I didn't have choice. As I grew up and took a look around, I found my parents mentally ill, isolated people, that hated life. So they thrived in the JW world. I only wish I was a stronger person the could have broken away in my teens instead of trying to make a screwed up religion work. I guess I should just be glad it was "them" and not me that was screwed up. thank god I am out.
How Jehovah's Witnesses Encourage Mental Illness
by metatron 34 Replies latest jw friends
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WTWizard
I also think they do more than encourage mental and emotional problems. They cause them. Why? In children, they take away all the fun and play time. It is always time for a meeting, a family study, or service. Every time they get a record, movie, book, or video game they like, the parents have to talk and hound them into throwing it away (and if they don't, the hounder-hounder or the Grand Boasting Session will come around and guilt the parents into doing it). Trips purely for fun and relaxation are just about banned for those children. Also, they are not supposed to play with other children at recess, and every fun occasion is banned for one specious reason or another.
Adults are also affected. They are harassed at every step of the courtship process. Contact with the opposite sex is as good as banned. They are taught to be paranoid about fornication. Many are encouraged to stay with their parents to support each other in the pioneer work. The Tower plants demon phobias in everyone. The half of the program that isn't about fornication prevention is about missing meetings, getting on the Internet, independent thinking, and avoiding apostates and disfellowshipped ones. They want people to develop phobias in these areas, so they will be afraid to look up cross-references that will verify (in this case, deny) the accuracy of the New World Translation. They do not want people to verify or deny the accuracy of the teachings, nor do they want people to integrate them with each other and real life. So, they demonize them.
And what's this threat of demon possession? Mentally and emotionally sound people will not be afraid of the demons (and not all emotionally ill people fear them, either--only those who have been intentionally set up with that phobia, programmed to be afraid of demons). They do that on purpose, knowing that people are easier to control if they are afraid of demons. You want the toys out of children's houses? Just tell them about an experience (real or not) where they were possessed with demons until the toys were thrown away. You want them to get rid of the computer? Just tell them that the demons can come through the Internet. Get them out in service more? The demons will attack you if you go in when you "could" have stayed out longer or if you take a coffee or "warm-up/cool-down" break. And so on.
Yes, this religion causes emotional illnesses. Phobias are intentionally planted in people, to control them. And the lack of fun, the monotony of every day being the same (no holidays), and the stagnation of the work and lifestyle along with never doing enough all cause other problems.
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WTWizard
Danny's parents were extremists as you say Minimus. But there are many of them in the organization...
What happens is that some parents are less strict than others. Some actually allow their children to listen to "questionable" music, go out in sports after school, or (gasp!) even allow their children to go to college. Others are stricter in some or all these areas, including going to the dentist when needed.
Then there are those skits and dramas every year at the a$$emblies. Those parents who are more liberal are goaded there into cracking down. The records end up in the trash can. College gets cancelled. The worldly association and extra-curricular activity stops, to be replaced with more field misery. And, of course those who made more sacrifice were paraded as models for everyone in the a$$embly. I would be willing to bet money that Danny Haszard's parents were asked to present Danny as a model for the flock to follow around 1974, since they were putting so much trust in Jehovah that they neglected his health to allow more time for the field misery (I bet they aren't putting much on that now.)
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steve2
It's interesting that one of the most privileged countries in the world - the USA - has possibly the loudest victim mentality. The cry that the Watchtower makes people become mentally ill is so laughable coming from well-fed, shletered and clothed Americans.
Go visit the real world where tough and oppressive life circumstances are the norm and then you might get a little perspective! For those of us raised as JWs, yes it was bloody hard, but for God's sake, it's not the worst thing that can be inflicted upon humans!
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DannyHaszard
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.
Actually we were a typical family of Watchtower society cult fanatics in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Bridgewater Massachusetts ca 1955-1970 this was the 'better dead than red' cold war cuban missile crisis,malawai like tortures to come to us era which played well into an apocalyptic frenzy.The Watchtower had years to go before it's prophecies would fail and ruled us all with an iron fist.
It was like the oppressive dark ages the Watchtower Jehovah's Witnesses puts a lot of folks in mental health crisis,back then you were discouraged to seek out worldly counseling or therapy.I can remember the year 1990 when I heard my first public talk on the benefits of psychopathy it was now o-kay to go to a shrink,the Watchtower new directives are always a reaction to failures.