Have you observed a higher than normal number of mentall ill among JW's? If so, do you think the religon attracts the mentally ill, or do you think that their beliefs and practices actually cause mental illness?
Do JW's attract the mentally ill, or do their beliefs cause mental illness?
by gaiagirl 31 Replies latest jw friends
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DoomVoyager
Yeah, my family members for one.
They attract - or rather, entrap - mentally ill people, and then their pattern of repression and abuse reinforces the illness insteal of healing it.
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Nowman
Yes to both your questions!
Nikki
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slimboyfat
Is there any hard evidence there is a higher incidence of mental illness among Witnesses? There is a lot of speculation, and Jerry Bergman has frankly written a lot of crap on the subject, but there is nothing concrete. It is certainly possible Witnesses suffer more from mental illness, and anecdotally I have seen a fair amount, but let's not claim more than the available evidence allows.
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Seeker4
Lots of mentally ill in the congregations. One reason is that I think those ill like the attention they can get. We had some folks so mentally ill that they just couldn't be taken in the field service. S4
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freetosee
I think both.
As a child I noticed that it was never the "good" people, but the very strange ones who became interested in the truth...
Many come in being mentally ill. The jw life makes it a lot worse and after they get too difficult to handle they get kicked out. This leaves them in an even more critical dangerous state. But at least their suicide serves as a warning example for the sheep-like ones...
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Nowman
In my opinion, those that are mentally ill, insecure, looking elsewhere for a hope for the future, are easy prey for religious cults. I know this to be true because living examples are my parents who converted later in life.
The WTBS does cause people to be mentally ill or it takes awhile to get over what you thought was so important when in the org, either way my parents are living example of it. In fact, I myself am a living example that I am affected my it, and I have been out for 15 years!!! Hence the reason why I continue to come here for support.
Its OK that I am still affected by it, I try not to let it consume me, but there are some days I am really pissed off that my childhood was wasted on the WTBS. The concrete evidence actually can be viewed on this board.
Nikki
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OnTheWayOut
Not necessarily the mentally ill, but the WTS attracts the lonely and the hopeless.
That would include many mentally ill ones.The WTS implants fears into any who might start to slack off, doubt, and want to leave.
It warps the minds of children and adults about the status of outsiders and their ways.
It condemns day-to-day activities and events and puts more fear into members about
accidentally watching a television program about magic or gay life or buying a demonized
used furniture piece or forming a political opinion or humming a Christmas song they
hear at the store.They attract those with problems. They magnify problems. They create problems.
They attract mentally ill. They make mental illness worse. They cause mental illness. -
BabaYaga
I truly believe the answer is BOTH.
They appeal to the desparate, the lonely, the trapped, and the FEARFUL...
...and then they HARP on FEAR (extremely unhealthy) and then micromanage your every move and thought, while making you feel unworthy no matter WHAT you do or sacrifice for them.
Oh, yeah, it's a recipe for a real well-balanced crew. -
Layla33
Yes and yes, I actually did a research paper on this, the empircal information is hard to come by, but I translated it into the general populace of religious people. One of the things that is in the training when studying mental illness is that an overly reliance on the supernatural and a reality that can't be explained in natural terms can be a foundation for mental disorders.
I believe that people that have irrational ideas, have personality disorders and obsessive complusive disorders can not only be drawn to the religion, but that religion can nuture it. What I tell people all the time is that mental illness in itself is not a death sentence or a period in the sentence of life. The problem becomes that people with skewed and disorted issues in themselves and towards others and society at large may not get the help they need because the environment of religion can allow it to flourish.
Someone with a "god-complex", someone with a irrational idea about themselves believes that are "annointed" and thus begins a road of reinforcement, but a continuation of the delusion.
I wish I could write more and I am typing this very fast, but I wanted to write something. Back to work, I have a meeting in a few minutes, but this was something I wanted to respond.