“When they have no interest in living anymore, when they feel no other options left, when they cannot find any apparent reason to continue living, they die by suicide.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that each year approximately one million people die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of one death in every 40 seconds. It is predicted that by the end of 2020 the rate of death will increase to one in every 20 seconds. In the last 45 years suicide rate has increased by 60% worldwide.
Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 (male and female). Almost everyone of us in our lives go through the phase of tending to commit suicide. Many of us find a way out while rest will end up dying by suicide. But what makes them to take their own lives?
It is awful to imagine what led a friend, family member, loved one, or a celebrity to commit suicide. It is often an act made during a storm of strong emotions and life’s stresses rather than after careful consideration.
Mental illness and depression lead among the main reasons which drive the person to self-immolation. Depression can make people feel great emotional pain and loss of hope, making them unable to see another way to relieve the pain other than ending their life.
Mental illness like “schizophrenia” is something in which patients interpret life abnormally. “Bipolar disorder” is an illness in which a person experiences alternating periods of high and low moods.
“Traumatic experience” is something like, childhood trauma, rape, war trauma, physical and sexual abuse etc. “Consumption of drugs” is one such thing which makes a person with
suicidal thoughts_ more impulsive and likely to commit suicide.
Loss of any property or loved one, believing your life is a burden on others and many more are reasons a person usually considers for dying by suicide.
We never know what a person is going through, how they really feel inside, how broken and depressed they are, how hopeless and desperate they feel. But we
can still look for signs in the behaviours of our loved ones which show some indications when they are considering suicide.
Some of the signs include: talking about death or violence, talking about dying or wanting to die, rapid changes in mood, talking about feeling trapped, hopeless, helpless, worthless, feeling burden to others; impulsive behavior like driving recklessly or practicing unsafe activities, withdrawal from some friends, family, or social activities; sleeping more or less than usual, eating more or less than usual, extreme anxiety or agitation etc.
It is not necessary that if a person is not showing these signs is not depressed or considering suicide. We should always be approachable to them, ask them if they are ok, tell them it is not ok and normal to feel unfine, talk to them, take it seriously: I repeat, take it seriously, listen to them attentively without being opinionated, assure the person that help is available and treatment works, tell them you care about them.
Do not consider it a taboo, do not tell them they are mad or crazy, do not tell them it is fine, do not tell them it happens to everyone so it is normal. You may never know why a person committed suicide.
While it might have appeared that someone had everything to live for, it probably did not feel that way to them. So, help them out if you know any such person. Your some serious concerns can make a big difference to them.
