Mental Illness

by Tallon 61 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Tallon

  Over many years I have been pondering how mental illness has impacted upon JW's due to the effects of indoctrination.

  In my case; when I was 21 I had a breakdown and was hospitalised for 6 weeks. I was diagnosed with Anxiety Tension State disorder. When I should have been enjoying the 'prime of my youth', I was lying in a hospital bed with a Valium Drip inserted in my arm. I was so 'spaced out' that I didn't know if I was a boy or a girl. It took a further nine months to wean me off the medication coupled with monthly appointments with the psychiatrist.

  Looking back, I wonder if the cause of my breakdown was not self inflicted due to all the 'worry and stress' over the teachings and indoctrination. E.G. 'guilt over alleged sins' which could have lead to judicial meetings and potential disfellowshipping, etc.

  What are your thoughts on the matter?
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  Simon

  I think JW-dom does lead to mental illness. It doesn't help that religion in general is a form of mental illness and attracts the mentally ill (either enthusiastically or as victims).

  It's surprising how much happier and healthier mentally you become once you leave it all behind.
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  compound complex

  I'm sorry, Tallon, for what you have endured, and that at such an early age.

  I was a bit older when I had my "nervous collapse," as I described it to Nathan Knorr, while I reluctantly prepared to leave Bethel (which I truly did love). Horrors from childhood may have become a time bomb finally set off when the pressures of being a Bethelite/missionary became too great.

  What Simon wrote applies in my family's case re: what we used to call manic-depressive disease. My religion became my comfort, my despair, and, through my adult life, seemed only to take me further into a downward spiral. Suicide was an ever-present menace and my family suffered as a result of my increasing mental and emotional instability.

  I'm so much better now but making amends has not brought everyone back into my corner.

  You're correct, too, about fear and obligation and guilt, whether you said it or intimated it in your post. I really hope that you are doing better now. Isn't this a wonderful place to be?

  Thanks, Simon and Angharad!
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  snowbird

  What Simon & CoCo said.

  I'm still recovering from a breakdown due to unaddressed childhood trauma, and being drawn into JW's in my early twenties.

  Looking back, that was the last thing I needed.

  Sylvia
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  Village Idiot

  I think that if you do not have a problem when you become a JW they will give you one; if you do have a problem before you become a JW they will make it worse.

  I myself suffered from anxiety attacks while going out in field service. Once, I was out in field service with a brother at night in the parking lot of a department store. We were approaching customers from behind in the darkness and scaring them, probably thinking we were out to mug them. The brother seemed oblivious to the fact that it was inappropriate for us to do that. I became anxious and told him that there was something "wrong here". He agreed but he was thinking that it was me who had the problem.
  
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  snowbird

  Now, that is the truth, VI.

  Crazy begetting crazy.

  Sylvia
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  Bugbear

  Tallon

  I think you are right, but I also think that you are only seeing the top of an iceberg. There are some scientifically studies on the subject JW/mental illness, but they are very small and not properly done. But from my own experience the rate of anxiety, mental illness and other disorders within the JW are very much higher than in an average population. I myself have suffered from anxiety and in such high degree that fainted and was taken into hospital for observation for a whole week. The doctors ordered me to slow down and resign as an elder….
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  blondie

  I have always observed that many jws with problems came into the organization looking for a solution or cure for mental illnesses they already had. Now having a mental illness already, I am sure that the dynamics of the WTS did not help but made it worse.
  
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  snowbird

  Grand Blessings From God Near At Hand ... the first chapter of the 1968 Truth book that drew so many, including myself.

  I believed every word of it.

  Sylvia
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  ToesUp

  Almost all of our JW family is on some form of meds for depression and anxiety. Some wash it down will alcohol. Sad. We see a pattern.