by Mr. Majestic 6 Replies latest watchtower medical
Being in the organisation for most of my life I have seen so many people suffering with depression. But a friend of mine recently said that it was impossible for them to suffer from the condition, because of the mental strategies they have in place to cope with hard times, and a mental resilience that they attained from a balanced stable upbringing….
Could it be true that some people have a natural immunity to such a debilitating mental condition….???
I wouldn't say people can be immune against depression - perhaps some are more resilient than others though, especially if they have good coping strategies in place.
Firstly there is more than one type of depression - the clinical type, caused often by chemical imbalances in the body which nobody is immune from, as well as 'reactive' depression - which is the type I guess your friend is talking about.
Even with reactive depression, I think everyone has a weak spot in their life which it is possible to breach if touched - it might happen, it might not.
I don't think anyone is immune from depression, I've always thought I was super strong and even I have
suffered depression. Things happen in your life that at one point you can not cope with, so you begin to withdraw from life
until you hit a low point and then it is hard to pull yourself back up without help.
Sometimes it can be a chemical imbalance, sometimes it follows family hereditary factors, my father suffered depression at times for years and his
sister suffered depression a hidden one no one new what so ever. Some people hide it very well as she did, she committed suicide she was a
Registered nurse and well liked. And then its just what life throws at you.
hope4others
I don't think they are immune to depression: I think they are in denial.
In fact I think there is a very high incidence of depression amongst JWs, but because calling it 'depression' would mean admitting that there is a problem which the Bible is incapable of curing, and would mean admitting that the hope of the Paradise does not compensate for tha garbage in their present life, they just cannot face it. According to many, there is no problem that the Bible cannot fix! Therefore if you are suffering from depression it's because you lack faith!
You can see why its much easier to be in denial.
Mental illness does not discriminate.
Anyone can become clinically or subclinically depressed.
Because of the stigma associated with mental illness, many people try to maintain the status quo and cope without confiding with even those closest to them.
That Jehovah's Witnesses are not prone to depression is pure, unadulterated horse$h!t. If anything the never-ending and unreasonable demands the organization heaps on JWs, along with the constant drive to seek God's approval (while never quite achieving it) makes them have an even higher risk for depression than the general population.
Im sorry, but thats rubbish - anyone can suffer from depression no matter what. Things like this are why lots of JWs refuse to take medcine, see counsellors etc. Who is then to blame if they attemp suicide etc? My mam was told she had depression a bit back & prescribed meds, but due to "advice" she was given she didnt take them and she got really bad to the point wher my dad threatended to move out, my younger bros & sisters kept phoniong me in tears cos mam had disspareaded (she used to go drive for hours & hours late at night really dangerously and not with it) if anything had happened to her I would have held the people who told her not to take them due to what it said in the magazines responsible.
I too suffer from depression, take the meds & see a counsellor - I talked this thru a bit with my mam (not mcuh as im vert private person) & now she takes her meds & is much better now.
My counsellor thinks a lot of my probs I have are to do with being bought up in the cong - mainly the abuse I experinced from 2 people, but other things too.
So anyway, after my rant - sorry! - no they arent immune to it, as Wavvy says - Its denial
Hey!
I have suffered from depression for about 1 year and i think i can elaborate:
First off, som say that "everybody are depressed at times" and stuff like that. That is not true. A depression DOES NOT feel like what you and i would call "being depressed", when you are having a depression you sink to such a shit state you loose all normal feelings (yep, that includes the feeling you normally associate with "being depressed", the person who are depressed are aware of this and feel like crap everyday because of it, but wont recognize it as a depression), and you walk around like a zombie. You also go into complete denial. The one person who can never, ever be trusted to diagnose a depression is the person who suffer from it, that is one of the thing that makes this decease so dangerous!.
So what are the symptoms? Well, its actually very easy to diagnose, just google for depression, symptoms, and you can easily find the list of strange ideas that a person suffering from depresion have. if you have many of those for a long time, you got a depression, and you got to see a doctor (a person who has a depression will allways invent all kinds of reasons why seing a doctor is a bad idea. BREAK THEIR LEGS AND DRAG THEM TO THE DOCTOR, SPEAKING AS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS, YOU ARE DOING THEM AN ENORMEOUS FAVOR!). As a rule of thump, if you begin to withdraw from friends and dont feel life is rewarding, and this goes on for a month, have suicidal thought (i reasoned: since i am only having THOUGHT, and dont actually have PLANS to kill myself, im golden. I was wrong :-) ).
Secondly, i think that the notion of "two types of depression, chemical and psychological" has been dropped. A depression is caused by the brain lacking certain chemicals which in result inhibit synapse firering. thats why it cant just be fixed by happy thought much like diabetis wont fix itself. the person suffering from depression wont believe that. see the note about breaking legs. I think i felt that directly, some times i would simply loose my train of thoughts and my ability to focus was so low that i at times LITTERALY could not read because i could not make the letters form words. that one felt kind of strange. I told myself that was due to "stress" :-).
Thirdly, depression is, in most cases, very easy to cure. You get some pills, you take on every morning, the brain gets the chemicals it need and in 6 weeks time you go back to normal. going back to normal from the depressed state was a very, very strange experience.
About jw's not having depression.. thats total bullshit. i know at least one who had one and i dont know many jws. and the thing about praying or being more spiritual, thats the worst advice you can give, since the person who is depressed blame him/herself for EVERYTHING and giving the person an additional reason why everything is his/her fault is not a good approach. secondly, it gives the person another excuse for going to the doctor, which he/she will be very happy for :-) .
(oh, and how did i go to the doctor? well, a friend of mine who had worked with depressed people spend a couple of hours going through the symptoms. i would not have done it on my own).
