dangerous advice. So what happens when thses troubled and ill ones don't get better from prayer? What happens when they start to think that god doesn't care about them since they still have the eating disorder? Stupid, stupid advice.


    Dams

  • tall penguin
    tall penguin

    One of my jw friends has an eating disorder. She was seeing a therapist but refused to talk about her jw life, afraid to "bring reproach on jehovah." Instead she talked to me about all her issues with "the truth" and the people in the org. It seemed obvious to me that her cognitive dissonance was contributing to her food issues, so I suggested to her that she talk to her therapist about her jw life. She was reticent. Not sure if she ever did. She shuns me now.
    This kind of advice from the wts will make it even more difficult for people like this friend of mine to get the help they really need. It's sad to me how this cult cuts away at people's spirit and life. Even when there is good professional help available, they feel terrified to take advantage of it.
    tall penguin

  • Mulan
    Mulan

    One of my daughters in law is a faithful churchgoer and she, her mother, and a few of her women friends all got involved in a program about 5 years ago, to pray away the pounds. All of them are still heavy and it just doesn't work. You couldn't convince them a few years ago though.

    I think the positive thinking aspect of prayer, goal setting, positive affirmations, all work the same way. You have to believe it, to make it work. In the end, YOU are the one who is making the difference.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • Sad emo
    Sad emo

    So they say talk through the possible causes with Jehovah before anyone else? hmmm....

    To deliberately avoid professional help for eating disorders is actually serving the problem rather than helping 'cure' it - it's perpetuating the denial that you have a problem that you need help with. When I first became anorexic, I eventually became aware that it was getting serious but I still refused to get help - so it went on longer until my workmates 'shopped' me to the company doctor, much to my annoyance at the time, but I might not be writing this otherwise.

    I do think prayer helps, but it shouldn't be seen almost as a cure like this article seems to point to.

    It raises an interesting question though - if the WTS are so against psychiatric help, what would happen if someone with an eating disorder was sectioned under the Mental Health Act?

  • VM44
    VM44

    At least they didn't have the nerve to say "Wait on Jehovah"!!

    To the Watchtower Prayer and Field Service are the solutions to most every problem one might have.

    --VM44

  • katiekitten
    katiekitten
    One of my jw friends has an eating disorder. She was seeing a therapist but refused to talk about her jw life, afraid to "bring reproach on jehovah."

    I did the same thing (not about an eating disorder). I saw a therapist for a while but never dared mention I was a JW because I thought 'she will jump on that as the root of my problems, and it will bring shame on Jehovahs name'.

    It never occured to me that the thing I was worrying about, that she would think the religion was the problem, WAS actually the problem. We never got to the root of the problem and I stopped going after one session where I had an unexplained and prolonged crying fit.

  • sspo
    sspo

    One thing they might be concerned is doctors finding out about JW having problems like everyone else.

    JW's are god's people and the happiest, they might not want any reproach on the organ.

    Just like child abuse don't go to the police, just pray about it

  • VM44
    VM44

    Has anyone noticed how the JWs are always concerned about secrecy and covering up things that might not look or sound good?

    They keep silent about any and all things that might put them in a bad light.

    Consider this, most other religions, such as the Mormons, and the Seventh Day Adventists, have had biographies writen about their founders. But how many biographies are available to read about the past presidents of the Watchtower corporations, Charles Russell, Judge Rutherfod, or Nathan Knorr? None! The reason is that the people who knew what these people did have kept their mouths closed. So that noone will know anything of substance about what these individuals have done when they were alive.

    The Watchtower Society is very much a secret Society.

    --VM44

  • lowden
    lowden

    I have come to believe that prayer is total bulls**t!!

    Some people think it works but they are only mistaking 'accomplishing things through mental focus' for a deity answering their pleadings.

    Recommending prayer as part of the treatment for eating disorders is patently farcical and cuckoo!!

    If there IS a god answering prayers, then his/her criteria for doing so was probably arrived at at 3 o'clock in the morning, after his/her 15th spliff.

    Peace

    Lowden

  • katiekitten
    katiekitten
    after his/her 15th spliff.

    I am deeply SHOCKED at your inference that god might be a SHE!

    Peas

    KK

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