SUICIDE – MIND WORKS !

Life is a wonderful thing. Some people say it is a gift to us by god or a gift in itself. But what happens when the gift becomes too much to handle? Why does it become that way? Suicide is probably one of the few acts where the victim is seen to be suffering less than the survivors. They are left riddled with question of why? How? And questioning every action of theirs in order to understand whether anything at all could have made a difference to the person. The answer to this is sometimes yes and sometimes no! But, before going into that, we need to know a lot more about suicide than we know now.

What is suicide?

Suicide is simply defined as the act of taking one’s life. But it’s bigger and much more complex as the act is a mere end with a whole set of events preceding it. The factors that contribute to suicide are many, some yet unknown but the ones that actually result in a higher rate of suicide are : depression (clinical or depression due to some life event), loss of a loved one or stress due to social or economical factors.

Before I go in detail, explaining these factors let us understand what exactly is depression?

Depression is a “mood” or a state of being where one feels sad, helpless and has highly negative ideas or feelings towards everything in one’s life. Everybody feels this way at some point or the other in their life for short periods of time. So, when does it become a concern? A problem to be looked into, handled? It is, when it ceases to be a mood and becomes a part of one’s thought process or perception in life. It is at this stage that it becomes “clinical depression”. It may be due to recent events in one’s life , or genetic psychological disorders. Depression is a health condition, it is not always something that people make up in their minds or can will away whenever they want.Our mind or brain governs our emotions, our hormones rule our mood and it these hormones that when not in proper balance cause symptoms of clinical depression in people.  For some people, sugar levels in their blood remain at a perpetual low at all times, producing them a feeling of restlessness , agitation and a sense of doom which is  characterized by increased heart rate due to the adrenaline rush. This over the years, turns into anxiety or depression.

 

What are the other factors?

Depression is the clinical reason for suicide, though it is widely agreed by scientists that depression alone cannot result in suicide until some particular event occurs. It is often termed as the “precipitating event” in forensic analysis of suicide victims. These events might be loss of a loved one, social pressure such as the need to excel in exams, sports, etc or economic factors such as poverty, loss of employment, excessive debt.

What can be done?

Suicide attempts , every one in seven times are a cry for help or attention. Expression of one’s depressed feeling is said to be the same. So when you find somebody is really feeling down for more than a month, and talks about how easy it would be end it even as a joke, please be on the alert.

Sometimes, people with suicidal thoughts actually act the opposite outside by being overtly happy, hyperactive, etc. These are signs of denial and also that the person is actually considering committing the act real soon since they are trying to divert everybody’s attention.

“Did you really want to die?"
"No one commits suicide because they want to die."
"Then why do they do it?"
"Because they want to stop the pain.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo, How to Kill a Rock Star

The only thing that can be probably done is that the signs can be recognized earlier, helped can be sought instead of trying to handle the situation on our own. For people with depression, it is highly imperative that they get medical care, therapy and counseling because it is not easy to overcome depression without a lot of help. It is time that the stigma about therapy and taking medicines for depression(with the consult of a doctor) is taken away so that fewer people suffer from these ailments when there is a possibility of reducing the pain without necessarily ending one’s life.

But, when it comes to cases where the precipitating event is social or economic, it is time that there is a change of attitude in people. Our society, presently, has lost all meaning of priorities and has lost its way in its quest to achieve “happiness” in life. The suicide rate among the people in their early 20’s to mid 30’s has increased drastically. Experts agree we owe it to the fact there is constant pressure on people to be the best, to achieve in the materialistic sense than an overall growth which leads to an unhealthy attitude on what is important in life. Media portrayal of suicide has to also change, they have to be condemned but not stigmatized. Parents, friends and society need to take a long look at what is happening before judging or deciding somebody else’s life without knowing the whole story.

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
― Seneca

Let’s all join to make the act of living feel like a beautiful sunrise than walking into a war field so that the count of “soldiers..down” goes down.

If you know anybody who might be suicidal :

Pls contact the hotlines listed in the following link :

http://www.suicide.org/hotlines/international/india-suicide-hotlines.html

-Wanna-be-Savant