Suicide is increasing in the younger generation due to the influence of the social media, peer pressure, alcohol and drug usage.
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Suicide:
- “Suicide” is derived from the Latin word for “self murder”.
- It is a final act that represents the person’s wish to die.
- There is a range, however, between thinking about suicide and acting it out.
- Some persons have the idea of suicide but they will never act on it; some plan for days, weeks or even years before acting out.
- Others take their lives seemingly on an impulse, without premeditation.
- Lost in definition are intentional misclassification of cause of death, accidents of undermine cause and the so-called chronic suicides.
- For example: death through alcohol and other substance abuse.
- consciously poor adherence to medical regimes for diabetes, obesity & hypertension.
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Men commit suicides more than four times as often as women:
- Men commit suicides more than four times as often as women.
- However, women are four times more likely to attempt suicide than men.
- The men’s higher rate of completed suicides is because of the methods
- They use firearms, hanging or jumping from heights. Women more commonly take overdoses of psychoactive substances or poison.
Common method of suicide:
- Globally, the most common method of suicide is hanging.
- The suicide rate increases with age and underscores the significance of the midlife crisis.
- Among men, suicides peak after 45 and among women after 55.
- The suicide rate, however, is rising more rapidly among young males and females aged 15-25 due to parental pressure.
- Singles, divorced, never married, widowers and widows are more prone to commit suicide.
- Persons who commit so-called “anniversary suicides” take their life on the day a member of the family died.
- Unemployment is another risk factor.
- Among doctors it is the anesthetists followed by psychiatrists who commit the most suicides.
- Climate also has impact: that is why the suicide belt mostly includes the Scandavian countries.
- Physical afflictions like cancer and HIV increase the risk.
- In mental illnesses, suicide is high in schizophrenics.
- In addition,those with depressive disorders, dementia and delirium, or those addicted to alcohol and drugs.
- Suicide attempts are common in personality disorders.
- The causes would be social factors like peer pressure, the Blue Whale challenge and stress.
- Sensitive people, people who can’t control themselves and teenagers who yield to other pressures.
- Like what is today happening in case of deaths reported due to the Blue Whale challenge are at risk of commiting suicide.
- Suicide also runs in families (genetic factor).
- “Para-suicidal” is a term introduced to describe patients who injure themselves through self-mutilation but usually they do not wish to die.
Prevention:
- To prevent suicides in society, everybody has to observe their family members, classmates, colleague’s behavioral changes.
- Usually the person who wants to commit suicide will always give hints to their near and dear ones.
- So once we notice this, we have to talk to them empathetically and approach a psychiatrist.
- Treatment can be done with anti-depressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychotherapy and electro-convulsive therapy (shock treatment) in severely depressed persons.