http://www2.dailybulletin.com/news/ci...
This article appeared in my local paper today. Before I even read the article the thought passed through my mind, "I bet this guy is LDS."
Fred's journey (no pun intended) with Disasociative fugue began eight years ago. I'm sure the problems started years before that.
Even his own parents doubt his condition:"We didn't know what was going on," Fred's mother, Carol Knerr, said. "His brothers still have mixed feelings about this. They're not sure. As for my husband and myself, yeah we believe it, but we don't. If there is something wrong with him, we need to find out what it is."
Some say that the condition masks a serious trauma the person has suffered - sexual abuse, an attack, war, and so on. I wonder if that would include the psychological abuse one suffers when they are made to believe that they are not doing enough for the Mormon God and the people you want most in the world to protect you, your parents, tell you in so many ways that you're just not doing enough, not faithful enough, don't study the "scriptures" enough, YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO PLEASE GOD.
The rigid mental acrobatics one must go through as a TBM are enough to drive one to suicide let alone a mental illness.
I thought I was fairly normal while growing up Mormon - I believed, I prayed, I obeyed not out of love for God, but out of fear that this God would punish me. I had stresses too. Husband left when I became pregnant. Raised my child by myself with a low-paying job but the Bishop told me I would be blessed if I payed tithing. Is that the ONLY thing they know how to say? I struggled for years paying, praying and obeying, all the while believing church leaders telling me in Gen Conference, Stake Conference, Ward Conference, Sac Meetings, SS,RS and all the endless meetings that I just wasn't doing enough to please the Mormon God. I wanted to die - literally. What more could this young single mom working a full-time job do? A lot more according to LDS, Inc. One thing I noticed was that money was always at the root of it.
Fred seems to have a lot of stuff that he's probably too afraid to uncover. Mormons do like to keep up appearances and perhaps Fred has been "encouraged" by his family not to give up too many details lest they and the Mormon church look bad.
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