A MINEHEAD woman who refused to seek medical help for her depression was found hanging from the top of her shower door.

Jehovah's Witness Sharron Attree was discovered in her Blenheim Road flat by her boyfriend James Reed on December 4 last year.

An inquest in Minehead on Tuesday heard that the 38-year-old found it hard to cope with disappointments in life, such as job rejections or disagreements with friends.

Mr Reed told the hearing: "She tended to get very upset and would say her life was not worth living."

Mr Reed said he and Ms Attree, who had been due to get married in April, had met through friends while she was living in Exeter.

She moved to Minehead - a town she had previously lived in - last year.

Mr Reed said that, when she still lived in Exeter, Ms Attree had threatened to take her own life, prompting him to send an ambulance to her home.

Just over a week before her death, the couple were at a farm in Exford where Mr Reed was helping a friend move a car onto a trailer.

Ms Attree had got in the way and he asked her to move, which upset her: "She got in a bit of a huff and walked off," said Mr Reed.

"I went to find her and she was up a lane."

Mr Reed said he started to drive her back to Minehead but the arguments began again and she asked to be dropped off in Exford.

He did this but after a few minutes thought he had better go back and pick her up, which he did.

However, Mr Reed said, the next time he saw Ms Attree, at a Jehovah's Witness meeting in Minehead, she ignored him.

She went on to ignore text messages he sent her over the next few days.

On the day of her death, he sent her another text which, again, was ignored.

He tried phoning her but her phone was switched off.

After contacting a mutual friend, Vicky Wilkinson, to see if she knew where Ms Attree was, Mr Reed said he decided to go round to her flat. He found her in the bathroom.

Mr Reed said he had tried on several occasions to get Ms Attree to "get diagnosed" for her problems: "But the more I insisted, the more she refused," he said.

"You could tell a lot of the time that there was something deeply wrong with her."

Ms Wilkinson told the inquest that she had known Ms Attree for eight years.

She said that at one stage she had told her she wondered whether Mr Reed loved her because she was worried about the arguments they had.

Shortly before her death, Ms Attree had been on a diet and eating only fruit: "I was worried about her because I felt it affected her mood and didn't help."

Ms Wilkinson said the last time she saw Ms Attree was after a Jehovah's Witness meeting the day before her death when she had "frozen out" Mr Reed.

"It was very upsetting to see," she said.

"We were supposed to be going back to her flat to have something to eat together but she didn't want to.

"So she dropped me off at my house and that was the last time I saw her.

"She wouldn't go and see a doctor. She would not go and talk about her depression."

West Somerset coroner Michael Rose said it was a tragic case.

"I only wish she had sought medical advice. There are so many treatments on offer and all forms of depression can be cured.

"I have no doubt she had strong suicidal intentions."

Mr Rose recorded a verdict that Ms Attree took her own life while the balance of her mind was disturbed and that the cause of death was hanging.