Social isolation. Unloving shunning.
Suicide rates jump 50% amongst young people number one cause.
by Yomama 8 Replies latest jw friends
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Rocketman123
Yes this is one of the causative results of the shunning practice orchestrated by the JWS religious cult.
Doesn't get mentioned enough in my opinion.
Just heard of another young woman (JWS) who took her life indirectly caused by the JWS cult that she got involved in.
The JWS religious cult does cause psychological harm in many various ways to people.
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mynameislame
I got lucky when I was a JW, there were loads of young people in my hall so that I could pick and choose who to be friends with, and my dad was an elder so I was automatically on the nice list.
I can't imagine how it would be for someone with limit choices.
Someone once said, (it might have even been on this site), the best way to get the JWs to stop contacting you is to get baptized then become discouraged or depressed.
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minimus
Where is this information from, what source?
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LongHairGal
YOMAMA:
I know of more than one suicide among JWs. The most recent one I heard of was not because of shunning since the person was in ‘good standing’. Also, this was not exactly a young person either.
While nobody can know exactly what went through this person’s mind - I wonder if it had something to do with the beliefs and the end of the world talk.
I agree with what many feel that the unloving practice of shunning can contribute to this. I experienced shunning to some degree by JWs since I was in the workforce full time but this had no effect on my self esteem as it might on a born-in person..I cannot imagine my formative years filled with the dreadful talk of destruction and Armageddon.
How healthy could this possibly be?
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Rocketman123
I cannot imagine my formative years filled with the dreadful talk of destruction and Armageddon.
Yes I would have to agree with that LHG
I knew of a JWS about 14 who hung himself in a garage behind a Kingdom Hall back in the early 1970's , about my age at the time.
It was assumed that all the talk and propagation of Armageddon coming in 1975 drove him to level of anxiety and depression.
At the time there was condemnation of the mental health profession by the WTS so his JWS parents refrained from taking him to seek psychiatric help for this young teenager.
Some years latter on another JWS friend of mind also took his own life out the fear and depression instigated by the WTS and its Armageddon soon doctrine.
The list of people who I knew through being a JWS myself and in association with others is disturbingly long.
Unfortunately people (JWS) who die this way doesn't get the attention as those who die from not taking a blood transfusion in the media.
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Vidiot
This shouldn't really be all that surprising.
There's a reason banishment was a common form of punishment for violent crimes amongst ancient people...
...most of us nowadays don't realize that to those selfsame people, banishment was - for all intents and purposes - a death sentence.
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Disillusioned JW
The topic thread's title of 'Suicide rates jump 50% amongst young people number one cause" does not single out JWs, but instead sounds like a general news headline of articles I have read. I am thus approaching this thread from that broader topic, rather than one related spefically to the effects of shunning.
I am puzzled why suicide rates have increased so dramatically among young people. Some articles seem to suggest that it is because so many young people today are non-religious and don't believe a god (any kind of god) exists, but I don't see why being non-religious and not believing a god exists would have that effect for so many people and lead to them committing suicide. Yes it means that they would not believe a god would come to their aid and solve their problems, but many seem to become so depressed from thinking that there is no purpose/meaning in life.
For me, disbelief in the existence of God (or a god) is empowering and it means that if there was no predetermined purpose/meaning assigned to me by a god/creator, then it gives me the freedom to decide for myself what my purpose will be and what meaning I want to get out of life. For me that is a relief and a pleasant/nice idea.
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Disillusioned JW
minimus, though possibly none of the following are the source to the claim of "Suicide rates jump 50% amongst young people number one cause" they do seem to have basically the same message. They are:
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/youth-suicide-rate-rises-56-in-decade-cdc-says-11571284861
- https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/suicides-homicides-rise-young-people-n1067786
The NBC article says in the part the following;
'No one knows exactly why the suicide rates are rising among the young. But experts have theories. Chief among them is the heavy use of social media among children, teens and young adults.
Dr. Igor Galynker believes social media plays an important role, especially for girls. “It’s known that girls are bullied online more than boys,” said Galynker, a professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine and director of the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Suicide Research Laboratory in New York City.
What’s more, studies have shown that the amount of screen time “is associated with increased rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation,” Galynker said.
Bullying isn’t the only destructive factor, said Caroline Oppenheimer, a suicide researcher and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
“We know that the teenage brain is very sensitive to peer feedback and social valuation and now with social media you can check your social status 24/7: how many followers you have, how many comments your post has gotten and how many likes,” Oppenheimer said. “We know both girls and boys are heavily invested in monitoring social media. They get distressed when they don’t get a lot of likes or positive feedback.”
Not all teens are harmed by negative feedback on social media, Oppenheimer said: “It’s the vulnerable ones who are very sensitive to social evaluation.” '
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/youth-suicide-rates-are-on-the-rise-in-the-u-s
The PBS article says in part "Between 2000 and 2007, the suicide rate among youth ages 10 to 24 hovered around 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Then, the rate curved upward, reaching a rate of 10.6 deaths per 100,000 by 2017 — a 56-percent increase in less than two decades."