JW's and antidepressants (page 2)

sspo

40% of elders are on prozac. They are the ones that need to enforce the watchtower nazi rules.

Aside from the JW lifestyle being a causing factor in depression; I believe that many persons who have emotional pain and depression are often drawn into cults of all sorts. There is that sense of "belonging" in a "family", of somehow being favored or special, the promise of a better life than one could hope for outside of the cult. It is easy to see how persons prone to depression due to prior pain, are drawn in, thinking it is a cure for all that ail them, only to find that their burden is unrelenting.

The Doc 58

It seems like people become JW's because they have mental issues or they develop mental issues because they are JW's. My parents joined because they had mental issues and I have mental issues because I was raised in it. I am on prozac.

lisavegas420

two thing...first, when I was in, and on antidepressants, I didn't know anyone else was. I just thought there was something wrong with me.

secondly...I look back now, to when I was a child. and my mom was depressed, of course I didn't know it at the time. I remember once she told me.."how can I explain to your doctor that I'm distraught because I'm afraid my children will be distroyed." Maybe she should have said that to the doctor.

lisa

WTWizard

In my former congregation, I never saw the antidepressants. However, I do know that people there were not tolerant of any individualism. I have seen at least three that were on some kind of psychiatric drugs, and maybe a number of others that I never saw or heard of the drugs.

For about half of them, the only drug they need is to walk out of the Kingdumb Hell and not go back.

Dagney

Honestly, I have to admit, there are many that I know that are on antidepressants. I think it was about 10 or so years ago when the whole issue regarding depression was coming to the fore in news and in people's lives. So thankfully, there are medications that help people cope.

I think being a JW has such an added burden along with the normal stresses of life, no wonder they are depressed. There was lots of controversy at firstregarding these meds. One elder especially was criticized, I think unfairly. Then some said they feel that if an elder had these mental challenges, they weren't fit to serve. I don't know. We were awful hard on people.

But it is still common. I hear from my friends, if the goin gets rough, "I just pop a Xanex." I have another friend on two medications, juggling multiple demands in today's life, while still trying to convince me her life is so much better as a JW. I look at her like she is crazy, I am never going back to that madness.

Homerovah the Almighty

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling between what one holds to be true and what one knows to be true. Similar to ambivalence, the term cognitive dissonance describes conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) that occur at the same time, or when engaged in behaviors that conflict with one's beliefs. In academic literature, the term refers to attempts to reduce the discomfort of conflicting thoughts, by performing actions that are opposite to one's beliefs.

In simple terms, it can be the filtering of information that conflicts with what one already believes, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce one's beliefs. In detailed terms, it is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where "cognition" is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. Experiments have attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive. Some of these have examined how beliefs often change to match behavior when beliefs and behavior are in conflict.

This is another reason why so many of JWS suffer from Bi-polarism

R.Crusoe

I never took anti depressants or in fact any medication and not because I'm being pig headed!

I just am aware that if people I cared about won't give me their time of day and sit and chat things out like reasoning adults when they give each film 2 or 3 hours free time, I cant be worth one of their $2 DVDs!

And no end of antidepressants can change that fact of how people are in modern society!

Like in JW lans after you maybe gave years up and the ones controlling events ignore you! Who paid the price? You with your life! And now they treat you like a leper!

So I dont need drugs coz I know why I aint too happy with how things are!

Its a potion of human pride, attitudes, superiority and whatever else you can think of mixed up in everyones head with imaginary ideas of who is god and whose side he's on!

I know its a mess I havent been given the keys to unwind and I also know chemicals aint gonna either!

So be it!

still_in74

My jw wife was telling me how much better a sister was now shes on prozac it turns out half the congo is on it

i had a family member that worked in pharmacy and they said the exact same thing to me over 10 years ago! Literally, half the cong. ie: all the "sisters".

I guess putting up with their dominant husbands that they married not because they were in love with them but because they were "good in the truth" had fianlly gotten to them.

cyber-sista

Yes, both congregations I was in were heavily sedated. All my close JW friends were on meds. I even tried them for a bit, being that I felt paranoid and anxious all the time when I was a JW. Thank goodness they made me ill so I didn't do that for long. When I was having problems and left the Org. a few of my friends suggested that I was just depressed and should go on medication, so I wouldn't leave. None of my non-JW friends are on these meds. when I was a JW I knew about every name of every antidepressant drug there was since they were so talked about in the congo.

JW's and antidepressants