Strength to you and your sister. If someone is not "mentally ill" beforehand, going back to JW stuff will get them there. Awful.
Emotionally blackmailing an acutely mentally ill person!
by serenitynow! 20 Replies latest jw friends
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wasblind
So true On the way out,
when my daughter was in high school
I was made to feel that allowing her to participate in
extracurricular activities was turning my back on God
even if I did put the kingdom first,
After all the bible states as long as we put the kingdom first , It's all right to put other things after
The WTS forbids even that
I was made to feel that makin' simple ordinary decisions
without the "OK" from the WTS would cause me to be destroyed
Havin' that kind of pressure all through one's life would indeed cause mental
instability
If I do anything by postin' I hope it's to prevent anyone from becoming a victim to this cult
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life is to short
I too hate to hear this.
In the hall I was attending we had three extremely mentally ill people two of them heard voices.
The one I am thinking about bought into pioneering which he just could not due because of all the pressure pioneering brings especially from the elders and he also thought he needed to keep reaching out to be an MS on top of everything else. He tried and tried to aux pioneer. Finally he broke and attacked children on Halloween a year and a half ago. They had a police stand off, etc. He was put back into the hospital and all of the JW's in the hall were ticked off at him for breaking down saying it was his fault because he got off his meds and brought reproach on Jehovah's name.
I really truly hate how the treat the mentally ill.
LITS
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wha happened?
In my old congregation, a WT article was medical treatment for the mentally ill. That's how it was handled. I remember a sister going through a real rough time. Her family was all over her for studying with JW's, the elders in the hall gave half answer when she needed help, and she just checked out. Later she would tell me that the steller help she got from the brothers was a WT article. Since we kinda knew each other before we were baptized, I offered to help the brothers. Their advice? Stay away from her. And that's what they adviced everyone to do. Except for a few publishers, everyone turned their back. I wish I could say I was one that continued to help her.
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wha happened?
I think baptizing people who are clearly mentally ill was another tragedy. They usually get df'd. I remember one brother who was really sick. Sometimes he would snap and start cursing people out in the parking lot. You could tell when he was going through a crises. Stopped shaving, clothes in disarray. And yet with full knowledge of his condition, he was baptized, then df'd, then reinstated, etc etc
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Band on the Run
People who blame the mentally ill for not taking their meds should read a side effect profile on the Internet. Would they meds that make them so ill? Western society and even more of the world has a medical model of mental illness. It is not a character or moral flaw but hard science.
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jgnat
The Aunt is simply parroting the best advice the WT has to offer. I hope your sister chooses to stay closer to you.
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Scully
Sadly the toxicity of emotional blackmail knows no boundaries.
I would love to see watch-dog type organizations in place that were set up to protect the mentally ill from those who don't have their best interests at heart.
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sd-7
So...in short, your aunt's saying, "I'll only help you if you rejoin my religion." Wow. And here I thought the Bible said "Work what is good towards ALL". So much for the 2012 yeartext, "Your word is truth."
Anyway, it was the elders' callous attitude that was a key factor in waking me up. Once I realized that they were basically telling adults what to do without even opening their Bibles to show them why scripturally they should do this or that, I started to think...something is wrong here. They treat people like children and it's just wrong. They cannot produce spiritually or emotionally stable or mature people because they want dependent people, not people who are able to stand on their own.
They can't see anything beyond obedience to their laws, so they are in no position to be able to raise up the downtrodden. It's sad. If you can, you should try to help your sister in your own way. Because their brand of help is just going to have her hanging by a thread, for however long that can happen.
--sd-7
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life is to short
When the brother in my hall flipped out on Halloween that year I did call NAMI and told them that I knew him and how he was a JW. I explained how JW's recruit new members especially the mentally ill. How when one becomes a JW they are made to feel so special and truly loved bombed but soon that goes away and then they are expected to produce by going door to door and how as NAMI very well knows that is just too much for a mentally ill person to handle.
The lady I spoke with was very kind but she said JW's have their rights. I am like but it is so unfair this man could have been killed by the police because he was attacking them with a knife. It was not fair to the policeman that might have shot him either.
The lady at NAMI said she knows but we live in a world of free speech and the JW's have the right to recruit people who are living on their own, even if they are mentally ill.
I told her that I felt the JW's were a cult and she had to be very careful in her answers to me but she said when they knocked on her door she never listened to them as she felt it was just rude.
It is just very frustrating to watch.
LITS