There was another thread a few months ago that I contributed to. I am going to repeat the same post, as I don't have the heart to add anything just now:
This subject has concerned me greatly, as I have lost 3 friends, 2 of them dear friends who I miss greatly, to suicide in the past few years. I have come to believe that the ridiculous policies and characteristics of the religion itself were largely responsible. This has occurred in two adjoining congregations located about 40 miles apart in rural midwest US, each with about 100-120 publishers.
The first was in 2007-2008. Elder and wife, mid 50's, children at the age of moving out, wanted to go into the Spanish speaking work. The Society and Witness culture - you know what I am talking about- influenced them to sell their house and serve temporarily in the Dominican Republic, with the idea of immersing themselves in the language to learn it better. After 6 months they returned broke and he was literally burned out, as they had him giving virtually every meeting part, in Spanish yet. Also he had been taking an anti-depressant, and without health insurance he decided he could do without it. He had returned to the home congregation for a few months before they were going to serve in a Spanish speaking congregation in the US southeast. He killed himself on a cold weekday afternoon in March. I think about him virtually every day, as he was at my house in the weeks before they went to the DR, and I got the feeling he wanted to talk about it, but I didn't take the time to sit down with him. It haunts me to this day and I have since resolved to never again let such an opportunity pass. He was an active elder in good standing at the time of his death.
The second was in 2009. A sister with a great deal of intelligence and drive, was unhappy with being a 'Stepford' witness wife... she liked to work and was of the type who should have gone to college and find a measure of fulfilment in a career. Her teenage son was disfellowshipped. She wanted desperately to move out of the area and start something different. She got an appartment 80 miles away and separated from her husband. She overdosed in the spring of '09. She was not actively associating at the time, but was not disfellowshipped. She was a dear friend and I thought the world of her.
The third was in 2010. An active ministerial servant, married with young children, took his own life. Depression over losing his job, starting a different job with lower pay, prospect of losing his house, perhaps other reasons I do not know about, as I did not know him really well.
I have not given any names or exact locations because, in agreement with the previous poster, we need to think about the surviving family and children, who would be pained to see their loved one's name pop up on a google search in this context.
