Jehovah's Witnesses and mental illness (page 4)

jgnat

At this weekend's assembly, I must have heard, "beware the voice of strangers" at least five times. The opening talk mentioned thousands of people eager to give advice for profit. "Or, do we look to our life-giver? Does Jehovah charge a consulting fee? His is the best of motives, he is not in it for the money, but for our welfare."

Oh, yeah, the speaker from the Canadian Bethel, brother Jung, said that the divorce rate amongst JW's is now the same as that of the "world". Now, he couched that tidbit of information as a "personal observation", but I would say that must be pretty close to reality. I noticed that tidbit made our DO twitch.

There we go. Another generation dissuaded from professional help.

Berean

An elder counseled a publisher, who was suffering with depression, telling her that it was because of spiritual weakness and probable serious undisclosed sin. The cure was increasing field service, bible study, and that a judicial committee would be formed to determine what serious sin was not being disclosed.

Everyone knew I was being treated for depression and so she came to speak with me. Just so happened that I had local needs that night. Needless to say, the subject of the local needs was changed to what depression was and what it wasn?t. I plainly stated that the body of elders did not treat depression; that only licensed physicians were LEGALY qualified to do so in the USA. I also stated that anyone that wanted to talk about depression could do so without fear of congregational action. There were four of us on the BOE and only the one didn?t agree with me. Guess who got counseled by the BOE? Yep, Billy-Bad-Ass going to grill you till you confess elder. He didn?t like being on the receiving end ? isn?t? it funny how tyrants don?t like being called out for their actions.

However, I heard of other congregations having some bad incidences involving depression and the BOE?s.

Wild_Thing

Reading this thread got me thinking about a psychologist in Texas that catered to the witnesses and had a "witness program" for a while. I started a separate thread about it here if you are interested:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/87256/1.ashx

But I thought I would add over here that I think it would be interesting for the Doctor in Texas (Dr. Picchioni) to publish his experiences when working with witnesses. I would think it would be far less biased than Jerry Bergman's since Dr. P was never a witness.

I have read a lot of Jerry Bergman's stuff, though, and I think he is right on the money! I just think it would be great to have it also published by a non-witness. Being raised as one can make you so bitter!

Wild_Thing (of the "still bitter" class)

mamochan13

I could write a book on this topic. In fact I just wrote a paper on it. JW's have very real and unique mental health concerns, and the fact that they are not allowed to seek external help is a crime.

The idea that you are depressed because you've committed a "spiritual sin" has prevented many from seeking help. Don't get me started.

Dansk

I have some dynamite information straight from a CO outline on Depression and mental illness -will share shortly probably on a new thread

I seriously look forward to this. Ian

HadEnuf

Depression seems to "run" in my family...it can be passed down genetically (is that a word?)...but I am sure MY tendency towards depression was exacerbated greatly by being a JW for most of my life. Now let me go count all those little pills I have to take......

Cathy L. "Thank You For Your Support"

Jehovah's Witnesses and mental illness