The organization takes great pride in its statistics, the hours spent
in the "ministry", meeting attendance and so on. They look at these
things as positive evidence of faithfulness, zeal, and loyalty.
I'm not so sure......
Mental illness and depression among JW's is old news. They are widespread problems given scant attention by a boastful leadership
that prefers arrogant claims about being the "happiest people
on earth".
Beyond the foregoing, I ask: Do JW's tend to suffer from obsessive
compulsive disorders?
It's common to feel that you "have to get your time in".
or you "have to attend all the meetings". You must attend long,
painfully boring conventions that drone on and on......
I know Witnesses with anorexia, multiple personalities and
and physical self-mutilation (cutting oneself)disorders - which
certainly sound obsessive to me. I read in the Watchtower about
people who are held up as examples - who preached that Armageddon
was "SOON!" - ALL THEIR LIVES! - does spending your life
preaching falsehood like that sound obsessive? If you look at
folks in your own congregation, I'm sure you'll notice compulsive
hand-washers, the elder who won't touch the bathroom knob without
a napkin/hankerchief, hypochondriacs, self-diagnosed sufferers
with illnesses doctors can't objectively confirm, people who
underline/highlight nearly every sentence in a WT study article
(I giggle a little when I see that!) and bizarre allergies.
Little Johnny can't understand much at the meeting so give him
a notebook so he can count how many times the speaker says "Jehovah"
in his talk. (another favorite of mine - what is this supposed to
teach the kid?)
Sit behind the bored teenage "Barbie Doll" sisters at the assembly-
watch them write their name in filigree/calligraphy - over and
over.....
I could go on and on... (and what would that say ABOUT MY MENTAL
HEALTH AFTER BEING A JW FOR 35 YEARS - mea culpa!)
metatron (if I forgot my mantra, does that mean I'm cured, doctor?)