Is Being A Jehovah's Witness a Mental Disorder? (page 2)

KW13

From Personal experience, i believe this organization brings on Mental Disorders causing people misery.

In a sense, JW's target people with a particular kind of pathology, i.e., those "sighing and crying" about conditions in the world. I remember conversations with witnesses in which they expressed shock and dismay that people would say that conditions were good and improving. They do target people who feel alienated, unsuccessful, helpless, depressed or unloved. Then they re-victimize these poor souls.

Remaining a JW compounds the problem. These same people now have to live in fear of being rejected by their God and everyone they have come to care about if they make one false move. Such a situation certainly is not conducive to mental health.

Regards,

SandraC

Dragonlady76

I do not believe it's a disorder of any kind, I do however find and for the most part all dubs have a tendency to suffer from depression, on a larger scale than the average population does, imo I think that's just due to the demands and expectations that they are forced to live with.

drew sagan

Good point Terry, and nicely illustrated. At the end you said:

Being a Jehovah's Witness is a mental abandonment of individuality and identity .

I would add that once this abandonment has taken place and an individual enters this cult there are many effects that can result from being an active part of that enviroment. Thus the 'mental disorders' that are within the group itself.

There is the process by which we are brought into that environment (which you described) and then there is the effects we expierance by being a part of it. I think the latter is what Amber was getting at.

Grammy

WTWizard said...

However, it is a cause for many a mental disorder. Children who grow up in that organization are not normal because they are going to have to sit out every possible fun event in school, they are deprived of play time for service time, and they are not allowed to learn properly. They usually have to stay up late on certain school nights, usually the night before unit tests. They are given so much to be afraid of, including the demons, dying at Armageddon, and never being good enough. The guilt complex they impose is itself a major problem that stops many from finding fulfillment, often after they have left the Tower.

I could not agree more with what you said, I still have such guilt and sorrow for doing that to my sons when they were growing up, I have apologized to them for it since I disassociated but that doesn't undo all the damage that cult did to them during their childhood and I bear full responsibility because I joined that cult when they were nine and five years old, they had no choice but I did and I still find it hard to believe I was so stupid and naive that I fell for that crap and stayed in there for 26 years!

Gregor

I was an elder in a small congregation of 150 in a mid-sized California town that supported a total of 5 congs. In my own personal experience this is what I observed -

Two young men who were in their mid twenties declared (through partaking of the memorial emblems) that they were of the annointed class within one year of their baptism. One of them, during his home Bible study, had freely spoken of his use of LSD in college and the spiritual insights it gave him. The other chap, by this time an MS, went out one night and firebombed 4 local churches and when I visited him in jail he sat there with a gleam in his eyes and a goofy smile telling me how happy he was to have struck out at Babylon the Great. He was eventually admitted to the state hospital for the criminally insane in Atascadero, CA.

A "super-fine" annointed elder who was a long time JW. He regularly communicated with contacts on the GB. It was my understanding that he was letting them know his spiritual insights and thoughts on Bible prophecy, etc. He was occasionally called on to set on special committees with our circuit overseer. He headed up the oversight committee formed to develop an assembly hall for the central valley. His management style was to act like Moses leading the Israelites out of the wilderness. Should a brother who was a general contractor disagree with his decisions he took the attitude that he was being personally attacked. He was a carpet layer by profession. Shortly after the project was completed he suffered some kind of breakdown which was kept very hush hush and was temporarily relieved of elder duties for about 2 yrs as I recall. Shortly after his becoming reinstated as an elder his 21 yr old nephew was caught trying to seduce our 12 year old daughter. He did everything he could to prevent me from going to the police with the evidence. I heard through another elder that when this situation was discussed in a meeting that he had defended his nephew and remarked that our daughter was very well developed. This guy is a nutjob.

A minimum of three sisters we dealt with who had genuine mental disorders which I now believe were OCD in one case and bi-polar disorder in the other two. Our assistance was to tell them to pray, study and don't miss any meetings.

Unstable people are not helped by being a JW. People with Bi-polar are very sensitive to religous concepts and this invariably aggravates their condition. Mental health therapy is severely frowned on by the WTS.

Madame Quixote

People who are mentally ill are vulnerable to the onslaughts and lovebombing techniques of the JWs, as are other people in crisis. The mentally ill will often more readily adopt a cult mentality because of certain predelictions, just as abused individuals will also choose abusive situations, and gravitate to familiar pain, and such.

One thing's for sure: cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses are not healthy for the mind of any individual.

Jerry Bergman has some interesting things to say about JWs and mental illness here:

http://www.premier1.net/~raines/mental.html

Just google up "jehovah's witnesses and mental illness" or jws and mental health. You'll find some stuff to help sort it out.

I found this interesting article on religious fundamentalism as mental illness. You might enjoy reading it:

http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/y2k/illness.htm

Sarah Smiles

I think they abuse their members and members sit there and put up with it.

YES! it is called long term spiritual abuse! and it is so strange that most ex probably have a hard time fitting into most main stream church doctrines.

Because, Trinity is not a three headed false god. It is about Jehovah, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so how is it a false godhead man made idol.

Now, that is spiritual abuse! Jehovah's Witness take one of the most debated concepts and twisted it and compare it to a man made idol. Does not fit!

I do not believe in Trinity! but this is spiritual abuse and twisted? I say Yes to your question.

SPAZnik

The title of this thread made me laugh. Thx. I needed a chuckle.

Um, no more than being a human being who exhibits a variety of "natural" responses to "unnatural" stimuli is a mental disorder. :)

greendawn

Surely the JW ideology and overall ambience are very toxic to those that take them seriously the more one gives them importance the worse it is. The more normal dubs do not take the org seriously but as a kind of social club.

Is Being A Jehovah's Witness a Mental Disorder?