by tornapart 45 Replies latest jw friends
Fraz: "Wouldn't they say: 'spend more time preaching and no time w@nking'? - if it was the other way round, people would definitely be happier"
And when there is any wanking, it is to be followed by guilt, followed by depression. The solution is to spend more time preaching so you'll have no time or energy for wanking.
And they claim to be "the happiest people on earth"?
They could be drawing from depressed people in the beginnng. People who have balance in their lives will be wary of Witness teachings. Most will have ties to their original churches and/ or the churches of family members. Witnesses may be self-selecting. My experience is that Witnesses have competitions for how bad this world is. The solution is always in the future. If you say you are happy in this system of things, you will be suspect.
It does not add up to good mental health hygiene. Worldly people have vents, too. We need to vent. When I vent today, I must add what I am doing to make my life better in the short term. People will no longer want to hear me complain if I do nothing. I recall when they are against psychiatric treatment so some progress has been made. Sometimes I don't know if these complaint sessions reflected the true feeling of the people present or were considered good manners among the Witnesses.
I expect much has to do with the local elders. What if a Witness is too depressed to do meetings or field service? Depression is partly biological.
When I served in different Bethels around the world, a common denominator of the morning worship was that it was never encouraging. You were reminded of how your inner most thoughts were sinful, you weren't ever good enough. If you felt accomplishment in your bethel work, that was a worldly feeling, you are a "good for nothing slave" and you should have done the work anyway. If you felt accomplishment in the local congregation, you weren't sent there to work in the congregation. What ever you did, it was never enough, you were a pathetic slave, who the Branch had to put up with, and you should do more and ask way less, be content with the crapy meals and judgemental attitude.
Believe me, I saw people depressed while working at different branches, and I'm included. God I'm glad I've left.
That's a great observation, Jake. As JWs we were told we could never trust our thoughts or feelings, that they were always sinful. When you are told that for years, you become divorced from them, and rather than dealing with your emotions and listening to your instincts, you become disconnected from them and issues get suppressed and ignored, and can surge to the surface as cog diss, depression, physical ailments and other things. If you are told your thoughts cannot be trusted, that what you think about or feel about things is wrong unless it's a certain way ("Are we not grateful for the Faithful and Discreet Slave? Do our hearts not swell with joy when we come to the Kingdom Hall? Are we not appreciative of all Jehovah has done for us" and so on, telling us all the time how we should feel) is bound to make you doubt who you are, lose confidence in who you are, and feel guilty over who you are.
And then of course, "do more, Can you organise your affairs to pioneer? Can you adjust your schedule to spend more time in the ministry? Do more!" tells you that you are never doing enough. Combine that with doubt of your own sentience, you are gonna end up depressed and miserable. I struggled with it for years, and was always saying to the elders, "Woe is me, I'm doing all I can, and yet they're asking for more! I feel so bad." And they'd say I was doing fine, but on an on and on at every assembly, WT and meeting, "Can YOU do more? Can YOU cut back on work? Can YOU save more lives? There is no reason for not being able to start Bible studies," they'd squeeze, and squeeze and squeeze, and tell you that you should be happy while they're doing it.
Julia, I couldn't have said it better. One of the last district conventions I went to had three + hours telling you how you could not trust you own thoughts, "the heart is desperate, who can know it" scripture. After hours of telling you this, then they had two and a half days of telling you that you needed to listen to the GB. Unbelievable.
JO, I appreciate your comments. Your right on.
That was the last one I went to too. I was sick so slept through most of it on the floor in the 'infirm' area. Thank goodness.
