Baby Meredith is here - Anna Duggar baby watch

[VelociRapture]

Why are we praising Anna for having a baby? People do it everyday. We should be questioning why Anna isn’t smart enough to protect her four young children from a man who has forcibly touched girls before. Wake up, Anna! Whether your brain is smart enough to believe it, or not, your husband is a pedophile, and was not properly treated for it. He could strike on one of your blessings. Do you care more about living the sheltered lifestyle, and keeping sweet, or protecting your children? What example are you setting for Mack and Meredith? Touching is okay, God will forgive you. That’s infuriating. Anna needs to open her eyes. Hope she does it soon. Also, Anna is programmed to have as many babies as possible. I don’t think Josh admitting to forcibly touching girls will change how she thinks about that. Which is sad.

In order to state the bolded you must be Josh's therapist! And as his therapist you must realize that you just violated doctor-patient confidentiality, as well as HIPPA! Have fun losing your license!

(Seriously though, it's been stated so many times on here - Josh doesn't meet the requirements to be defined as a pedophile based off what we know and no one other than a licensed therapist is capable of making a formal diagnosis. Speculating about it is nowhere near helpful and just distracts from your other points, which I mostly agree with.)

[Rachel333]

As a fluent French speaker, I feel compelled to ask if you have any idea what you're talking about. Meredith and merde have entirely different pronunciations. No normal French speaker would associate them.

You're also off in your assumption that all words beginning with "cath" have the same root meaning.

I didn't say they did? I just know that some of them are related, not to the name Catherine but to the Greek root of "katharos." What I actually said wasn't "all words beginning with cath have the same root meaning", but "Catholic, catheter, and other "cath" words are related, I believe." I certainly didn't mean to imply all words with "cath" in them are related. I (and the person I learned it from) was wrong about Catholic and catheter, by the way (though "catheter" does share a root with catalogue, catapult, catastrophe, cathedral, and a bunch of other words I never would have connected). Words like "cathartic," and "catharsis," are the actual examples I was looking for of being related to that term.

I also never said "Meredith" and "merde" had the exact same pronunciation, but I do know, from actual native French speakers, that the way a French person (not an American) would pronounce "Meredith" just by looking at the word can be similar enough to "merde" for people to connect the two.

[nastyhobbitses]

Dammit! That is who she looks like- underfed HBB! It has been driving me nuts as to what was bothering me about that kid.

I just think she looks creepily like Michelle, but with white-blonde hair. Same smile, same jawline, same head-tilt.

[nelliebelle1197]

In another thread, someone said that was just a bug eyed look, yet now I am thinking it is just a kid version of Michelle bug eyes :D

[Elvis Presby]

I did think about meanings of names. This is why I have a Miranda instead of a Leah. My youngest is Rhys, not common in the US and everyone calls him Rice. Rhys means enthusiastic; and he is!

[BabyDilly]

I actually really like the name Meredith Grace.

And Josie totes looks like Honey Boo Boo!

[DeFrauder]

How did you reach the diagnosis that Josh is a pedophile? Did you have counseling sessions with him? Did you catch him with child porn? Seriously. Have you studied deviant sexual behavior in a clinical setting or are you just making random proclaimations about an actual clincal diagnosis you know nothing about?

I find internet diagnosing infuriating and intellectually lazy. The faux outrage is not only counterproductive, it is dangerous in that is minimizes real pediophilIa and the harm that comes from it.

Even dumb old Wikipedia says Josh is not a pedophile based on what we know:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

Based on what we know there is good evidence that he is a pedophile. The youngest victim we know about was 5 years old. He was post puberty, all his victims were pre-puberty.

I don't see any minimization of "real" pedophilia anywhere on FJ.

[DaffyDill]

Based on what we know there is good evidence that he is a pedophile. The youngest victim we know about was 5 years old. He was post puberty, all his victims were pre-puberty.

I don't see any minimization of "real" pedophilia anywhere on FJ.

Your quote isn't the definition of a pedophile, though. It may be an accurate description of a child molester, but the two things aren't the same. As with most things in life, and most illnesses, conditions, call it what you will, there is more than one criteria to be met before an accurate diagnosis can be made.

Josh is not a pedophile based upon the definition found, as NellieBelle1197 already pointed out, in Wikipedia. From her link to Wikipedia:

The term pedophile is commonly used by the public to describe all child sexual abuse offenders.[6][10] This usage is considered problematic by researchers, because many child molesters do not have a strong sexual interest in prepubescent children, and are consequently not pedophiles.[9][10][12][65] There are motives for child sexual abuse that are unrelated to pedophilia,[74] such as stress, marital problems, the unavailability of an adult partner,[96] general anti-social tendencies, high sex drive, or alcohol use.[97] As child sexual abuse is not automatically an indicator that its perpetrator is a pedophile, offenders can be separated into two types: pedophilic and non-pedophilic[98] (or preferential and situational[7]).

Tl:Dr: See bolded; a child molester is not necessarily a pedophile. And considering what we know so far, he's not purely attracted to children and not adult women. Please refer to the hand sex with Anna, and the fact he obviously has "risen to the occasion" sufficiently to father 4 children.

Just assuming Josh is a full-blown rampant pedophile, downloading child pornography, ravaging small children wherever he goes, or at least yearning to, is ridiculous and simplistic at best.

Based on what we know.

[nelliebelle1197]

Based on what we know there is good evidence that he is a pedophile. The youngest victim we know about was 5 years old. He was post puberty, all his victims were pre-puberty.

I don't see any minimization of "real" pedophilia anywhere on FJ.

How about finding out what the definition of pedophilia is before you throw the word around m'kay? Because no, based on what is public, Josh is not a pedophile. Did you bother to read the link I helpfully provided or were you just too anxious to comment. And yes, conflating this situation with pedophiles do to children is minimizing.

[Vivi_music]

"me this is a bomb shelter..." got me right off the bat.

Oh man! ''baby murder the'' at 1:02. And Michelle and Jim Bob are both holding Marcus.

[DeFrauder]

How about finding out what the definition of pedophilia is before you throw the word around m'kay? Because no, based on what is public, Josh is not a pedophile. Did you bother to read the link I helpfully provided or were you just too anxious to comment. And yes, conflating this situation with pedophiles do to children is minimizing.

My goodness! Pushing the issue are we? You should be ashamed for this lame excuse for protecting Josh. You are kinda sounding like J and M here. Really world, it was just some mild inappropriate touching, over the clothes except for the few times when it wasn't....

From the wikipedia article that was posted to "prove" how the definition does not apply to Josh:

Pedophilia or paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 11 years or younger.[1][2] As a medical diagnosis, specific criteria for the disorder extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.[1] A person who is diagnosed with pedophilia must be at least 16 years of age, but adolescents must be at least five years older than the prepubescent child for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia.[1][2]

lets go through that definition and the entire article for that matter:

paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 11 years or younger.

Josh meets this criteria. From what we know, Josh initiated sexual contact with a minimum of 5 prepubescent girls. He didn't convince them to participate. He repeatedly snuck into their room at night and accosted them while they were sleeping! Notice they say generally? That is because children reach puberty at different ages. The point is that pedophilia is an interest in children that have not yet sexually developed. From what I understand all the victims we have been told about were under 12 and one was only 5. Correct me if I am wrong about their ages.

As a medical diagnosis, specific criteria for the disorder extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.

Here they point out that a prepubescent child could be as old as 13. What this sentence means is that it can STILL be pedophilia if the victim is as old as 13. Don't NOT DIAGNOSE as pedophilia if the victim is 13. We are not DIAGNOSING anyway---that is what medical professionals do. That sentence was an instruction to medical professionals. We are snarking and putting 2 and 2 together.

A person who is diagnosed with pedophilia must be at least 16 years of age, but adolescents must be at least five years older than the prepubescent child for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia.

Again, an instruction for medical professionals. A psychiatric diagnosis becomes a legal designation. No serious psychiatric diagnoses are applied to minors under 16 for legal reasons--not because it is impossible for someone at 14 and 15 to have a serious psychiatric disorder. It is very possible for someone to be a pedophile at 14 or 15 years old. They just have the luxury of not having a firm diagnosis until they reach 16.

Josh molested a 5 year old girl when he was 15 years old. There is your 5 year gap.

Why do they point out a 5 year gap? That is so a 15 year old boy is not charged with a sex offense for having a relationship with a 13 or 14 year old girl. Or that a 19 year old is not charged as a sex offender for having a relationship with a 16 year old girl. MOST IMPORTANTLY it is to show that the abuser is showing sexual interest in younger children---not in peers.

Here is some information about the scholarly debate regarding diagnosis of pedophilia:

The DSM-IV-TR criteria was criticized simultaneously for being over-inclusive, as well as under-inclusive.[65] Though most researchers distinguish between child molesters and pedophiles,[9][10][12][65] Studer and Aylwin argue that the DSM criteria are over-inclusive because all acts of child molestation warrant the diagnosis. A child molester satisfies criteria A because of the behavior involving sexual activity with prepubescent children and criteria B because the individual has acted on those urges.[65] Furthermore, they argue that it also is under-inclusive in the case of individuals who do not act upon it and are not distressed by it.[65] The latter point has also been made by several other researchers who have remarked that a so-called "contented pedophile"—an individual who fantasizes about having sex with a child and masturbates to these fantasies, but does not commit child sexual abuse, and who does not feel subjectively distressed afterward—does not meet the DSM-IV-TR criteria for pedophilia, because this person does not meet Criterion B.[12][66][67][68] A large-scale survey about usage of different classification systems showed that the DSM classification is only rarely used. As an explanation, it was suggested that the under-inclusiveness, as well as a lack of validity, reliability and clarity might have led to the rejection of the DSM classification.[11]

Note Josh meets both criteria because he acted upon his urges to have sexual activity with prepubescent children. This is the most serious indicator that a person is a pedophile, and the one indicator that cause medical professionals to confidently apply a diagnosis of pedophilia. Scholars are also a bit worried that pedophiles that do not act on urges are lumped in with the people that do. Diagnosis is tricky.

There is no evidence that pedophilia can be cured.[12] Instead, most therapies focus on helping the pedophile refrain from acting on their desires.[5][75] Some therapies do attempt to cure pedophilia, but there are no studies showing that they effect a long-term change in sexual preference.[76] Michael Seto suggests that attempts to cure pedophilia in adulthood are unlikely to succeed because its development is influenced by prenatal factors.[12] Fred Berlin, founder of the Johns Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic, believes that pedophilia may be no easier to alter than homosexuality or heterosexuality,[77] but that pedophiles can be helped to control their behavior, and future research could develop a method of prevention.[78]

Well, that is some sobering information about how difficult it is to cure pedophilia. I am pretty sure that a non-professional who cures people with hard work and bible passages does not have better success than the scientists who work on this. There is an extremely slim chance that Josh sexually abused 5 different children and then miraculously stopped having the urge to do so.

Oh here we go! Here is the passage that suggests that Josh may only be a child molester and not a pedophile:

The term pedophile is commonly used by the public to describe all child sexual abuse offenders.[6][10] This usage is considered problematic by researchers, because many child molesters do not have a strong sexual interest in prepubescent children, and are consequently not pedophiles.[9][10][12][65] There are motives for child sexual abuse that are unrelated to pedophilia,[74] such as stress, marital problems, the unavailability of an adult partner,[96] general anti-social tendencies, high sex drive, or alcohol use.[97] As child sexual abuse is not automatically an indicator that its perpetrator is a pedophile, offenders can be separated into two types: pedophilic and non-pedophilic[98] (or preferential and situational[7]). Estimates for the rate of pedophilia in detected child molesters generally range between 25% and 50%.[99] A 2006 study found that 35% of its sample of child molesters were pedophilic.[100] Pedophilia appears to be less common in incest offenders,[101] especially fathers and step-fathers.[102] According to a U.S. study on 2429 adult male sex offenders who were categorized as "pedophiles", only 7% identified themselves as exclusive; indicating that many or most child sexual abusers may fall into the non-exclusive category.[8]

I see. Only 25%-50% of child molesters are diagnosed as pedophiles. The other 50-75 percent of people who molest children are JUST ASSHOLES! I guess they just molest children because the children were available or because the molesters were having stress at work. Or maybe because the children were defrauding these poor non-pedophile child molesters! Of note: having a wife does not stop abusers from seeking out children.

BUt there is more:

there are generally large distinctions between the characteristics of pedophilic and non-pedophilic molesters. They state that non-pedophilic offenders tend to offend at times of stress; have a later onset of offending; and have fewer, often familial, victims, while pedophilic offenders often start offending at an early age; often have a larger number of victims who are frequently extrafamilial; are more inwardly driven to offend; and have values or beliefs that strongly support an offense lifestyle. One study found that pedophilic molesters had a median of 1.3 victims for those with girl victims and 4.4 for those with boy victims.[99] Child molesters, pedophilic or not, employ a variety of methods to gain sexual access to children. Some groom their victims into compliance with attention and gifts, while others use threats, alcohol or drugs, or physical force.[106]

Here we are getting to the nitty gritty of the difference between a mere child molester and a pedophile molester. HOWEVER I AM AT A LOSS TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE DIFFERENCE IS RELEVANT AT ALL< ESPECIALLY TO THE VICTIMS!!! I will say that Josh started abusing people at a young age, he has a higher than average number of victims--both clues he is in the pedophile camp. On the other hand, most of his victims (that we know of) are his sisters so there is a chance that he remains in the non-pedophile ASSHOLE camp. Those last two sentences scare me.

Finally, after reading all this, I wonder about Josh's stress levels. This might be a bad time for him to be anywhere near children. He needs to get himself to an actual treatment center.

So let me ask--why does it matter if he is an actual pedophile child molester or a non-pedophile asshole child molester? I don't get why one is worse than the other. Please explain.

[VineHeart137]

Josh meets this criteria.

Just wanted to point out, he actually doesn't, since we don't have the evidence to say that he is EXCLUSIVELY or PRIMARILY attracted to prepubescent children.

As far as why it makes a difference whether he's labelled an actual pedophile or a child molester (I don't think I saw anyone say one was worse than the other, BTW), personally I think when discussing this type of subject matter it is important to understand what you are talking about and use the proper terminology. Maybe that's just me?

[DeFrauder]

Just wanted to point out, he actually doesn't, since we don't have the evidence to say that he is EXCLUSIVELY or PRIMARILY attracted to prepubescent children.

As far as why it makes a difference whether he's labelled an actual pedophile or a child molester (I don't think I saw anyone say one was worse than the other, BTW), personally I think when discussing this type of subject matter it is important to understand what you are talking about and use the proper terminology. Maybe that's just me?

Only 7% of diagnosed pedophiles (according to wikipedia) are attracted only to children. The rest are (apparently) able to have attraction to adults as well as children. The article contradicts itself to a certain extent. Diagnosis is hard.

Someone actually did imply that one was worse than the other as I was criticized for calling Josh a pedophile rather than just a child molester and there was complaint that I was minimizing the harm that pedophiles do to their victims blah blah blah...

The fact is that they do the same thing and cause the same harm. The difference between the two terms only exists to facilitate classification.

[bucherwurm]

I think all of J and A's babies look a like. I think they look good over all. Josh looks tired, but hopefully it's because he was a big support to Anna and was taking care of the older kids so she can get some rest; other than that, I actually think he looks pretty good.

I hope for everyone's sake, including the innocent kids of Josh and Anna's, that whatever problems Josh had, have been managed. He really seems to love his kids, and I hope he gets sick at the thought of any one hurting them, including himself, and would do anything to protect them. I don't know if it's a popular opinion, but I believe Josh wanted help, and JB and M denied him for as long as they could. I blame JB and M for what happened way more than I blame Josh. I feel sorry for Josh. I hope Josh finally got what he needed and we don't have to worry about him or the kids.

[Full enough quiver]

I don't think Josh is a pedophile. I'm not defending him, I was a victim of molestation growing up, and I know what he did was terrible, but I really think it was more curiosity and lack of any appropriate outlet than attraction that led him to do it. I think this is the likely scenario- 14 year old, super sheltered fundie boy, who is mentally on the level of maybe your average 10-12 year old has normal sexual urges and is curious about the female body. He has been taught that these urges are horrible and wrong, and that he will go to hell if he acts on them. A normal boy would probably sneak pornography on the computer,maybe make out with a girl at youth group, or jerk off in the shower. He might talk to his friends about girls. Josh has none of these outlets, so, knowing full well how wrong it is, he touches his sisters. Overcome with guilt, he confesses to his parents. Instead of separating Josh from his siblings and getting the appropriate help for their son, they sweep it under the rug, and allow Josh's behavior to escalate until there are 5 victims, including a 5 year old. I don't know if Josh will offend against his own daughters. God, I hope not. I think it might be a good idea for a professional to talk to Mack, and any of the younger Duggar girls he may have had access to while visiting his family. I believe that now that he has his outlet in Anna, who has to do his bidding, he has no reason to go after young girls. For Mack and Merideth's sake, I hope I'm right.

[singsingsing]

I see FJ has another Certified Medical Professional. :roll:

Not only do we not have evidence that Josh is primarily attracted to prepubescent children, we don't have evidence that Josh is attracted to prepubescent children in any sense. Molestation does not necessarily spring from sexual attraction, and I think this claim is even more tenuous given his age and level of repression at the time of the offences.

If you think saying that there's no evidence that Josh is a pedophile (and there isn't) is the same as defending him, you're an idiot.

[bionicmlle]

DeFrauder: I'm really pleased you tried to do your research, there. You certainly did lots of quoting and probably a decent amount of reading. The trouble is that you missed the most important part of any diagnosis - interviewing the patient, gathering information from key family members and making observations of body language, defenses, behaviors over time, etc.... in a private and confidential setting in which one can be honest about their motivations, actions and fantasies.

I've said it before here, been criticized, but will say it again - it is incredibly damaging to Josh Duggar, his wife, his family and, indeed, his victims, to continue to give him a label of "pedophile" (or any other clinical diagnosis like depression, etc.) based on the tasty nuggets of information that are fed to the press.

[FullmoonOverDuggardWaters]

"You don't know where one monster starts and another ends".

...Quoting a Texas police detective in an article regarding the difference between child molesters and pedophiles.

If anyone wants an interesting read, I suggest; http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/05/10 ... pedophile/

--Not only does it mention that the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), defines pedophilia "as recurrent sexually arousing fantasies, impulsive desires, or behaviors involving sexual acts with a child and that occur over a period of at least six months." But it also classifies it. And takes a new look at the role of the brain in such cases. :geek:

[RosyDaisy]

Josh molested at least 5 young girls repeatedly. I'll leave the labeling to real professionals who have actually seen him as a patient. But, of course, that didn't happen, and probably never will.

[twinmama]

Anna and the baby look great... Josh looks like he's on an industrial-sized dose of Prozac and Valium.

No idea about Valium or what it does to you, but I'm on Prozac and it does NOTHING to my looks. Makes you feel like yourself instead of depressed or anxious.

[VelociRapture]

DeFrauder: I'm really pleased you tried to do your research, there. You certainly did lots of quoting and probably a decent amount of reading. The trouble is that you missed the most important part of any diagnosis - interviewing the patient, gathering information from key family members and making observations of body language, defenses, behaviors over time, etc.... in a private and confidential setting in which one can be honest about their motivations, actions and fantasies.

I've said it before here, been criticized, but will say it again - it is incredibly damaging to Josh Duggar, his wife, his family and, indeed, his victims, to continue to give him a label of "pedophile" (or any other clinical diagnosis like depression, etc.) based on the tasty nuggets of information that are fed to the press.

I agree. I give her credit for attempting to do some research.

My goodness! Pushing the issue are we? You should be ashamed for this lame excuse for protecting Josh. You are kinda sounding like J and M here. Really world, it was just some mild inappropriate touching, over the clothes except for the few times when it wasn't....

From the wikipedia article that was posted to "prove" how the definition does not apply to Josh:

lets go through that definition and the entire article for that matter:

Josh meets this criteria. From what we know, Josh initiated sexual contact with a minimum of 5 prepubescent girls. He didn't convince them to participate. He repeatedly snuck into their room at night and accosted them while they were sleeping! Notice they say generally? That is because children reach puberty at different ages. The point is that pedophilia is an interest in children that have not yet sexually developed. From what I understand all the victims we have been told about were under 12 and one was only 5. Correct me if I am wrong about their ages.

Here they point out that a prepubescent child could be as old as 13. What this sentence means is that it can STILL be pedophilia if the victim is as old as 13. Don't NOT DIAGNOSE as pedophilia if the victim is 13. We are not DIAGNOSING anyway---that is what medical professionals do. That sentence was an instruction to medical professionals. We are snarking and putting 2 and 2 together.

Again, an instruction for medical professionals. A psychiatric diagnosis becomes a legal designation. No serious psychiatric diagnoses are applied to minors under 16 for legal reasons--not because it is impossible for someone at 14 and 15 to have a serious psychiatric disorder. It is very possible for someone to be a pedophile at 14 or 15 years old. They just have the luxury of not having a firm diagnosis until they reach 16.

Josh molested a 5 year old girl when he was 15 years old. There is your 5 year gap.

Why do they point out a 5 year gap? That is so a 15 year old boy is not charged with a sex offense for having a relationship with a 13 or 14 year old girl. Or that a 19 year old is not charged as a sex offender for having a relationship with a 16 year old girl. MOST IMPORTANTLY it is to show that the abuser is showing sexual interest in younger children---not in peers.

Here is some information about the scholarly debate regarding diagnosis of pedophilia:

Note Josh meets both criteria because he acted upon his urges to have sexual activity with prepubescent children. This is the most serious indicator that a person is a pedophile, and the one indicator that cause medical professionals to confidently apply a diagnosis of pedophilia. Scholars are also a bit worried that pedophiles that do not act on urges are lumped in with the people that do. Diagnosis is tricky.

Well, that is some sobering information about how difficult it is to cure pedophilia. I am pretty sure that a non-professional who cures people with hard work and bible passages does not have better success than the scientists who work on this. There is an extremely slim chance that Josh sexually abused 5 different children and then miraculously stopped having the urge to do so.

Oh here we go! Here is the passage that suggests that Josh may only be a child molester and not a pedophile:

I see. Only 25%-50% of child molesters are diagnosed as pedophiles. The other 50-75 percent of people who molest children are JUST ASSHOLES! I guess they just molest children because the children were available or because the molesters were having stress at work. Or maybe because the children were defrauding these poor non-pedophile child molesters! Of note: having a wife does not stop abusers from seeking out children.

BUt there is more:

Here we are getting to the nitty gritty of the difference between a mere child molester and a pedophile molester. HOWEVER I AM AT A LOSS TO UNDERSTAND WHY THE DIFFERENCE IS RELEVANT AT ALL< ESPECIALLY TO THE VICTIMS!!! I will say that Josh started abusing people at a young age, he has a higher than average number of victims--both clues he is in the pedophile camp. On the other hand, most of his victims (that we know of) are his sisters so there is a chance that he remains in the non-pedophile ASSHOLE camp. Those last two sentences scare me.

Finally, after reading all this, I wonder about Josh's stress levels. This might be a bad time for him to be anywhere near children. He needs to get himself to an actual treatment center.

So let me ask--why does it matter if he is an actual pedophile child molester or a non-pedophile asshole child molester? I don't get why one is worse than the other. Please explain.

DeFrauder, I give you credit for attempting to do your research here. Some posters wouldn't have attempted. However, as other posters have said you are missing several big points:

1. We have no way of knowing whether or not Josh is exclusively or primarily sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children. Nor do we know if his assaults on the victims were fueled by being sexually attracted to them or if they were fueled by a combination of curiosity and no safe way of satisfying that curiosity.

2. We do not know this because we do not know, with 100% certainty, if Josh were ordered into real therapy sessions by a Judge. Even if he were mandated to attend sessions, there is no way to know what he may or may not have discussed - due to Doctor-patient confidentiality. The media would not have been allowed to legally obtain those records.

3. To go off that point, if Josh did attend therapy sessions and we did somehow know what was discussed we still wouldn't know with any certainty if he was being fully honest or not. He was raised in a family that taught him not to discuss such things with anyone other than his parents or a Church Elder. We have no way of knowing if he would have been completely honest and open about his motivations in such a setting.

4. You are not Josh Duggar's Doctor or Therapist. Therefore, you ARE NOT qualified to say whether or not he is a Pedophile. ONLY a licensed Medical Professional who has personally worked with and evaluated Josh Duggar according to the requirements set by the DSM-V can do so.

5. No one has said that being a Pedophile is worse than being a Child Molester. Both have the capability to cause massive amounts of harm to innocent children.

On another note: You should be ashamed of accusing nellie of defending Josh. Based off this conversation, I have not seen one post where she has done so. Disagreeing with you regarding this specific subject does not mean any poster on here is agreeing with what Josh did or defending him. What it means is we are simply attempting to get you to understand that no one on this site (including you) is qualified to diagnose him as a Pedophile.

As to why this distinction is relevant - I think you answered that yourself:

there are generally large distinctions between the characteristics of pedophilic and non-pedophilic molesters. They state that non-pedophilic offenders tend to offend at times of stress; have a later onset of offending; and have fewer, often familial, victims, while pedophilic offenders often start offending at an early age; often have a larger number of victims who are frequently extrafamilial; are more inwardly driven to offend; and have values or beliefs that strongly support an offense lifestyle. One study found that pedophilic molesters had a median of 1.3 victims for those with girl victims and 4.4 for those with boy victims.[99] Child molesters, pedophilic or not, employ a variety of methods to gain sexual access to children. Some groom their victims into compliance with attention and gifts, while others use threats, alcohol or drugs, or physical force.[106]

Knowing which camp Josh actually falls into (pedophilic or non-pedophilic) is crucial to helping to understand why he did what he did - they have different reasons and motivations for assaulting their victims. It is also crucial in knowing whether Josh is still a risk to children and it is crucial in preventing any potential assaults from occurring in the future. Simply slapping a label on him because you're angry about the situation (rightfully so) and it sounds ugly is not going to help matters or solve anything.

[RosyDaisy]

I would like to take a moment to say that antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds have helped millions of people live normal lives when taken as prescribed.

As for Josh, I don't care how he looks or how much stress he's under. I have no sympathy for him at all. I'm worried about his kids.

[VelociRapture]

I would like to take a moment to say that antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds have helped millions of people live normal lives when taken as prescribed.

As for Josh, I don't care how he looks or how much stress he's under. I have no sympathy for him at all. I'm worried about his kids.

Thank you for saying that. I just stopped taking anti-depressants for my moderate depression and (at times severe) anxiety. I can't even begin to explain how worthless and sub-human I feel when I read uninformed comments regarding what these medications make you look like, act like, or feel like. Feeding into those stereotypes can cause immense damage to those of us who struggle with mental illness every single day.

I really wish people would take a moment to think about what they're saying before they push submit. . .

[wotdancer]

Thank you for saying that. I just stopped taking anti-depressants for my moderate depression and (at times severe) anxiety. I can't even begin to explain how worthless and sub-human I feel when I read uninformed comments regarding what these medications make you look like, act like, or feel like. Feeding into those stereotypes can cause immense damage to those of us who struggle with mental illness every single day.

I really wish people would take a moment to think about what they're saying before they push submit. . .

I hope you are able to manage health without your meds! I've been on antidepressants for about 5 years, though very few people in my life know about it. I hope any Duggars who need help with their mental health are allowed (dare I hope "encouraged"!) to seek it.

[DGayle]

Second "am I the only one" question:

Am I the only person who doesn't think poor blessing Meredith was named after Viera? Maybe Josh and Anna were just inspired by her name, loved it and that's all? After all, you wouldn't give your child ANY name just to flatter a celebrity.

I think they're desperate enough, both being unemployed, that I can't put it past them to name Meredith after Viera, hoping for more appearances and money.