How Suicide Will Increase Among Jehovah's Witnesses

by metatron 57 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Mr. Kim

  There comes a point in life where people must make a decision for themselves. People that have been led, fed and died for the benefit of the WTB&TS have never exercised FREE WILL and critical thinking. Many have chosen to keep their collective mouths shut and have turned a BLIND eye to the corruption, hypocrisy and obvious BS spewing forth from the elders. Is it the sheep being led to some unknown slaughter? Who will be the ultimate benefactor? What a darn shame! Perhaps suicide is the answer for the weak or for the ones that HAVE ALLOWED others to suffer when THEY could have stood up to the watchtower BEAST and help save the innocent.

  JUSTICE comes in many forms and unfortunately, the innocent will also suffer.
• 

  LDH

  Two examples would be the first 2 posters replying to this thread.

  LOL! ROFL!!!!

  Silent,

  I'm going to see if I can find any articles regarding this "fallacy of sunk costs" in layman's terms to be sent to you-know-who. Did you get my email?

  Lisa
• 

  Shawn10538

  An incredibly insightful post. Thank you Melatron, whoever you are! I am not a psychologist either, but I did read Whe Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, and what you are describing is exactly what occurred in the flying saucer cult that Festinger based his studies on. The technical term for what is happening is Cognitive Dissonance. As Witnesses experience dissonance in their lives between what they see and observe with their waking minds and what they are fed by the FDS, the only way to rid oneself of this dissonance is to respond by increasing one's commitment, especially in terms of effort in the preaching work, since nothing alleviates cognitive dissonance quite so well as converting another human being to your way of thinking.

  I am personally satisfied as I see my family members committing themselves deeper and deeper in response to my regular sometimes subtle but other times not so subtle comments on inconsistencies in the WT. I know that eventually, everyones bubble bursts and they just burn out from exhaustion. It is very exhausting having to carry around an arsenal of denial and self-deception just so your fragile little social world won't breal apart into a million little pieces.

  The fear of the personal Holocaust that will certainly occur if one "falls out of the truth" is really a reasonable fear since few families survive intact when one member decides enough is enough. Marriages, brothers, sisters all explode in a fiery ball crashing to the earth. When all is said and done, it is a rebuilding project that few are prepared and capable to undertake. Many just crawl into the bushes and die so to speak. They may reappear later or they may just stay missing. They may be homeless, take up substance abuse, commit suicide or become criminals. I met a man not long ago who did just that. He told me he was a Bethel elder in the 70s, and has lived on the streets since he came back from Bethel over 20 years ago. He can't stand the thought of rejoining society even still. He has been in prison many times for petty offences, but for him there will be no rehabilitation. He'll likely die on the streets. He always has enough energy to harass the local Witnesses though, and this is a funny sight to see.
• 

  jwfacts

  I personally know a number of JW's that have committed suicide. There were quite a few unsuccessful attempts as well. A couple suicided after being d/f, but in general those that get through the first couple of years say they are far happier than when in the WTS.
• 

  candidlynuts

  i know of a few jw's that commited suicide, one being an elder.

  one thing that always scared me was my ex asked me once, if the world got too "bad" wouldnt it be better to kill all of us and let us wake up in paradiase? that kind of questioning sends chills down my spine. how many jw's thinking runs in directions like that?
• 

  luna2

  at what point does this turn into a form of suicide?

  This was my life. I was depressed, I had no health insurance, I had no extra money (was living paycheck to paycheck), and I was having major health issues. I didn't want to go to a doctor because I had no money and didn't want to end up in bankruptcy (if I had cancer or something). I didn't know how sick I was and didn't want to find out. I figured it would be better if I died. Armageddy would be coming soon anyway, right?

  I chose to do something completely out of character and move away from an area I really liked in order to go with my parents when they bought a business in CT. My thinking was that if I croaked, at least I'd be with relatives who could take care of my kids til their father got there and there'd be somebody to handle funeral arrangements. Nice, huh? I didn't talk to anybody about this at all, just let it fester inside of me. Talk about a mess!

  Certainly, some of this stupidity was based my own personality, but a lot of it was due to deep depression and the fatalistic attitude that I developed as a JW.
• 

  gumby

  I'm not too sure as to the reasoning behind WHY there will be an "increase" in suicides amoung Jehovah's Witnesses.

  When I was a dub, higher education was for loser, materialistic, worldly minded, weak witnesses. Very few at least in my area ever went to college. One brother did and he viewed as a wordly witness by all others. Today, I see dubs more liberal minded ( at least in my area), as repects to education and better paying jobs. Most of the dubs in my wifes hall do well financially, have there own buisness, are building and selling homes for profit etc.

  The last congregation I attended for 16 years in Arizona (wickenburg) I remember of only one suicide....(and if you had to live with the poors guys wife like he did, you'd gas yourself as he did...or go nuts) In my wifes current congregation I personally know of no suicides and we've been here also for 16 years here in California. There may be suicides I didn't know about however.

  One thing I will say....I've never seen a sect of people who have the mental anquish witnesses have. Depression is high, many on medication etc., gossiping always high as usual.

  Apathy amoung witnesses is very high for those who have been in for a long while as no New System has arrived as promised.

  My viewpoint may be way off base as compared to others in various areas, but I told it as I see it here.

  Gumby

  Most JW's are "the walking dead", no matter what they say or how they act at the hall. It's just a mask. They are all afraid to speak their doubts since they don't want to be DF'd.
• 

  Think

  The price to be paid for belonging to CULT.