by 060702015 28 Replies latest jw friends
Thanks Lisa Rose. the ever prying eyes of the Empiricists strike again .
On an Anecdotal, observational note, some 25 years ago some of us on the servant body used to joke that half the congregation was on Prozac. And the other half needed to be.
Yes, I was a wise ass then too.
And our congregation was considered mature, balanced and loving.
The criterion for mental illness and depression was that the person had been admitted to a mental hospital or had been treated by a psychiatrist. That is an objective criterion and you do not need to understand mental illness to reach the conclusions he did.
As everyone knows, the religion discourages people from consulting psychologists or psychiatrists, so that you can't reliably use this as criteria for determining mental illness in this religion. Someone who is experienced in these kind of studies and impartial would have figured that out, but Rolf is not impartial and not experienced, he is too close to the subject to see clearly.
Jehovah's Witnesses are told that just about any problem can be fixed by more study, meetings, prayer and field service and to be wary of "worldly" therapists. I know of many Jehovah's Witnesses that were obviously suffering from some kind of mental illness but who never got treatment of any kind. Elders have no training in therapy or counseling and are not qualified to determine if someone needs treatment, and most JWs will consult an elder before going to any kind of therapy.
And your statement that you don't need experience in mental health to interpret statistics on mental health is patently ridiculous. As the Mark Twain quote goes, there are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics. Statistics have to be interpreted to be meaningful, and how good can the interpretation be if the person involved has no training in the field and worse, is obviously biased?
This whole study is a fraud in my opinion.
@ LisaRose : Did you read the study before reaching your opinion?
LisaRose --
My friend from high school, her and her family became witnesses when she finished high school. She is getting a second masters so she can be a therapist. The organization must have changed their views on mental health.
And higher education as well...but i remember seeing a video on jw.org discouraging spending too much time on Academic degrees. It probably depends on what congregation you attend
The study doesn't appear authentic. But i am not sure. Thanks for sharing it with me Ernest
I think the short answer is that anyone who is a true believer in a high control and/or destructive religion that promotes strange beliefs like Armageddon, hell fire, willing to die for want of a life saving blood transfusion, who does not question or do meaningful independent research........... has a mental illness. They are delusional and that is one way to define mental illness.
It's a shame, LisaRose that the person suffering from schizophrenia was disfellowshipped. A friend of mine has been schizophrenic for many years but the local elders get it and leave him alone. I also know quite a few Witnesses with severe mental problems, but it is not at all likely that they will be DF'd. Not sure why you think this is an inevitable outcome of such disorders. Not the case in my over 30 years as a Witness, including dealing directly as an elder with such individuals.
The study I posted was made by a Witness by the name of Rolf Furuli. He does have academic credentials as he was a lecturer in Semitic languages at the University of Oslo until 2011. He makes the point that it is not easy to make a balanced scholarly study of the mental health of Jehovah's Witnesses.....Earnest
Considering Furuli`s Lack of Education in Mental Health..
....................................................................
Rolf Furuli Should Stick To Offering Advice..
About Furniture in Ikea Advertisements..
Not sure why you think this is an inevitable outcome of such disorders.I don't, not at all. Things arent as bad as they used to be, but there is still a stigma to being mentally ill and an attitude that the religion should be enough to fix your problems. I have been out for a while, but from what I read here, things havent changed that much, its not acceptable to admit you are unhappy.
20 veterans a day committed suicide 2014. Veterans have a suicide rate 50%
higher than those who did not serve in the military..L.A. times June 2 2015.
WE know why it's high among veterans but a religious organization, can we say CULT.
