well by reading you thread, i kind of understand some of your points. Some other christian groups are "cult like" by kicking out their members and shunning them. But there are diferent groups in a category of christians. Catholic, eastern orthodox, Protestants, amish, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc. are all part of the big christian category. When someone says, "I'm in a christian cult" it can mean any group in that category. It doesn't mean all groups do this. Some Christian groups do not shun former memebers.
Adults with imaginary friends are stupid.
by alice.in.wonderland 247 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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rnicole76
i dont understand why active jws say that "oh other churches do this too. we must have the truth or we are right all along." ok it is just like you see all your friends doing drugs. Does it make it okay? Your friends all have 10 or more sex partners, does it make it okay or right to do so? So, what is the point? Didn't the elders say that the world thinks it is okay to do certain stuff wrong in the bible but it is not. "Jehovah hates those things" well you can't say just because "christendom" do these things, it makes it okay to do the same or the right thing to do.
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StAnn
John Doe and Shamus, here's an article about remission in schizophrenia if you're really interested:
http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2004/08_01_Jeste.htm
"News Release Date: July 31, 2004
SUSTAINED REMISSION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA IS POSSIBLE IN SOME PATIENTS
Sustained remission in older patients with very chronic schizophrenia, similar to that experienced by Nobel laureate John Nash in the movie “A Beautiful Mind,” is possible if somewhat rare, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
Published in the August 2004 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the study showed that 8 percent of 155 middle-aged and elderly individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, met the criteria for sustained full remission.
“While our results show that true recovery from schizophrenia is an exception rather than a rule, they still indicate that sustained remission occurs in patients with very chronic illness and offer hope that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dilip Jeste, M.D., UCSD professor of psychiatry and neurosciences and a geriatric psychiatrist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.
As to what brings about remission in schizophrenia patients, Jeste said that psycho-social support may be an important factor. For example, John Nash got excellent support from his ex-wife as well as from his professional colleagues at Princeton University.
“We hope that our study with its look at remission from a scientific perspective, will encourage the development of better management including more psycho-social support programs to strive for remission in as many patients as possible,” said Jeste, who is also the director of the UCSD Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, and the Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging,
A serious medical illness, schizophrenia affects more than 2 million Americans or about one percent of the population worldwide. Tormented by hallucinations, delusions and other forms of bizarre behavior, these individuals are usually unable to work or interact with society. Many patients develop schizophrenia as adolescents or young adults, while a small proportion of older patients manifest the illness for the first time in their later years.
While many psychiatrists believe that schizophrenia is associated with a progressive personality deterioration without possibility of remission, previous studies have reported rates of remission ranging from 3 percent to 64 percent.
According to Jeste, the criteria used to define remission in past studies were often questionable or unclear with few, if any, standardized rating scales of psychopathology being used.
For the UCSD study, the research team studied 155 patients who had, at some point, been diagnosed with schizophrenia, as defined by the DSM-III-R or DSM-IV psychiatric manuals. Eighteen of these individuals were designated in “full remission” by their medical providers. However, the UCSD team found that only 12 of the 18 met the following criteria for “full remission”:
- Living independently of supervision by caregivers for the past two years;
- No hospitalization for a psychiatric illness for the last five years;
- Presently reported psychosocial functioning within a normal range: and
- Either not taking antipsychotic medication or taking no more than one-half of the highest daily dose prescribed in the past.
Although the UCSD study found only an 8 percent sustained remission rate, Jeste noted that the actual percentage of patients in remission may be as high as 15 to 20 percent, since the study did not include symptom-free individuals who had decided to stop physician visits.
“Some individuals without symptoms do not wish to be followed by medical personnel,” said Jeste, who is also director of the UCSD Stein Institute for Research on Aging. He stressed, however, that most people with chronic schizophrenia need continued medication and other psychiatric care in order to avoid relapse.
The UCSD researchers also found that although the individuals in sustained remission had similar levels of positive, negative, and depressive symptoms as normal comparison subjects, the previously diagnosed schizophrenia patients continued to display cognitive and functional impairments statistically similar to those of symptomatic schizophrenia patients.
“Although this may seem to be at variance with the notion of true remission, it is consistent with the neurodevelopmental aspects of schizophrenia,” Jeste said. “It is believed that cognitive and functional deficits precede the onset of overt psychotic symptoms by years and are independent of positive or other clinical symptoms in schizophrenia. So, it is not surprising that such impairments could outlast symptom remission.”
The paper’s first author was Lisa A. Auslander, Ph.D., a research fellow in the UCSD Department of Psychiatry when the study was done, and currently the recipient of a career develop award from the Veterans Administration. The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
# # #
News Media Contact
Sue Pondrom
619-543-6163UCSD Health Sciences Communications HealthBeat: /news/"
StAnn
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StAnn
Shamus, PM me about your experiences with the developmentally disabled, please.
StAnn
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sooner7nc
To those who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for “shunning” and then condemn them for not shunning, you can't have it both ways. This is just another attempt to dehumanize a person and make them harshly judgmental and robotic. JWs are not robots that “obey orders.” They also are influenced by human emotions, whether good or bad.
The shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses of Jehovah's Witnesses is not the question, nor is the condemnation by you of them. The fact that they and you are indeed not robots and therefore cannot shun them does not mitigate the fact that the dehumanizing of the person being shunned is perceptible by the others in the congregation and therefore is uncondemnable. Being harshly judgemental as you put it as regards this supposed shunning is not being duplicitous, it is following the sublimely worded instructions from the FDS which are influenced by both the spirit and the rank and file Dubs whom are performing the shunning and the condemnation of the shunning in association with the little flock. Now the question I have for you Alice Rachel is this; Does the GB have the right to enforce the shunning of Jehovah's Witnesses that haven't been disfellowshipped due to adultery when the adultery in question was no more than the simple fallacy of thought of the person in question as regards shunning?
I anxiously await your reply with Nilla wafer in hand.
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yknot
To those who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for “shunning” and then condemn them for not shunning, you can't have it both ways. This is just another attempt to dehumanize a person and make them harshly judgmental and robotic. JWs are not robots that “obey orders.” They also are influenced by human emotions, whether good or bad.
So Saith the NON-ATTENDING Rachel......
Where do you get off being so sanctimonious about being a JW when you don't even attend the meetings, never mind turning in time!
Seriously Rachel how long have you been away from your congregation?
Are you even abreast of all the changes?
You know being dunked doesn't guarantee you a spot in the GT .....and if by chance you are thinking you are anointed well, by your actions you are one of the 'fallen away' anointed!
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HintOfLime
To those who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for “shunning” and then condemn them for not shunning, you can't have it both ways. This is just another attempt to dehumanize a person and make them harshly judgmental and robotic. JWs are not robots that “obey orders.” They also are influenced by human emotions, whether good or bad.
JW's will freely and openly judge a man for having a beard (such a person cannot even 'handle a microphone'),
... but cover the tracks of a pedophile (parents will not, and SHOULD NOT be warned).
Am I wrong? Is that not the Watchtower policy?
- Lime
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sooner7nc
Yknot you've a PM
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Black Sheep
To those who condemn Jehovah's Witnesses for “shunning” and then condemn them for not shunning, you can't have it both ways.
We don't want it both ways.
It is the Society we condemn for their shunning policy. Individual JWs and their shunned family and friends are the victims of that policy.
You are being told, that according to the policy of the Society, you are supposed to shun us.
We don't want you to shun us.
We just want you to befriend us and settle down to meaningful discussions and cheery banter without all of the aggro you create for yourself....
.....but ... we are not going to 'tickle your ears' with smooth words that you want to hear either.
Cheers
Chris
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alice.in.wonderland
Sooner7nc, Black Sheep, you've both expressed to me you're atheists. Legitimizing the arrangement of excommunication based on 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 from your perspective, is no different than borrowing scripture from the Iliad and the deity Zeus/ Homer as the inspired author.