Posts by Jeff Davies

9

EX JW art

by aintenoughwiskey in

best use yet for old light.

i have no vested interest in her art venture, just an fyi her name is sarah riches hall.

in australia.. .

Jehovah's Witness / ex-JW Suicide Rate?

by Simon in

it's no secret that both remaining a jw or leaving the wts can take a toll on mental health.

some will suffer from depression and ultimately some will have thoughts of suicide and a few will succumb to those.. but i don't recall ever seeing any hard stats or studies on it though.

i'm sure we all know of some people who have committed suicide but i don't know if, because you may have loose association with a much larger pool of people through the religion, that this only seems higher or maybe not be actually higher than the general population.. what i mean is, you go to a kh here there maybe 100-150 people, you attend circuit and district conventions with many tens of thousands - if any one person commits suicide then you likely hear about it and it becomes part of the anecdotal 'evidence' that is then put forward as a fact that there is a higher rate ... but is there?.

Jeff Davies

Hurts me to say but my little sister was brought up a JW (as was I) and took her life 6 years ago this Christmas. She was in her early 20’s.

I have no doubt that this upbring was a major contributing factor to her death although I have never said this to my parents. She was always looking for something as soon as she stopped going to the Kingdom Hall and studied various different religions.

Whether there is a higher suicide rate from ex JW's I actually doubt though... it takes a lot of strength of character to leave everything you know behind; not the actions of a person who gives up the fight easily.