JW's and Chronic Fatigue Syndrone!

cornish

Chronic Fatigue Syndrone, M E, Yuppie Flu.
I dont know if anyone else has noticed the alarming number of JWs who claim to suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrone,I mean hear in Cornwall there tend to be several sufferers in every congregation,outside the JWS out of the many people I know I dont know anyone,although there are obviosly many outside the JWs who suffer this illness,percentage wise it seems that JWs have a much,much larger occorance of the illness.
For example my brother in law has not worked and been living on invalidity benefits for more than 10 years since his mid twenties,his brother is also in the same boat, an M.E sufferer.
I wonder if anyone has looked into this a bit more?

thinkers wife

Cornish,
Yes I have noticed the same thing. As a matter of fact, depression and other things such as fybromyalgia seem to hit the Witnesses harder too!
I know for myself, the stress level between an abusive husband and abusive elders contributed to my feeling very bad physically.
I actually thought I had MS for awhile. I had most of the symptoms. When the ex left. Things started to clear up. Including my blood pressure dropping twelve points in one month.
One by one most of the other sypmtoms I was experiencing disappeared as well.
TW

Angharad

I've known 3 JWs with M.E

Sirona

Good point. I've known 3 suffers in my local congregation.

I've found that the general attitude regarding illness amongst JWs is harmful. People are given lots of positive regard if they are ill and still attend - almost like idolising them...."oh how spiritual they must be, attending despite their (name illness)" and theres so much comparison between one person and another. Also there is always so much talk about illnesses, dont you think? Radical diets which are supposed to help particular ailments etc. then talk about how everything will be OK in the new system.

Sirona

biblexaminer

This is OH so true!

I remember when "B", (a sis with CF,FM,whoknowshwatelse) was sitting in the third row from the back. The circuit overmeister went on hard about field service.

Well, "B" fell out of her chair into the aisle. The elders scurried for the wheelchair, scooped her from the floor and issued her out.

A few days later, at a wedding, she was dancing with every guy there. She had more energy than anyone else. Probably all that rest.

But there is a very high rate of cronic fatigue, and firbal myalgia(supposedly)

DIM

my mom claims to have chronic fatigue AND fybromyalgia. Pioneer sister, doesn't work - always tired. i think I believe her but I'm not really sure what to believe when it comes to that. I do know that she takes more pills than I take in 1 year. The witness cure all - she buys all of her pills from another person in her hall who quit his job to sell pills and make money using a basic pyramid scheme - of course everybody in the hall is involved. i guess thats another topic though.

i'm sick and tired of hearing things from uptight-short-sighted-narrow minded hypocritics. all i want is the truth just gimme some truth - John Lennon

MadApostate

The easier question is:

Has anyone ever been in a congregation that DIDN'T have a handful of females claiming CFS, FM, etc.?

AND, as DIM describes, there just always so happens to be a health-food-nut, pyramid-marketing-scheme salesperson in the congregation who is more than happy to sell them bottles and bottles of overpriced herbs to cure their various ills.

Hypochondria is one of many OCDs of the many, many JW mentally ill.

Xena

Well I know we had several in our hall! Tim's mom is one of them. I pretty much agree with the group that it stems largely in part from the depression of being a JW. Women JW are considered second class citizens, they must be submissive to both their husbands and any baptised "brother" in the org. Their only outlet is their children (which they aren't supposed to have in the first place) and service. Gee just THINKING about it is making me depressed and tired!

DB

I certainly do not want to say that some people are faking illness, but I too know of several Witnesses with Chronic Fatigue or Fibromyalgia. Perhaps, by being ill, there is an 'excuse' of sorts that they now have from the demands and rigors of holding to the routine expected of Witnesses. If this is indeed the case, I absolutely cannot blame them. It may be better to be 'ill' than have a congregation of people judging you as 'spiritually weak' because you miss some meetings and/or field service.

betweenworlds

Also I have noticed a high incidence of those who have sensitivity to chemicals such as perfumes, cleaning supplies, etc.

"The important thing is to not stop questioning" Albert Einstein

JW's and Chronic Fatigue Syndrone!

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