Does being a JW make a person physically sick? (page 2)

luna2

You know, Loubelle, your comment about the "sick" building brought something to mind. I'm thinking that many KH's are sick buildings. I know that our quick build KH had a pretty bad mold problem in the bathrooms due to hurried/shoddy work. Can't be very healthy to breath that in for hours at a time.

rebel8

It made me physically sick, but for a different reason. I had a few stomach aches and anxiety that was undoubtedly jw-stress-related. Mainly though, my physical illnesses caused by being a jw had to do with the lack of appropriate medical care.

I had no money because I was not allowed to be gainfully employed. Ya know, sacrifice for the kingdum and all that. Couldn't afford medical care.
I had no health insurance because I wasn't allowed to work full time. Even when I tried to get a full time job with benefits, I had no education to help me get a job.
I was not allowed to have preventative and emergency care to meet the needs of my serious medical condition (blood-related). This is a very l-o-n-g story, but that's it in a nutshell. Near death many times because of that.
My local cong had a lot of folklore about medical care being not necessary. They were into a lot of "natural" stuff but took it to the extreme of insisting it was a replacement for normal medical care instead of an adjuct.

RichieRich

I believe that the stress of the bOrg makes people ill.

AMen. Plus, Subconciously, people want to stay home... lol.

Crumpet

tonisilittis every time we got ready to go to the circuit assembly in St. Loius

I can explain that crazyblonde - I think its because you tend to get it at the same time every year and the assembly would coincide. I get tonsilittis every January.

zagor

nah, only my butt hurt less since I'm not sitting 3 times a week for few hours while I should have been doing some exercise in the gym.

But seriously I know quite a few sisters who had unexplained migraine for years.

katiekitten

I think trying to reconcile having to be a perfect person / family with the secret reality that your mum / dad / family member is an alcoholic / child abuser / gambler / smoker / insert own sin of choice definately gives you a mental illness. Just the hiding it all causes unbearable tension and stress that has to come out one way or another.

BONEZZ

Pulllease people...Satan de Debil was attacking you for being a bonerfied member of Gawd's True Organ-eye-za-shun. Of course he gonna give you good health 'cause now you is workin for de Debil...he be zappin' those True Chris-chuns wid da sick rays so's they won't make there pioneer quotas.

-BONEZZ

by grace

Gill,

I can say from experience, definitely YES.

Over my ten years, I had tons of migraines, back aches, pain in my neck and shoulder. I saw doctor after doctor, specialist after specialist. I was depressed, and it got worse and worse. I gained weight whereas before I was as skinny as a rail. Finally, it got to the point that my body attacked itself. I was told in November that I had severe hyperthyroid (Grave's disease). They put me on medicine, but I had a severe allergic reaction to it. I went off the medication.

Then at the end of April this year I DA'd myself. I have felt so much better since then. More energy, less pain. My homeopath says I would probably see the difference in my thyroid if I had it retested. I'm going to wait a while and then go have it retested. I'm giving myself some time to recover. Won't that be something to have an auto-immune disease reverse itself because of leaving the b0rg??? I'll let you know.

The psychological stress that was caused by the thoughts of all of my family and the whole world being destroyed at Armageddon, and the belief that everyone else was misled by their religion, and the feeling of being so isolated since everyone else is bad association, not to mention all of the pressure to perform......studying, meetings, conventions, assemblies, witnessing. Feeling that you aren't measuring up as you should in the door to door work. It all took its toll, for SURE.

I know of other sisters and brothers who were going through similar circumstances. They felt they had chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, etc.

So, I'd say, yes, being a JW does make some people physically SICK. The mind and the body work together. If the mind is tortured, it makes the body sick to preserve itself.

Happy Healing, by grace

Gill

Katiekitten - I think you're right that all that covering up for family members who are behaving obnoxiously and pretending everything is fine, trying to live up to an impossible standard is an unbearable strain for many people and makes them sick.

BONEZZ - That naughty debil, making them poor real, true christians sick!

by grace -I am so glad that you're feeling better. Auto immune disease is something we do to ourselves. Once you're out of the kind of stress that being a JW does to you can't help but improve.

I wish my poor cousins would leave dub land!

Forscher

Of course it can, if one tries to live up to all the rules and regulations and expectations for performance that the GB dumps on everybody (remember Jesus' words about the religious leaders binding loads upon the people that they themselves were unwilling to move with even a finger?).

Not too long ago I was visited by a sister who'd wanted to see how my family was doing. She Pioneers during the day, works fulltime at night, goes to all the meetings, and goes to quick-builts and other projects. There she sat on my sofa with bags under her eyes, obviously on the verge of a physical break down due to sheer over-work and lack of rest. It made me glad that I got off that treadmill!

Forscher

Does being a JW make a person physically sick?

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