by plmkrzy 26 Replies latest jw friends
Joel,
I wish there was a way to get her to take medication without force but it's highly unlikely that will ever happen. My problem now with this is...is it the reason she believes she is anointed? Perhaps she has always had the illness but able to maintain until these past recent years.
Is you mom a jw?
You may want to call her dr. and let them know what is going on or go with her on next visit.
Thanks for your input. I’m glad you were able to get help for your mom. I wish I could do the same for mine. I spent a year crying and sobbing and now I am approaching it differently in order to save my own sanity.
She will not see a doctor. Period. I did force her to go to a doctor last year but unless I declare her unstable legally, nothing can be done. I can't do that.
I’ve spoken to social services and there is nothing that can be done unless she hurts someone. That could happen. She took my sons ax away and hid from him when he was chopping wood for the fireplace. She refuses to give it back.
My mother became a JW in 72, when I was 2. I can't be sure when it started, but looking back I can point out a few things that could have indicated schizophrenia. It wasn't until she was refusing to eat, because her demonized JW friends were trying to poison her, that she got help. It's likely she was always crazy, but the JW demon paranoia didn't help any.
"It wasn't until she was refusing to eat, because her demonized JW friends were trying to poison her"
My mom knew for sure that someone poisoned the well water and even after I took a sample of the water ...and her, to the department of health for testing she STILL didn’t believe it was safe. It might not be safe to drink but she still thinks people are trying to poison her. ESPECIALLY doctors. Doctors are a part of the government who in turn are part of the wicked system of things therefore out to get the anointed. Simple logic.
Plum,
Hi, sorry to hear about your mother. We've known alot of "anointed", some were sane and a few weren't. I don't know what came first, the anointing or the insanity. They were already "anointed" when we met them. One particular older lady was definitely suffering from paranoia. Her apartment had a state-of-the-art alarm system and as many locks as a fortress. Still, people were somehow breaking in to mess with her goods and spy on her. We were (for some strange reason) two of the few people she trusted. She had me sit in her apartment while she went out to try and catch whoever was breaking in. There was no way of convincing her that nobody was out to get her.
She was the opposite of your mother, she was obsessed with her health. She was constantly running to her doctor. Not that it did her any good. She didn't listen to him anymore than she listened to anyone else. We moved, and I don't know what the final outcome was. Her family was at their wits end trying to cope with her.
I'm sorry I don't have any constructive advise.
Cellist
Religious psychosis is a well defined clinical disorder. Indeed, there are even brain imaging studies examining the specific neural regions that are abnormal in these people. I know of 2-3 JWs that were suddenly "annointed" at about the same time they went completely bonkers.
| Plum, Sounds more like somekind of dementia, this can go on the 10 years or more. My mother had it for at least 3 or 4 years before I was able to come to her help. It is gradual and more than likely you will have to wait for a time that gives you the opportunity to step in and take control of the situation. Personally, I think it has less to do with her professing to be annointed than something like dementia which by the way could also be Alzheimer decease. When someone has this condition, it exagerates and amplifies their personality traites. They become almost cartoon in nature, they loose inhibition, saying and doing things that they would normally have not done. They also accuse people of stealing, and doing bad things to them. By the way, if your mother has any money in an account, be watchful, because she is now very vulnerable for someone to steal from her. OC |
| Oh, if you ever can get her to agree to an MRI that would tell you if she has had any mini strokes. OC |
Her apartment had a state-of-the-art alarm system and as many locks as a fortress. Still, people were somehow breaking in to mess with her goods and spy on her.
Cellist
The overseers’ wife called me to tell me that my mother was tying strings around the doorknobs to keep whomever out as well as tying strings around the gas tank because people were stealing her gas while out in service. Thank god she isn’t driving anymore.
As for being health conscience, she is obsessed with doctoring herself. She spent years studying herbs and has a cure for everything. She will be the first one to tell you she has some sort of illness even though a doctor won’t agree with her diagnosis. She self medicates.
plum
kid-A I know of 2-3 JWs that were suddenly "annointed"
With my mom it's kind of a "chicken or the egg" thing. Which came first.
Thinking back over the years I can remember times when I thought my mom was...overreacting a bit.
