Depression and JW's

by damselfly 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Frog

  Oh Dames babe, you've really had a rough trop, but full credit to you for finding the strength to throw all of that off and move on:))

  When I was 17y/o and had serious issues with the "truth" I stopped attending meetings, found a "worldly" boyfriend, my life was upside down, and I was miserable. My boyfriend didn't understand the issues I was up against, my friends shunned me, and my parents threatened to throw me out. My mother convinced me my depression was clinical and had our family GP perscribe me anti-depressants. Since I did not have any form of mental illness I could tell early on that the drugs were unbalancing my otherwise balanced brain, so I stopped taking them after 6 weeks. Mum of course never wanted to accept that it was the result of dejection, indoctrination, physical abuse, she really had her head in the sand. Anyway, she convinced me I was responsible for messing up my life for that year, and I returned to the org (back to the vommit;). Didn't get the courage to leave again until I was 22y/o.

  Nowadays I have a wonderful optimistic outlook, am extremely happy and consistent, apart from the occassional hormonally induced mood swing;)

  Frog xx
• 

  tijkmo

  But, things are so much better now after I left the source of all the abuse

  this what i cant get anyone to understand

  they keep telling me it was what i did..guilt shame etc that is making me depressed...i know it is not..i know that the source of the abuse was the cause of the depression..the way i was treated..

  and to keep going back to the source..whether it is the same kh or a different one and to be told the same wrong thing over and over again..just kept on making me ill..which is why i am better away from it..better but not cured...yet

  as an elder i too told people to do more spiritual things...prayer fs study..i genuinely believed it would help to be busy in something and where better than in spiritual pursuits...the major difference in what i feel is being said here is that i didnt just tell folk to do this....i helped them to do it..by doing it with them and by including them in as many non-spiritual pursuits as i possibly could...
• 

  tabbycat

  In my cong it was def the case that if you were depressed then you were doing something wrong/were weak etc. Even though some JWs would be kind and supportive, the consensus was that it was somehow the individual's 'fault' or that they weren't trying hard enough. I don't think I really realised I was depressed, but I def developed a bit of an OCD, which remains to this day when I'm anxious or stressed and is clearly linked to 'ideas' I was exposed to in my JW youth...
• 

  Es

  I never really got severe depression in the borg, it really hit me once i had left. And if i didnt have my son, i would prob not be here today. I got put on medication and say a pschye howver you spell that word. I am way better now, for me it was all about letting go, and once i had done that i was ok. I still suffere from depression on and off but not bad enough to go on medication. es