Prevention Is Better Than Cure
13 October, 2020
While suicide is thought of as a crime by many countries in the world, the family and friends of a person losing life to suicide mostly left behind speechless and in despair. People who loved the deceased are the ones who suffer the most. Pinned out by thousands of questions in their minds and what they could have done to stop this from happening. Especially parents find it more difficult to digest the death of their little child who's young and full of life. Bereavement experience of the parents is the phase where they encounter the grieving of losing their child. It is like a loop of thoughts in which they stay entangled for a long time until they are able to make peace with the factor. Sometimes they even blame themselves for the suicide. Well, a suicide of an adult is entirely depended upon that adult itself. But when a teen determines to end his/her life and becomes successful in doing so, the parents are partially responsible for it. The rest of the responsible factors are surroundings and perception of the minor.
Rima Akhter is a mother of five children from Chittagong state, Bangladesh. With an interview with Suicide Catastrophes, she talked about her third born 15-year-old
son lost his life due to suicide in 2016. Her eyes tear up while being asked
about the beloved son even after four years have passed by. Rima Akhter and his
husband both are doctors. They lead a very busy life. She blames herself for
the death of her son. She always his son to become a doctor just like them. So,
she would always tell her son to study as much as he can. In 2016, her son was
going through depression which she found out later on. The son failed in few
subjects in his school. He might have thought his parents would be so
disappointed in him. He ended up taking his life before facing his mom who's
always scolding her to study with seriousness. Rima Akhter admits that she
might've been very angry with the son hearing about the result but she would
never be as much as devastated as she is now after his death.
Teenagers have very soft hearts with fewer experiences in lives. Anything that belittles their existence strikes right through their self-confidence and self-worth. Psychological experts Michelle Moskos, Jennifer Achilles, and Doug Gray think that young people commits suicide or wanting to commit suicide is a by-product of social, psychological and environmental factors surrounding them. Mental illness is solely the main contributing factor of suicide. Suicide risk factors can vary from ethnic group, gender, age and family bonding to stressful life events.
According to the current World Health Organization data,
around 800,000 people die by suicide every year. In a meta-analysis estimation
which was published recently clarifies that the probability of some people who
are in exposure of suicide, researcher Andriessen, Rahman, Draper have
calculated that 4.3% have been exposed to suicide cases at least once last year
and 22% of have encountered at least one suicide case during their whole
lifetime. Moreover, in a research led by Berman who investigated the percentage
of people who got effected by suicide like parents of children who had died by
suicide. From the research it was estimated that around 84 individuals would
have been affected directly or indirectly by the death of their beloved
children by suicide.
A survey bar chart by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Retrieved from here.
Some siblings of a suicide incident of a young girl, unwilling to disclose their names, were interviewed about why do they think their sister wanted the ultimate break from her life. They belong from a religious and conservative family. They think their sister didn’t have strong religious values like the other members of the family. She didn’t pray regularly and was reluctant to participate in any religious gatherings. She often felt depressed and disconnected from the whole world. She didn’t like the idea of worshipping any entities or God and had faith in Atheism. She had a very soft heart and watching sad and unfair incidents happening to anyone affected her deeply. So, one day she came to know that her most favorite superstar had died. On the same day, a superstar couple she admired - got divorced. The whole world shattered for her and she lost faith in life and love and suddenly the family finds her hanging body in her bedroom the next morning. One of the siblings added, we loved her dearly for her kind heart even if we didn’t always agree with her ideology. We thought she's so young now and eventually would find out the depth and importance of religion so no one actually took initiatives to give her some insights.
To prevent suicide several steps can be taken by family, friends and teachers.
American Psychological Association (2008), Teen Suicide is
Preventable, Retrieved from,
https://www.apa.org/research/action/suicide
Victoria, Kairi, Lisa
(28 March, 2018), Parents’ Experiences of Suicide-Bereavement: A Qualitative
Study at 6 and 12 Months after Loss, Retrieved from,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5923660/#!po=4.60526
World Health Organization Suicide Data. [(accessed on 26 February
2018)]; Retrieved from,
http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/
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