Suicide and its relative cause in the society

Adeparua Damilola

One may wonder how possible it is to hear or see people ending their
lives themselves at times. Yet, there has been  many cases of people
who committed suicide on the social media but one common thing about
these incidents is the fact that those who committed suicide made it
known either directly or indirectly before eventually ending their
lives. People most times realize too late that their threats and
signals were real.

Suicide is from the Latin word suicidium, which means the act of
taking one’s life. Wikipedia defines suicide as the act of
intentionally causing one’s own death. According to a source,
approximately 1.5% of all deaths worldwide are by suicide and in a
given year; this is roughly 12 per 100,000 people.

In addition, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
defines suicide as death caused by injuring oneself with the intent to
die. From the same source, there was 33% increase in suicide rates
between `1999 and 2019. It is the second leading cause of death for
people ages 10-34, the fourth leading cause among people ages 35-44
and the fifth leading cause among people ages 45-54.

World Health Organization (WHO) posits that every year, 703,000 people
take their own lives and many people attempt suicide. It was also
discovered that over 77% of global suicides occurred in low and middle
income countries in 2019. Going further, statistics shows the ten
countries with the highest suicide rates per 100,000 to be; Lesotho
72.4,Guyana 40.3, Eswatini29.4, South Korea 28.6, Kiribati 28.3,
Micronesia 28.2, Lithuania 26.1, Suriname 25.4, Russia 25.1 and South
Africa 23.5.

From its findings, World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that
suicide rates fell in the 20years between 2000 and 2019, with the
global rate decreasing by 36% with decreases ranging from 17% in the
Eastern Mediterranean region to 47% in the European region and 49% in
the Western pacific but in the Americas region, rates increased by 17%
in the same time period.

According to a source, causes of suicide are physical, emotional or
sexual abuse, lost relationship through breakup, divorce, or death,
isolation or lack of support.

Majority of the youths nowadays are in depression due to the socio
economic situation of the country. It can be disheartening to see
youths who have spent many years in school with the hope of being
employed immediately after school, spending many years at home after
graduation without a job. These youths see themselves as burdens to
their immediate family and the society and this is exactly why
majority of the youths indulge in criminal activities while some of
them who cannot indulge in such activities are at the risk of suicide
due to depression.

Does the fact that some parents do not teach their children how to
manage rejection need to be mentioned?  Yes, in a kind of country
where the future of the youths are meaningless to the government,
where the government shows little or no concern about the high rate of
joblessness among the youths, where educational  system is on a
downturn, there is the need to teach a child how to manage rejection
because one cannot possibly get every desired thing in life such as
perfect relationship, financial stability and suchlike.

Unfortunately, majority of the youths who commit suicide were not made
to realize this until they eventually had to face such situations
later in life and end up committing suicide when things do not go the
exact way they wished for. This explains why there are youths who
commit suicide due to failure at school, failed relationships and the
likes

In addition, research shows that men commit suicide more than women do
and this can be blamed on the African’s belief on the superiority of
the male gender. The other gender is not believed to be as equal as
the male gender and this places more responsibility on the male gender
and in a situation whereby the male is unable to meet up with his
responsibility over the family, this becomes a burden on him. There is
a local parlance which says that a man must always be brave but then
can a male child always be brave in an environment which does not aid
his growth?

Inability to meet up with the society’s expectation can lead to
dejection, disappointment and depression and this makes World Health
Organizations research plausible that; more than twice as many males
die due to suicide than females(12.6 per 100,000 males compared to 5.4
per 100,000 females). Wikipedia also posits that while women more
often have suicidal thoughts, men die by suicide more frequently.

From research, people who commit suicide do so by swallowing harmful
substances such as pesticides or insecticides more than those who
actually hang themselves or kill themselves with sharp objects.
According to a source, 20% of global suicides are due to pesticide
poisoning, most of which occur in rural agricultural areas in low and
middle income countries. Other common methods of suicide are hanging
and firearms. There is the need to ban the most dangerous pesticides
that can lead to immediate death if swallowed, and if such substances
are important, it should be kept in safe places where it cannot be
abused and its usage should be well monitored.

Early identification and follow up of people at risk is also of utmost
importance. Research shows the common warning signs of suicide to be;
being moody or sad, sudden calmness, withdrawing from others, showing
dangerous or self harmful behavior, threatening suicide or talking
about wanting to die and experiencing recent trauma or life crisis
such as  the death of a loved one, divorce or breakup of a
relationship, diagnosis of a major illness, loss of job or serious
financial problems.

 At times, the mind may flash back to someone who has not been seen or
heard from for a long period. In such a case, it is advisable to call
such person at that particular time as such person may be going
through difficult times which may be life threatening  because people
who commit suicide are said to give or show signs before committing
the act. If there is early identification and follow up of such
people, suicide may possibly be averted.

It is quite unfortunate that people are too busy minding their
businesses, parents no longer pay adequate attention to their
children, friends no longer care for each other and people show less
concern  about the wellbeing of their family members and this is one
of the reasons people who are in distress are not identified early.

There should also be adequate support for the adolescents in all
necessary aspects of their lives because they have a lot of things
going on in their minds and they also go through a lot of things.
Money is not everything. Majority of adolescents lack emotional
support from their parents, teachers, friends and relatives because
nowadays, quality time that should be spent with them is  spent on
social media, reading  comments and newsfeed, leaving the children to
their fate. As shown by research, suicide is the 2nd leading cause of
death in the world for those aged 15-25years.

 If youths are financially stable, dependency rate will be minimized
and this will in turn  stabilize their minds especially the jobless
graduates. Dependence on parents at a time when it is expected of one
to be the breadwinner can lead to depression because of the shame
attached to it. If the youths are empowered, there is bound to be a
decrease in suicide rates.

Overall, suicide should never be an option, as it will cause the loved
ones eternal pain and agony. People are also advised to show love to
their loved ones when they are still alive and stop diverting the
attention needed by their children, family and friends to social
media. Lastly, government should empower the citizens so that they can
be financially stable, as this will also decrease the rate of suicide
in the society.