Agree with all the posters. All of the comparisons with brother that does so more than you and how come you're not a ministerial servant yet take their toll.
A Jehovah's Witness life is a hard life.
Witnesses and anxiety disorder
by mana11 34 Replies latest watchtower medical
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StrongHaiku
This is one of the few times the Bible may have gotten it right..."Expectation postponed makes the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13:12)
The JW life...No end in sight and sooooo many disappointments.
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James Mixon
One good thing about anxiety disorder and stress, you always have your funeral
planned in advance and soon you will be in paradise.
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zeb
It is my observation down many years that jw are as a group the un-healthiest of people. -
LisaRose
how about fibro myalgia ? i know several female ex jws who have it--yet i dont know anyone else who has. i'd never heard of it before.
It's pretty common even among non JWs, but I do think JWs are more prone. I have it since my JWs days so unfortunately I have had to think a lot about how it happened. Fibromyalgia is believed to be a problem with the pain signals in the brain. It can be caused by stress and overuse of the muscles, but other than that no one really knows. Men do get fibro, but it is more common than women.
I believe it's a combination of my inborn personality (sensitive and introverted) plus the guilt inducing effects of the cult (never good enough) plus some traumatic life events (child suicide attempts, near death of spouse) plus physical trauma (car accident), plus stressful job, plus social isolation (disfellowshipped husband) . The result is fibromyalgia, widespread pain and muscle soreness. Lack of adequate sleep is believed to be a factor, you can produce symptoms simply by depriving people of sleep. There are tender spots in various places on the body, fibromyalgia is diagnosed when there is pain in at least nine of the eighteen potential points, which are in the same spots for everyone. Sometimes there is a visible lump in the points.
As some others have pointed out, women in the organization have no power and little status.There is a psychological price in the high expectations of the JW life, especially when there is little support or respect. You are either killing yourself trying to meet these expectations or you are feeling guilty about it because you didn't, then when you do get fibromyalgia people usually just think you are faking, because you don't look sick. I have heard many here express the belief that women just make this up to get out of going to meetings. That attitude just adds to your stress and make things worse, it becomes a vicious cycle. The fatigue and pain can be debilitating.
I knew of a case in my congregation. She was the much loved eldest daughter ( I used to think of her as the princess, dad was an elder and she was a pioneer.) She got married and they both were accepted at Bethel. Having read many accounts of Bethel life here I can only imagine that it was a huge culture shock in going from pioneer princess to a status of "lower than whale poop in the Marianas trench" only accepted because they wanted her husband. The petty jealousy and abuse that gets meted out to new ones would be hard to take. She worked in the laundry folding clothes, something that would be a problem for anyone prone to this, the respective motion alone could cause it. Within a year she got fibromyalgia, she was in her early twenties.