Mental Illness & Suicide In the Organization

by What Now? 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Zordino

  jemba, I know what you mean. When I was young I had very serious bout's of depression and had developed those type's of symptoms as you did. It took years for me to feel good again. All of those bad feeling were 100% directly related to growing up in the org and having its teachings pounded into my brain! It mess's with people's mind's and distorts their thinking and copping abilities. What a sick twisted Cult I was born into!

  Its so sad that some have to pay the ultimate price. Especially the young ones. It Makes me furious to hear people speak of dead suicide victims in such a manner! Goes to show how stupid, ignorant and brainwashed those Jay dubs are. Many of them are completely retarded.
• 

  What Now?

  Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

  My heart goes out to all of you who have been touched in some way by mental illness or suicide.

  The thing that gets me is that there is no real provision in the organization for people suffering with these issues. Instead people are almost made to feel that Jehovah has withdrawn his spirit from them ... and the solution is to DO MORE. MORE prayer, MORE meeting attendance, MORE field service. It ends up becoming a vicious cycle.

  After so many years of pressure, and guilt over so called wrongdoing, over not doing "enough", and being treated unkindly by fellow witnesses .... after finally having my eyes opened to the truth i feel nothing but freedom, and the depression that I used to feel so strongly is almost non existant.

  I would really be curious to know the actual numbers, especially compared to other religions.
• 

  sizemik

  It's a mind-controlling cult . . . we need to allow for that.

  If someone else grabs the steering wheel of your car while you're driving . . . you're possibly gonna take some damage.

  Same when someone else grabs the steering wheel of your mind.

  I knew of 10 suicides . . . and came close myself.
• 

  Bubblegum Apotheosis

  @Shamus we have to be careful throwing those numbers around. I explained on my Welfare-Disability-Public Dole thread, some Ex-JWs were claiming up to 100 percent of Jehovah's Witnesses were mentally ill, and in Canada almost all were collecting Welfare. This statistic transfers to this thread, if her lies about every Jehovah Witness and ExJW are propagated, you will be accused as being mentally ill and lazy, Guilty By Association!

  In fact, her hasty generalization and unprovable statistics are condemming everyone on JWN as lazy and mentally diseased! I can't find the blog of the Anti-Canadian-JW with all her sewage, but I am sure more will pop up to take her place. We have to watch how we are cutting with this two-edge sword my friend!
• 

  celticdog2569

  I know alot of JW's on antidepressants and a couple of those are my wife and my mother inlaw.If you go to youtube and type in Jehovah's witnesses

  and mental illness there is an hour long video about it is very interesting.
• 

  Phizzy

  I am having therapy at present for suicidal depression. This first manifested itself when I was about 9. I cannot say if the religion is to blame or if I would have had these feelings anyway.

  What I do know is that I never told anyone of my problems, I hid it out of shame, weren't we supposed to be the happiest people on earth ? The religion always made me feel inadequate, not doing enough, condemned by God as a failure. How could He care about me ?

  When I have been so very close to ending my life I can tell you that no one would know, and that the feeling can come upon me in a flash, I can understand what that poor sister mentioned above was feeling, no way out, except death.

  If only we can get those at risk to seek help, their lives may be saved, but identifying who is at risk when they show no outward signs like me, is well nigh impossible.

  I am sure that the religion makes people clinically depressed even though they and those around them may not recognise what is going on. So many must be at risk.
• 

  mynameislame

  I remember the reason they used to give for this was because the religion appeals to those types of people. Basically saying they were the most sheep like people.

  At the time this seemed like sound reasoning. How could any right hearted person possibly be happy in this system
• 

  baltar447

  Wife and I were discussing this tonight. I found this interesting and I think it relates.

  http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/somatization.htm

  Description

  Somatization occurs where a psychological problem turns into physical and subconscious symptoms.

  This can range from simple twitching to skin rashes, heart problems and worse.

  Example

  A policeman, who has to be very restricted in his professional behavior, develops hypertension.

  A worried actor develops a twitch.

  Discussion

  When the subconscious mind is suffering from a problem which is not addressed and cannot be considered, it grabs attention by attacking the physical body.

  This can have useful consequences, for example, a person who is overstressing themselves may get a physical problem that forces them to slow down.

  The symptoms created can be a problem for normal doctors, as there is no physical cause of the problem.

  The reverse effect can happen where a placebo actually causes a person to recover.

  So what?

  When people have physical symptoms, consider the possibility of psychological causes. Of course you should get medical opinion first to determine whether there really is a medical cause (and perhaps to help them get physical relief). If symptoms persist, you may be able to effect a 'miracle cure'.

  -----------------------------

  This is interesting. I do think that the subconscious "knows" when something is negatively affecting us and will make us sick to try to avoid the activity. How many times did we get sick only to stay home and feel really better within 30 minutes? It works that way with kids having anxiety and trying to avoid school. My wife would have anxiety attacks the day of the meetings. So I think there's some truth to that. If we deliberately do something that isn't good for our mental health, our bodies fight back.
• 

  JustThatGirl007

  I started having anxiety at the meetings and assemblies in 2001. It increased over the years, particularly in 2007, and peaking in 2010 after I was prescribed prozac. On prozac, I suddenly wanted to be dead and I wanted my youngest brother dead. No rhyme or reason to it, he and I were best friends.

  So I asked to go to the local crisis unit. I was freaked out by these feelings and overwhelmed. I stayed a week, was incorrectly dx'd as bipolar (I'm not - I am autistic and I was having a meltdown and a reaction to the prozac), and put in the 5 hour/day group therapy for the next 5 months.

  While there, I realized that I needed to remove from my life the things that set off my anxiety. The first thing to go was the meetings. Going to the memorial was horribly unsettling because, by that point, I was finished. But we had to keep up appearances for a little while longer. Shortly after, we moved out of state and it's no longer an issue.

  Now, my anxiety comes from life threatening situations, like the emergency surgery I underwent the 2nd weekend of June. THAT triggered anxiety for me. But that's been the only issue in over a year since we left.

  I'm unmedicated and feel normal again. I didn't need the meds - I needed to GTFO of that crazy ass cult. I neded to get away from the abusive 'boyfriend' that kept telling me I wasn't good enough, I'll never be good enough, I'm a bad person, I don't deserve salvation, I have to earn it, I need to do more, it's never enough, I'm tired/sick/anxious and it's all my fault because I suck.

  F*ck that shit, man, I'm done. I'm over it. And I'm not depressed, suicidal, or homicidal anymore.
• 

  kokyong.soon3

  although it may not be right to blame others,i was under stress when i was studying in senior high;i did not suffer a nervious breakdown.it was only when i took the neutrality stand that i went into depression.