Mentally Diseased - is it partly our fault that we got this label?

by cappytan 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  cappytan

  I was thinking about this the other day.

  A common way for apostates to "fade" is to pretend to have depression or anxiety problems.

  Is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the Society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?

  I can see a scenario where the Society then took those statistics that were reported and just decided, "Well, it looks like the only ones leaving are those with mental diseases."

  Oh, and not to mention the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists. I mean, if subliminal message conspiracy theorist doesn't scream some kind of mental issues, I don't know what does.
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  cappytan

  Oh, and if we're all so "mentally diseased," I guess we get a free ticket to Paradise since our faults are due to a mental disease through no fault of our own.
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  punkofnice

  I admit I'm a looney.

  Mind you, the WBT$ got the term from a scripture hat they have since altered.1 Timothy 6:3, 4 I think.

  
  

  So...I'm not sure how long the NWT(TM) used that phrase.
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  _Morpheus

  Absolutely not. The term mentality diseased (in the wt context) has nothing to do with a diagnosed mental illness but rather their twisted application of the scriptures. They use it as an insult towards those that no longer believe as they do regardless of an individuals soundness of mind. Its intent it is paint any who see the fraud as somehow mentally deficient and not worth listening too.... "Oh brother so and so dosent think generations overlap? Hes just mentally diseased! " the mindset was in place long before clinical diagnosis of depression was made.

  Although the sublimanal picture people dont help.....
• 

  Giordano

  It's a war..........since the WTBTS declares outright war on dissidents one must fight back by any legal sound means even if one presents as depressed and troubled. Blowing smoke up their collective ass is our new light.

  The idea is to get free......get your loved one(s) free then fight back.
• 

  John Aquila

  Mentally Diseased - is it partly our fault that we got this label?

  Is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the Society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?

  In all the years I was an elder, we never reported to the Society that certain individuals were undergoing mental health problems. The Society didn’t give a rat’s ass who was having trouble mentally.

  It’s a control and scare tactic that is used by many authoritarian groups to manage control of the members. It’s not a new tactic. In the 1600 Galileo went against the current view of the Church that the earth was not the center of the Universe and that the Sun did not revolved around the earth, but instead he proposed that the earth revolved around the sun. He was labeled a heretic and mentally diseased. And there was consequence to anyone who would talk to him or help him in any way. He was tried and found guilty of heresy and apostasy and it wasn’t until 1992 that the Catholic offered and apology to Galileo. Almost 400 years later.

  Hey, maybe 400 years from now the WT will offer an apology to us mentally diseased apostates.
  
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  flipper

  It's not our fault in the LEAST. It's the fault of an organization that controls it's members through fear and guilt and the WT leaders imputing wrong motives to ANYBODY exiting the organization. WT leaders are the ones who make JW members crazy by their strict, relentless, and cruel, inhumane rules. It's like they keep JW's in cages like zoos keep animals in cages- but the only difference is WT leaders keep JW's in mental cages where they do not even know how to live in the real world. To fault the members for the abuse the WT leaders hand out is rather shallow thinking
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  freemindfade

  Some of my thoughts on this, I don't play the stress card too much, I hate the spiritually weak, moniker (i think you get it no matter what), but I tell them I am happier than ever, and that I was depressed when i was turning in hours and worried about nonsense.

  I think the mentally diseased is 100% their fault or lets say 50/50. For me I was born in, I feel i would never have got involved if I wasn't. So lets say you join, I wouldn't call it disease, but being ultra religiously devout (cult) is like a mind virus, when you wake up, it does make you feel unstable, sometimes you flip out and lose your temper, you become obsessed with understanding real truth and it messes you up, then you get shunned and that makes you crazier. So I think the "mentally diseased" part comes from the effects of leaving a cult and losing your zen. When we appear to the RF zombies as obsessed and raving mad, because in some ways you do, and justifiably so. Important thing is to fight it.
  
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  OneEyedJoe

  Even if we apostates have done something to earn the title, it's still the cult's fault in most cases since they're the ones that screwed us up to the point that we might be a little off. That said, it should be obvious that people leaving are no more mentally diseased than the average JW. I've never seen another group of people with such a high incidence of depression, hypochondria, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc, etc. as JWs have.
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  cappytan

  It was just some random thoughts.

  I was thinking that since I'm playing the "anxiety" card, when it becomes known that I'm apostate it will confirm everyone's beliefs that apostates have mental problems