OUR MENTAL HEALTH

by RAYZORBLADE 28 Replies latest watchtower medical

• 

  RAYZORBLADE

  No epiphany whatsoever, but I was pondering this subject tonight on my way back home from work.

  There are many subjects on the matter of health, and of course: post JW, our mental health.

  For most of you, how would you rate your present mental health?

  Comparitively, our physical health, depending upon what ails us, we can generally heal and feel better after brief or extended recovery time.

  Mental health on the other hand, is definitely long lasting.

  I've been almost 20 years outside of the JWs, but I think it nearly took me that entire 20 years to get where I am today.

  Sad, but true.

  Anyone like to contribute their thoughts on this matter.

  Thank you.
• 

  plmkrzy

  my contribution,
• 

  Lady Lee

  I spent most of my life in a state of clinical depression. It started when I was about 6 and progressively got worse while I was a JW until I was thinking of suicide every day.

  It took leaving and getting help for me to be able to live without feeling depressed.

  Right now I am going through a bit of a slump but it is situational and understandable and directly related to my present health problems

  and it is nowhere close to feeling like I want to die
• 

  Gadget

  For the last 6 months or so I have been very stressed. But since I moved in to my new house, I feel like much better. I don't know if its having my own space, being away from my parents going on about witness things all the time, finally owning up that I'm not getting reinstated and not having to hide how I feel, or a combination of the three. Whatever it is, I just know I feel a heck of a lot better now.
• 

  Thunder Rider

  I think a person's mental health will always suffer in a situation where nothing is ever good enough and you can never attain complete approval and acceptance. I had major depression for more than 10 years and was on about every antidepressant there is. All they ever did for me was pack on the pounds and leave me in a fog. Funny thing is that when I quit taaking the meds and quit going to the hall, I started feeling better. I turned my attention to pleasing my family rather than pleasing a God and an organization that were never satisfied. Its truly amazing how seeing those most important to you smiling and enjoying themselves can chase away those old rain clouds of the soul.

  I was miserable when I hoped to live forever in paradise. I feel much better now that I have given up hope! I have my true and few friends and feel better than ever.

  ==}>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  Thunder

  Ray,

  Glad to hear everything came back OK
• 

  Vanant

  For the past couple years I've been consistently depressed. I've also had problems with anxiety my whole life, including panic attacks since I was young. I think this may be due to having grown up with sexual & emotional abuse, the JW upbringing, plus some probable genetic contribution, since mental health disorders are common on both sides of the family. Anyway, I guess things have felt especially bad these past few years from the family & health problems, mental wrestling with JWism, and perhaps the usual adolescent mood swings, too . . . I hope I'll feel better once I'm out of this house, which should be (knock on wood?) next year.
• 

  Panda

  I'm with plmkrzy

  Some days I'm

  Other days I'm and Once in awhile I'm really

  But when I read JWD I'm

  It's alright to have bats in your belfry; just teach them how to fly in formation.

  In the South, we set our family members with character quirks out on the front porch.
• 

  Brummie

  Vanant, that is real sad to hear, I believe you will have a much better life when you escape your current surroundings, a good future awaits you in which you will come to terms with your past. There is more to life and I'm sure you will find it in abundance.

  I'd suggest finding a good therapist to chat too, when you talk about these things to someone who values you, you will find some distance from the past.

  There is a lot of value in what you just shared, you are a valuable person.

  Thinking of ya

  Brummie
• 

  Englishman

  For some peculiar reason I always go through alternating moods of euphoria and despair around 4.50pm on a Saturday afternoon.

  Englishman.
• 

  pettygrudger

  I'm with you Rayzorblade - almost 20 years out, and it took about that long (give or take a few years) to get to where I am mentally (which is still not always a good thing).

  I am beginning to believe that as it surrounds the JW faith - its one of 2 things

  #1 - if you are raised a JW, things that aren't "natural" become a scope of your brain. I.E. the Great Tribulation, Armaggedon, etc. - these are all supposed to be natural things to occur, and are even looked forward to, or are supposed to be. But how a child must make this leap in their sub-conscious, I don't know how one does it. To go from day to day, going to school, out in service, to the stores, libraries, playgrounds wherever, and to have to come to not only realize, but also accept & look forward to all of it being destroyed, and everyone around you going down some big hole into oblivian - what child wouldn't be screwed up by it?

  #2 - If you arent' raised a JW, but come to "believe", I truly think its because there's something missing within your own life, some mental disturbance that makes you reach out to something, anything, to belong, to be "special". Or maybe there's some morbid comfort in believing that everything, everyone but a few are gonna die - paying the world back for any slights you've come to feel by trying to live in the world of normal humanity! This in itself shows a mental imbalance.

  Any way you look at it, I believe in general religion isn't the greatest thing for anyone's mental health, at least when its taken out of balance. We all have certain "needs" as humans, and usually spirituality (or whatever you want to call it) is a need, but so is food, drink, love, sexuality and a host of other "needs" humans have. Whenever any one of them is taken out of balance and placed above all other "needs", there tends to be a problem. At least imho. And the JW's tend to place "spirituality" above all else, that along with alot of horror unimaginable to most human beings, but yet they accept it as something to be joyous about. Go figure.