Do you know of ones who were mentally ill, that were labled as being demon posessed?

by miseryloveselders 41 Replies latest jw friends

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  miseryloveselders

  We have a few mentally ill ones in our congregation, and I don't mean suffering from depression or anxiety. I'm not even talking mild Bipolar. I'm talking really messed up in the head, schizophrenic types, and bipolar withpsychotic features. You know, people who have been committed at one point or another in life. One of the nuts in the hall, is a woman who is completely removed from reality. Conversations with her are so bizarre, they're comical, if you have a sense of humor. I enjoy talking with her, because I'll try to go to her level and talk just as crazy. Later on I laugh about it to myself and with those who share my sense of humor. Plus I think in some twisted kind of way, I give her some dignity. As a result she searches me out to talk moreso than others, and for the most part I don't mind. For those that don't see the humor in it, its a different story. These ones believe she's demonized. Even my Dad whom I thought was a sensible person, explained to me, "the demons are using her. To get to me, to get to others in the congregation. To disrupt the congregation." My response, "how come I don't find her disruptive? Granted shes nuts, but that doesn't make her demonized." His response, "Misery, thats because the demons aren't after you." At that point it dawned on me that my father is nuts too. It gets better too. My father, "the things this woman is talking about would be enough for us to go after her for apostacy. But as it stands, there's nothing we can do with her because of her mental state. The demons have her." My father is not only nuts, but pious too. I just laughed at him partially because I found it hilarious that he was dead serious. The other part of me felt embarrasment and pity for him to be this delusional. How can a reasonable person look at another person with serious menal illness and chalk it up to...................the demons? I kinda wanted to cuss, like dang this is my friggin father!!! Arghgh

  Do you know of ones who were mentally ill, and supposedly rational people, yet blamed the mentally ill's condition on the demons and percieved them as some kind of spiritual threat?
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  dgp

  I can't comment on the point you're trying to make, because I was never in a congregation. However, it seems to me that you're sort of making fun of that person. I don't think that is right.
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  serenitynow!

  And that is why elders should not have the power that they do. They are supposed to shepard. Instead of encouraging this woman to get help, they write her off as demonized and want to throw her out of the congregation.

  I hope that although you find her entertaining, you admonish her to seek psychiatric help. I also have a morbid sense of humor, but still realize the need to provide help.

  In my experience the elders view mental illness not necessarily as a spiritual threat, but as a manifestation of spiritual weakness.
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  miseryloveselders

  I don't want to come off like I'm overly demeaning her, because I'm not. I'm sympathetic. The thing is, she's beyond encouragement to seek help. She's gone, as in gone. She's not the type of person you can talk with and find some rational thought in between the lunacy. Its really sad, but there's nothing I or anyone can do. The only thing I can hope is, that if she has been seen by someone, they've deemed her not a threat to herself or anybody else. I've taken her home several times against the advice of others and tried to have a reasonable conversation with her no matter how limited it might be. I just wanted to get into her head if i could. But there is no getting in her head. Its over.
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  serenitynow!

  miseryloveselders, I don't know what your profession is, and how much you know about mental illness, but in the healthcare profession, we generally don't "feed into" peoples' delusions by conversing with them about their delusions. She needs reality orientation. Once again, please speak to her plainly, and family and/or friends (if she has any) to try to get her some help. She needs a psychiatrist. It seems that you are the only person (on the elder body) who cares anything about her, so help her.
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  miseryloveselders

  Serenity, I am in the healthcare profession, and have been for several years and multiple facets. She might see a psychiatrist regulary for all I know. However, I'll never know because she rambles on about things that are not of this reality. It's really bizarre talking to her. It's almost as if she's speaking a foreign language.
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  Scully

  Yes. I had postpartum depression, and the Elders™ sent someone to my house, to pretend to be concerned about me, but in reality their mission was to look through my house to see if I may have bought something at a garage sale that could be Demonized™. I guess since they didn't find anything, they assumed that I was Demonized™. They were so horrible to me with nasty comments and hateful behaviour that I ended up sobbing in the Mother's Room at the KH saying that I wished I were dead - someone in my Book Study™ lyingly reported to the Book Study™ Conductor™ that she heard me say that I wanted everyone at the KH dead and that if I had a gun I'd shoot them all - which got me a lot of trouble at a time in my life when that was the last thing I needed - and had the result of "confirming" to them that I was Demonized™.

  I got my comeuppance a few years later when this same lying, backstabbing bitch also had postpartum depression and had the balls to call me for some moral support. I told her that I certainly empathized with her, but I wouldn't consider her Demonized™ and I certainly wouldn't lie to the Elders™ when someone was suicidal and tell them that she was homicidal instead. The LAST thing a woman with postpartum depression needs is to be made to feel worse about herself than she already does, but thanks for showing me the kind of Love™ that demonstrated the people who were NOT Jesus' true disciples.
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  Mythbuster

  How does she get to the kingdom hall?
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  Think About It

  My bet is that the JW's made her nuts. This is a F'd up religion that can cause people severe mental problems. Never seen any group so obsessed with Satan & the demons.

  Think About It
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  wasblind

  "	My bet is that the JW's made her nuts." I got my money on the same bet.