by Watchtower-Free 18 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
JW's engage in ambient abuse and gaslighting. The most dangerous and incidious form of mental abuse according to some health proffessionals. The entire dog and pony show is driven by the availability of narcisstic supply. ON A FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL all you have w/ JW's is a narcissist and a narcissistic supplier. These are the fundamental building blocks of the entire dog and pony show. Take that and put it in your double blind human meat grinder research based study....
Enjoy.
Oh Narcissistic Supply, please do not mistake heat for light. Strength of feeling is no substitute for the power of reasoning. You feel strongly - which I acknowledge - yet your legitimate view genuinely deserves a more reasoned presentation so that others can benefit from it.
There are certain social elements humans need as social beings. We need a sense of community and inclusion. Safety or perceive safety is another component. The usual Psychology Today insights. They may be all over the place but they are true. Believing a wacked out God will destroy all humanity except for the Witnesses is not mentally healthy. The Witnesses bring isolation from neighbors and community resources. Some Witnesses go far beyond the WTBTS. My mom preparing to witness to the Gestapo (away on the European continent) is another example of extremes.
I do believe that there is some self-selection of personality type and religions we are drawn towards. Well educated, assertive people don't tend to become Witnesses. I also believe there is an element of temperament regarding authority. Some people are drawn to be overly deferential, finding safety in certainy and others are drawn to question.
I expect that the strictness and time consuming nature of Witness life might give comfort to people with serious mental illness. You do feel a sense of purpose and certainty. I don't every want to return to it but sometimes I miss it. Sometimes I just can't take Waitiing for Godot or living with constant questions. The periods don't last very long but I admit to having them. I honestly don't believe that the WTBTS causes psychosis. This would be biological. The Witnesses don't have mentally health practices but we live in a free society.
Witnesses can border on paranoia and persecution complexes. Being persecuted can make you feel important. God on your side is always potent. These strands exist in all religions.
Yeah, I don't think religions like the JW cause mental illnesses per se, but they certainly DO tend to attract such types who are prone to such conspiratorial paranoid beliefs. Worse, they tend to exploit such personality types by exposing them to ideas which are especially unhealthy for those struggling with discerning reality from fantasy anyway (eg those diagnosed with schizophrenia or BPD), until the exacerbation and exposure to toxic ideas causes their condition to degrade such that the JWs finally decide to discard them as simply being too much to handle (as mentioned above).
Adam
While I do agree that the leaders of this cult and rank and file members have to a degree lost some contact with reality I do not think it causes people to suffer psychosis. While banking all your hope on living for an eternity in service to a jealous deity shouting his praises forever has its own form of insanity, it cannot be responcible IMO for psychosis I'm thinking chemical imbalance or genetic play a major role
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis
Psychosis (from the Greek ψυχή "psyche", for mind/soul, and -ωσις "-osis", for abnormal condition or derangement) refers to an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality ". People suffering from psychosis are described as psychotic.
People with psychosis may have one or more of the following: hallucinations , delusions , catatonia , or a thought disorder , as described below. Impairments in social cognition also occur
From a diagnostic standpoint, organic disorders were those held to be caused by physical illness affecting the brain (that is, psychiatric disorders secondary to other conditions), while functional disorders were considered to be disorders of the functioning of the mind in the absence of physical disorders (that is, primary psychological or psychiatric disorders). The materialistic view of the mind–body problem holds that mental disorders arise from physical processes; in this view, the distinction between brain and mind, and therefore between organic and functional disease, is an artificial one. Subtle physical abnormalities have been found in illnesses traditionally considered functional, such as schizophrenia. The DSM-IV-TR avoids the functional/organic distinction, and instead lists traditional psychotic illnesses, psychosis due to general medical conditions, and substance-induced psychosis.
Primary psychiatric causes of psychosis include the following: [16] [17] [18]
- schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder
- affective (mood) disorders, including severe depression, and severe depression or mania in bipolar disorder (manic depression). People experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of depression may experience persecutory or self-blaming delusions or hallucinations, while people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of mania may form grandiose delusions.
- schizoaffective disorder, involving symptoms of both schizophrenia and mood disorders
- brief psychotic disorder, or acute/transient psychotic disorder
- delusional disorder (persistent delusional disorder)
- chronic hallucinatory psychosis
Psychotic symptoms may also be seen in [18]
- schizotypal disorder
- certain personality disorders at times of stress (including paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder)
- major depressive disorder in its severe form although it is possible and more likely to have severe depression without psychosis
- bipolar disorder in severe mania and/or severe depression although it is possible to have severe mania and/or severe depression without psychosis as well, in fact that is more commonly the case
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- induced delusional disorder
- Sometimes in obsessive-compulsive disorder
Stress is known to contribute to and trigger psychotic states. A history of psychologically traumatic events, and the recent experience of a stressful event, can both contribute to the development of psychosis. Short-lived psychosis triggered by stress is known as brief reactive psychosis, and patients may spontaneously recover normal functioning within two weeks. [19] In some rare cases, individuals may remain in a state of full-blown psychosis for many years, or perhaps have attenuated psychotic symptoms (such as low intensity hallucinations) present at most times.
Ambient abuse and gaslighting over a long period of time absolutely makes people crazy.
Ambient abuse and gaslighting over a long period of time absolutely makes people crazy.
Yes, some people are highly vulnerable to environmental stressors that increase the likelihood they will develop diagnosable and likely severe mental health disorders. Equally, most people do notdevelop diagnosable and severe mental health disorders as a result of environmental stressors and some people even thrive in stressful environments suggesting they possess resilience factors.
None of this belittles the more general impact of stressful environments in sub-mental health ways, nor does it deny the fact that some environments are plainly unhealthy - and I would include authoritarian religious organizations as being unhealthy.
Begs the question, Jehovah witnesses are a bunch of CRACKPOT crazies; 2 bricks short of a load.
eom.
Did someone say there was a question in there?
