Maybe the thread should've been named, "How Jehovah's Witnesses Can Make You Go Nuts".
How Jehovah's Witnesses Encourage Mental Illness
by metatron 34 Replies latest jw friends
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steve2
I don't subscribe to the line that negative exeriences inevitably lead to mental illness, because the amazing thing about us humans is our resilience: People can be subjected to grotesque experiences and emerge stronger and more determined to stick to their values. I count myself as someone who - in theory - "should" have developed a mental illness of one sort or another, but didn't.
Also, I think that some people actually "thrive" in authoritarian environments, whilst others just curl over and virtually die. There is a host of other variables that may increase the likelihood of people developing mental illnesses, and the environment is only one.
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DannyHaszard
Am J Psychiatry 107:594-598, February 1951
doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.107.8.594
© 1951 American Psychiatric Association THE CRIME OF MENTICIDEThe concept of" menticide " indicates an organized system of judicial perversion and psychological intervention, in which a powerful tyrant transfers his own ...
ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/107/8/594THE CRIME OF MENTICIDE
JOOST A. M. MEERLOO M. D. The concept of "menticide" indicates an organized system ofjudicial perversion and psychological intervention, in whicha powerful tyrant transfers his own thoughts and words intothe minds and mouths of the victims he plans to destroy or touse for his own propaganda. Modern psychiatry may deliver himseveral tools for this perversion. Our psychiatric standpointtoward this challenge has to be formulated. Examples of menticideare described and ways of protection indicated. Eight Marks of a deadly Mind Control Cult applied to Jehovah's Witnesses http://www.freeminds.org/psych/lifton.htm Jehovah's Witnesses
and "Love Bombing"
what is it? -
DannyHaszard
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES & MENTAL ILLNESS Jehovah's Witnesses - Who are they and what do they believe? If you have been "witnessed to" by Jehovah's Witnesses and you reject their message, you will likely DIE "shortly" at Armageddon with all the other non-Witnesses, since theirs is the ONLY TRUE RELIGION, and (if they can live up to all the rules) they are the only ones to inhabit this "new earth." If you believe Witnesses seem rigid now, any non-conformist during the future "cleansed earth" will be directly destroyed by their god. Even now a Witness will be disfellowshipped (excommunicated) for any one of many gaffs, such as smoking, taking a blood transfusion, or even voting. To even vocally question the teachings of the Jehovah's Witness organization will result in complete cutting off, with family and friends usually being forbidden to talk to them. The Watchtower is a truly ORWELLIAN world, in a time when Orwellian societies are nearly obsolete. --------- In his "Adams Versus God," Melbourne broadcaster Phillip Adams said in 1985 that, according to US studies, "Jehovah's Witnesses are more likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals than the general population". "According to an article in the British Journal of Psychiatry," he said, "they are three times more likely to be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and four times more likely to be paranoid schizophrenics. "As a writer in the American journal Free Inquiry puts it: 'Either the Jehovah's Witness sect tends to attract an excess of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's Witness is itself a stress that may precipitate psychosis. "'Possibly both of these factors operate together ...'" http://www.rickross.com/reference/jw/jw72.html click here http://www.freeminds.org/psych/psych.htm read here http://www.google.com/search?q=Jehovah%27s+Witnesses+mental++illness&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLJ LOTS more Are they knocking at your door?
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greendawn
I believe it's obvious enough that the JW environment is not a healthy one for children that must grow up with minimal demands made of them and with a sense of security. Both of these are undermined by the JW setup, so it's no wonder why many leave or have emotional problems.
The less seriously into JWism the parents are the better it will be for their children.
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DannyHaszard
The less seriously into JWism the parents are the better it will be for their children.
So true I have seen it.My Haszard clan recruited in 1951 was hard core devout all the way we sacrificed everything for the Watchtower.The first time I saw a color TV was at a home in field service,we had B+W for 15 years after color debuted.Never got my crooked malformed teeth straightened cause the new system was coming in 1975.I was in second grade 7 y.o.when president John Kennedy was murdered and endured brutal persecution and beatings in school during that time.
All the fringe 'wishy washy witnesses' my peers who never got baptized and couldn't be Dfed have thrived.Online dub apologist have the gall to blame my parents for being too strict,they were only following watchtower indoctrination.
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minimus
Danny, I came from a strict JW background. We had color tv when it was affordable. I regularly went to the dentist. I never was brutalized or beat up. Maybe your parents were extremists?? My family were "pillars". Yet, I never went thru whatever you had to endure.
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anewme
Danny's parents were extremists as you say Minimus. But there are many of them in the organization...and in many religions. And like the others the Watchtower does not discourage extremism. The extremists set an example and put pressure on the others for the Watchtower.
I think helplessness is behind alot of depression and certainly because the Watchtower discourages independent thinking, there is no quicker way to become helpless, thus depressed, if you cant think for yourself!
The organization is like other scams, you dont realize what you have gotten into until it is too late.
The recruiter who studied with you was a con-man who used every tool in his arsenal of theocratic tricks to get you in (all for the cult glory of reporting a Bible Study and looking good in the hall)
Studying with people and bringing them to meetings is praised by the cult and "probably you may be saved on the Day of Destruction" if you exert yourself in His Service. The pressure to survive Armaggeddon is at every meeting. The fear of being slaughtered because of not crossing every t and dotting every i in the cult
is very great. -
zack
Amen, brother Met
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B_Deserter
I think they attract mentally ill people for two reasons. First, their teaching of the "evil" world ruled by Satan tells a person who has had a tough time in life that it isn't their fault, it's Satan's. Secondly, they find the teaching that God will just fix them up one day very attractive. Many go off their medications due to this belief.