Jehovah’s Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?

by Marvin Shilmer 46 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  ÁrbolesdeArabia

  Qcmr was your last religion the LDS Church? I am going to take a leap and tell you how the LDS Church would go around and pick up members of the poor and homeless in Los Angeles and provide a sermon and feed them Spaghetti, bread and salad and desert. I watched their vans in Alhambra pick up fifty plus people with mental illness.

  The Jehovah Witness group attracts the mentally ill and it fail's them badly, once the group has figured out they are not able to perform and meet the Monthly expectations and donate much money from their disability-checks, the love turns off quick. I saw them laughed at by the elders and elderettes, some would be sent out in field circus on their own so the happy-groups could work together.

  There is no way to prove a correlation between the religion causing mental illness, I think as others have discovered, the mass majority are found at home because the normal people of society are working (Not At Home) while the mentally ill are available to talk.

  The Jehovah Witness religion does not teach a person how to have a close relationship with Jesus Christ and very few of the Witnesses pray at least once a day, the vast majority don't read the Bible daily and can't keep up with their reading assignments. Ray Franz said the same issues plagued the Governing Body, they were unable to perform the loads they binded upon their fellow men! How Bizzare!
• 

  Gayle

  I think 'some people,' including ones that have forms of mental illness, are drawn to a mindset of many rules and narrow dogmatisms. They think that 'over' structure and rules help them. Demanding rules such as don't drink ever, don't eat meat, don't smoke, don't, don't, don't most everything. Over=Rules help them not to even 'think.' Some just like to be 'ruled."

  However, when they 'break' a rule, then most fall into a very deep depression, and end up worse. Then, they go into endless whirlwind struggling between self-righteousness and condemnation. A miserable state. Cultism contributes to this imbalance and creates a deep dependence from their members.
• 

  designs

  The Wt. religion offers escapism as its main appeal. Very little is done by the members towards improving things in this world. After having the Wt. Leaders pull the rug out from under them with regard to having Armageddon moved indefinitly into the future the hopes of escaping the needs of this life come crashing down on the minds of its members. Try explaining all of that to a Therapist.

  In the late 60s a good friend in Los Angeles threw a large party, we were all in our late teens or early 20s. Among other things we did one was to have everyone draw a picture, free expression, it could be whatever we wanted it to be about. 90% of the drawings were about Armageddon, pretty chilling yes.

  I stayed on until 1999, and one of the primary reasons for leaving was I simply could no longer tell people there was going to be a Armageddon, it was sick.
• 

  franticfran

  In the congregation we attended,there were an inordnate amount of individuals on anti depressants it was almost a badge of honour. We had one young woman,a daughter of an elder, who had a history of self harm,two young brothers from the same family,on anti psychotic medication,one pioneer sister with mental health issues and another regular seeing a counselor,it became commonplace to ask the question "how are you now?" because so many had non specific illnessess,you lost count. We used to joke about all these health problems,"were getting out before they make sickness compulsory" for people who lived for the new system where sickness would be a thing of the past,they seemed to enjoy being ill.The vast majority of working age members were on some kind of sickness benefit from the government,quite shameful. At one time we counted the number of working brothers (no sister ever went out to work) and only four out of fifty five were in full time employ.
• 

  DaCheech

  when my sister was having nighmares, where she was questioning "sinning against the holy spirit" by having uncontrollable thoughts during these dreams................ the elders told her to pray more to get the thoughts out of her head!

  any other person would have told her, that dreams are nothing................. or to send her to a phychiatrist
• 

  Nice_Dream

  One of my inlaws has been severely depressed for years. He has had 15 or more electroconvulsive therapy treatments and it failed to work. Antidepressants don't work. And he refuses to see a therapist or psychologist because he's afraid they will blame the religion (due to two other "sisters" experiences with a therapist). Sad.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  -

  "Jerry Bergman?"

  No. Definitely not.

  The source you inquire of is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to this day.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  Finkelstein

  Would it not seem logical that a apocalyptic fear mongering high controlling religious cult like the JWS embellish

  and nourish unhealthy psychosis and mental imbalances ?

  Religions like this impose a continuously large amount of fear and guilt onto their members, which creates many unhealthy psychological problems,

  all infused with components of human ignorance.
• 

  flipper

  MARVIN- Nice blog thanks for sharing. It stands to reason that many Jehovah's Witnesses are damaged goods in a psychiatric way due to the extreme stress of living up to impossible standards and expectations by an ever changing cult and teachings by the WT Society. The extreme shunning policies, blood transfusion teachings, child molestation, putting down of JW's who attend college to get a better education- is it any wonder that ALL of JW's aren't bat $hit crazy ? And that's just a general overview of major problems. The utter control and manipulation of JW's by congregation elders and other higher ups is enough to drive any halfway normal, sane person around the bend. I know. I was born and raised in from birth until age 44. It's taken me years to shed my former JW skin, but I feel I'm doing it and am successfully mentally healthy. Freedom of mind is a wonderful thing that ALL people escaping JW's and ANY other high control organization should cherish and be thankful for. Peace out, mr. Flipper
• 

  wha happened?

  Without being able to adequately function in the real world due to an induced blindness to reality, the Jehovah's Witness grows sadder and less able to exist in the real world at all.

  And that's why so many return. I saw my ex go through that. She left and could not function out there. She is so damaged emotionally from her upbringing. She returned and got reinstated. If anything, just to talk to family. She is fairly sick mentally and won't make any real progress until she gets meds or therapy or both