George is right. Prescriptions for antidepressant medication have risen exponentially in the general population over the years. I do not have the precise statistics on hand, but remember reading in a medical survey in New Zealand that as high as one in three adolescents and young adults are on some form of prescription psychotropic medication (for mental health issues).
Subpopulation figures are a matter of speculation and no amount of resorting to anecdotal reports helps ascertain whether JWs as a group are more likely than other groups - or the general population - to be on psychotropic medication. Yes, it could be that JWs are just more open about it (at least to their confidants).
In my line of work, I see all kinds of people on antidepresants, including fundamentalist Christians (which includes those who refer to themselves as Born Again Christians or Pentecostals or Evangelicals). It sometimes irks me when posters imply there is something about the Watchtower that causes people to become depressed and take medication. I feel like saying "Wake up and look around you!" Life in general is tough. The Watchtower is just a different kind of tough, among many, many, many kinds of tough.
Besides, the Watchtower's messages tends to "appeal" to people who could have a propensity for depression. Certainly, happy people are not be as attracted to the witnesses promise of a colgate-smiling, plastic pradise earth as perhaps desperately unhappy people would be.
In the days when the witnesses were much more successful at bringing new people into the religion, my impression was that many of the people who studied with the witnesses were even then significantly battered and bruised from their life up until that point. To then suggest the Watchtower caused what was already present is a bit rich in my opinion. Moreover, in some countries, JWs continue to be oppressed by the governments or state religions. If it somehow turns out JWs in these countries are more depressed, why blame the Watchtower? Wouldn't it make more sense to consider the oppressive secular regimes?
The poster's impressions about the high unemployment rate among JWs could have some validity. The unskilled and semi-skilled easily outnumber skilled workers in the ranks of the unemployed. If JWs were overly-represented among the unemployed I'd suggest the prime factor would be that the world has way too many window cleaners already. Solution: Upskill. Go to college, university...oh, the Watchtower frowns upon higher education. Okay. Line up for the dole then...
