by Blackfalcon98 87 Replies latest jw experiences
Blackfalcon98,
We have our group of 'nuts', no doubt, some really colorful ones in the Spanish congs. However, it's no different than any other large group of people if you really do your research honestly.
This realization just becomes aggrandized in your mind because of your JW biases.
GC
I once knew a die-hard loyalist JW Sister who'd acknowledged to me that mental health problems seemed to be on the increase within the JW rank and file, particularly women.
"The present study of 50 Jehovah's Witnesses admitted to the Mental Health Service facilities of Western Australia suggests that members of this section of the community are more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital than the general population. Furthermore, followers of the sect are three times more likely to be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and nearly four times more likely from paranoid schizophrenia than the rest of the population at risk. These findings suggest that being a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses faith may be a risk factor predisposing to a schizophrenic illness."
Layman's translation: being a JW can drive you ca-ray-zeee.
It's a cult, so it's not surprising that it attracts some mentally unstable people. I don't recall there being a much higher number of people with severe mental illness, but those people were probably weeded out through disfellowshiping. I knew of one brother that was disfellowshipped, he was hearing voices, they thought he was demonized, it seemed like schizophrenia to me. I also knew a woman who seemed bipolar who was disfellowshipped for adultery.
If you are stalking about milder forms of mental issues like depression, it sure seemed, at least anecdotally, there was a lot. It isn't surprising to me that an organization that demands so much but gives back so little would cause a lot of depression.
So many things are not really supportive of the individual, like:
High demands on personal time for meetings and field service
An environment that constantly emphasizes the bad in the world
Elders that are not trained in mental health issues, but think they are
A culture that doesnt allow criticism of the hierarchy
Secret judicial committee that harshly judge and punish
Lack of personal choice in dress and grooming
An environment that discourages higher education and setting personal career goals
Entertainment and recreation are frowned upon
Women are demeaned and given no responsibilities in the congregation
Children made to sit through hours of boring meetings every week
Congregations offer little social support, people gossip and have cliques
People are judged and "marked" by others over minor personal choice issues
Families are split apart by disfellowshipping
Friendships are conditional
With all that, the question isn't why are so many depressed, it's why isn't every one.
LisaRose - "...the question isn't why are so many depressed, it's why isn't every one."
Because some individuals thrive in that kind of environment.
Back in the early 1980's when I was a J-dub pioneer and in my early 20's I studied with a man who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic . He would morph into one of several different personalities when we'd go out in field service - then he'd be depressed at other times and not talk much. He scared the hell out of " sisters " at the kingdom hall as he was this big guy who always wanted to shake the " sisters " hands even though he had very wet, sweaty palms. He'd shake their hands gripping them and say " excuse my sweaty palms " ! In time he got baptized into the congregation.
When he'd go off his medicine he'd get physcally abusive towards his older JW mom he lived with ( the man was about 30 yrs.old ) and the elders would counsel him- but police were never involved or called. Another time he went off his medication he went wandering around at night and got hit by a car and was laid up in the hospital with a broken leg - victim of a hit and run accident. Eventually he had to find a boarding house to live in as he was much too difficult to live with and his JW mom got him to live somewhere else. In time though he returned to doing hard drugs and the elders DFed him. Then shortly after he was DFed he was found dead downtown somewhere a victim of a suicide by a drug overdose.
It's sad how no help was given him to check into a clinic or a psychiatric unit. I kept in touch with him while he lived at his mom's place, but after he vanished and got a place downtown out of our area I was never able to find him as he was never at the place he stayed at- always gone. I often think about this man if he could have been helped - but the ostracism he experienced at the hands of the elders and others may have driven him deeper into his depression- who knows ? The mind control drivel that comes across that kingdom hall platform and guilt and fear mongering information certainly does NOT help
Mental and emotional health is a blend of ingredients.
A balance must be achieved.
There needs to be group responsibility and there needs to be individual expression.
JWs over emphasize the group part and totally squelch the indiviidualism.
Worse yet, this is done to many while they are still forming their core personality.
As a result, the adult witness is riddled with overblown feelings of community responsibility and an under developed sense of self. Especially where it comes to creative outlets and expression (too worldly) and the education of the mind (again, too worldly).
I am firmly of the view that being a JW does not equip you mentally to deal with what life throws at you.
I told Mrs Phizzy this morning the sad news that one of our never a JW friends who we have known for over 30 years has cancer and is on Chemo etc etc. Yet this friend is dealing with it in a rational way, getting on with llife as best she can, and last night being the life and soul of a Party apparently.
Contrast this with a JW of similar age and circumstance that lives near to us, who has minor surgery to go through, and ,admittedly a child who has a serious medical condition, and the JW has gone completely to pieces, inconsolable and unable to look at things rationally.
The J.W thought that as she and her family were good JW's nothing would ever touch them, not a good way to go through life, the shock of the Real is too great.
"My father who is still a JW is also a Pharmacist and now attends his 3rd different congregation in a different state from the first 2 and likes to talk about all of the anti-psychotics he fills or has filled for fellow JW's from each of the congs including one of the ANNOINTED."
So he blatantly is breaking patient confidence? Give me his name, and I'll have him sued and losing his profession within five monites.
There are many in the congregation that suffer from extreme anxiety and major depressive disorders. I blame the fact that going to a mental health professional was always looked down on. The only remedy for witnesses is to study and pray more. Unfortunately the two cannot replace medication and psycotherapy.
I recently heard that half the sisters in bethel are on some sort of SSRI.
