suicide

by zeb 41 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Pete Zahut

  In the 25+ years that I attended my last congregation, there was only one person baptized who did not grow up as a JW. He had a pony tail and tattoos, was a biker and drug user and was exposed to "the truth" when he hooked up with a DF'd woman who had grown up as a JW. She made a comeback and talked him into studying. He was baptized and eventually progressed to the point of becoming a Ministerial Servant and was constantly trotted out a assemblies as an example of the good effect becoming a JW can have on a person. A few years later he put a gun to his head and ended his own life.

  Another young guy we knew who grew up as a JW and was currently active and in good standing and seemed to have everything going for him, mysteriously ingested a bunch of pills and didn't survive. The general JW consensus was that he was gay and couldn't take the guilt of breaking gods law and living a double life

  Another 40 something brother in our congregation was found hanging by a belt from the bannisters of the stairway in his house. A year or two previously, his JW wife (born in) suddenly divorced him and took the kids and left the religion altogether. No one was DF'd and no announcement was made as a result of the divorce, so everyone was left wondering what the problem was. After his death it became public knowledge that he was found wearing women's clothing and it was said that his death was due to erotic asphyxiation.

  Can't help but think that these suicides could have been prevented if these individuals had been certain that confidentiality would have been assured and they wouldn't have been publically shamed if they'd have talked to someone about their problems.
  
• 

  Sail Away

  Two suicides-- one a mentally impaired young man who said good-bye to everyone and gave away his most prized possessions at the meeting earlier that night. If the elders actually had some training, they could have seen the signs. The second, the shunned son of an elder and his pioneer mother, parked in his car in front of their home. He left a note saying he couldn't bare to knock on the door and be sent away again. When the mother died of cancer many years later, they didn't even mention that she had two sons, only a "sister that was like a daughter to her." The bastards deleted them from her life.

  One probable suicide-- a young man on his motorcycle the night it was announced that he was DF'd.

  Two attempts-- one a recently divorced DF'd elder, shunned by his P.O. father and cold-hearted elderette mother (daughter of an "annointed" colporter). She literally said to me that her son "didn't deserve to be in paradise". The second, my own son, but thankfully, I found him in time. I walked away a year later when they DF'd him for not getting his act together soon enough. I wasn't about to kick him to the curb and shun him.
• 

  Schnufti

  Two.

  One was a beautiful mother towards her 50s. She was in mental hospital, but went to the summer convention. I saw her walking around and smiling. Two days later she was dead.

  Another one was a brother I met at bethel. I didn't know him well and he wasn't at bethel anymore when he killed himself. He was married and a father.
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  sparrowdown

  Yep a lovely quiet unassuming brother topped himself.

  They refused the funeral in the hall - of course they did! Blamed him for being so selfish then carried on like nothing happened. Heartless bastards!
• 

  wozza

  First JW person was my mother in law, cancer, breast removed still in a bad way 2 years later ,as she was diabetic her wounds would not heal . She asked to talk to me privately one day while dressing her wounds,this was some time before i became a jw. Asked me what she should do because of the pain and misery , I asked if talking to her elders would help and she explained what their view was .Yet she wanted and trusted my view. and as I finished cleaning her wounds I suggested that if she stopped the insulin it could be seen as life running it's course .I told my wife and her sister what had transpired .they stayed that night as she gently drifted into a coma and passed away with dignity not what the elders told her . I miss her conversations it's been over fourty years now since she passed and 1975 .the release she hoped for did'nt come.

  Another person was a teenager from a congo near me at the time in Queensland Australia. I used to do some building work with a brother in law and his gang of workers. He was JW and some of his young workers were too .but not all. One day travelling up the freeway to a job in his truck with the gang I saw a young man come out the bush alongside the road looking strange and distressed and I pointed this out to the brother in law who tried to ignore my plea to stop. Well one of the guys recognised the teenager and said so but this still did'nt prompt the brother in law to stop and we continued to go down the road to work.

  On the news that night it was reported a teenager walked out into the highway traffic at the spot we saw him .I felt sick and we talked about it at work the next day , As it turned out the teenager was part of a group of kids in the nearby Kingdom hall to me who had been molested over the years by a JW man who used to take the kids from the hall on "private " bible studies in the bush . How do I know this ? The young man who recognised him from in our car was one of the boys who had been molested also - he was distressed beyond belief, he never spoke about it again as he did'nt attend meetings. much like the other victims.

  I moved away soon after but to this day I am angry at the brother in law who would not stop .But when I think about it good won't come from bad ,he molested his wifes sister when she was 12 and that girl had his baby and yet she never left him and his JW once an Elder father is a child molestor ,still in.
  
• 

  EyesOpenHeartBroken

  OMG...8 I knew personally, and 2 more people I heard about but didn’t know them personally. And I am not that old!

  Every story was heartbreaking and terrible. All but 3 had a KH memorial.
• 

  Holden Caufield

  Had a few I knew that had thoughts
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  smiddy3

  zeb

  I knew two that committed suicide and the topic has been covered before even going back as far as 15 years ago I believe.

  Their was also a brother in Bethel Brooklyn that commited suicide many,many years ago that was hushed up
• 

  scratchme1010

  Who among us has known a jw who has committed suicide. I believe this as a separate subject has not been covered.
  

  Not personally. However, I know of some who have attempted suicide. Also, a friend of mine who is a psychologist has commented that he has seen a few JWs who have been in different stages of the suicide spectrum, from entertaining the idea, to planning, to attempting it.

  It is real and a sad reality.

  Personally I've never been suicidal. I've been homicidal, though.
• 

  Acluetofindtheuser

  I have witnessed 5 in my life time. Four of them were JW's. They were all men. The non-JW was indirectly effected by the elder arrangement that caused his suicide.

  A JW buddy of mine, who is on the fringes like me, believes the memorial services for these people are not allowed in the KH because the leadership doesn't want to admit that it's a problem within the organization.

  The more suicides I hear about in this circle of mine makes me more angry at the organization.