Indeed, mental illnesses have always been stigmatized throughout the world for the longest time and to date. It was never accepted as a normal sign of breakdown but a phenomenon that could make the sufferer an abnormal person. Sufferers endured their disability, perceiving the fact that they would not be considered ‘normal’ and treated in the most indifferent way. But today, the world, along with evolution in the diverse genre, has excelled in the field of taking care of mental health and preventing people’s demise too.
“What mental health needs are more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close.
But how many of us fathom these words? Probably a handful!
The suicide
This year, the World Federation for Mental Health or WFMH, celebrated this day by theming it as suicide prevention. According to the World Health Organization or WHO, it is more than 800,000 people passing away by committing suicide, with the majority age group being fifteen to twenty-nine years. Further, it has been discovered that not only adults are victimized, but young ones too are preyed upon by violence, sexual abuse, bullying, cyberbullying, and more. The intensity felt by those tender minds are so emotionally overwhelming that they find suicide the only way possible to hide the pain and make an end to it. This particular affair has never been brought to light so explicitly before, but this year the WFMH has turned out to be the game-changer.
With so many organizations and institutions grounded and also rising in digits, what the content is, of the education, holds a pivotal role. Majorly stereotyped studies are what is being conveyed. However, now is the time to bring to the spotlight of all these organizations – how suicide and its prevention is as mandatory as any other action. The necessity is to be passed on to every single mental health awareness institution, and that is not all; plentiful of scientific and professional organizations is to incorporate strategies to keep suicide or even the intention at bay.
With suicide being the principal impetus among sufferers, especially the ones highlighted, the national health authorities must craft policies that are to be followed holistically to prevent this as much as possible. Every single person should be talked to, healed, calmed, aiding the most to give them a normal life back again.
An history of a suicide
A consultant psychiatrist had narrated an incident of a boy who was an IAS aspirant and went to Delhi, the capital of India, for a strict preparation to bag the post. Being a small-town boy who is an introvert along with issues of short-temper and struggling to live in a tiny rented room, he was a very fragile person who’d advance toward taking drastic steps in a jiffy. The exact thing happened when his first attempt at the major exam was futile, and he ended up committing suicide leaving behind his whole family helpless. The psychiatrist further states that this is the scenario of the present state where the number of victims has risen to an alarming level, according to statistics. Her words hold the truth. She further claims the need of all the professionals, media, sociologists, NGOs, hospitals, schools, colleges, cyber lawmakers, police, and many more esteemed organizations to join hands to eradicate the act of suicide or thoughts provoking it.
Ms. Ruth Benson, Research Officer, International Association for Suicide Prevention Professor Ping Qin, Executive Committee Member, International Association for Suicide Prevention Professor Murad Khan, President, International Association for Suicide Prevention, further explains – the probability of committing suicide is among the minds of people residing in lower or middle-income groups according to statistics.
The fight against the suicide
With around 8,00,000 sufferers committing suicide, it is narrowed down that in just 40 seconds, somebody is committing it. Not only this, when that one person is committing it, 20 others are attempting it. They leave around 135 people in impassable pain and agony, and few are affected in an unfathomable hysterical manner.
A person who has a mental illness, when talked to, provides significant instances as to why they are likely to attempt suicide. Every individual has a distinctive thought process that has to be studied thoroughly to perceive the grounds on which the victims are standing. People who have attempted or experienced some suicidal tendencies need to be discussed with their feelings; only then every other person passing through that phase can be healed.
National suicide prevention strategies are something to talk about, they are found in 38 countries presently, and this states that those countries are very much concerned about handling those issues. They have incorporated immediate actions that are to be taken in case of any emergency experienced.
Countries, who are members of WHO, have promised to decrease suicides by 10% by 2020. Sufferers who have attempted suicide, in many countries still, are stigmatized by the stereotyped communities, and this especially takes place in small towns or suburbs where people are still unaware as to how mental health issues are normal as any other health issue. Those sufferers who tried to take their own lives are not only haunted by the nightmare but also traumatized by the tantrums of the community people.
A very vital fact which is to be studied is, in certain western countries, suicide has been decriminalized, but it is still considered illegal in 25 countries, and 20 more follow Islamic and Sharia law, and people attempting suicide are jailed. The more the decriminalization, the more the sufferers will be healed, and also surveillance will improve.
It has thus been clearly and repeatedly imparted that suicide is preventable, and every country must give in their best effort to do that. It often happens that the person suffering has not come across mental health services; to not worsen the situation, the country must bring evolution by founding one and thus saving thousands of lives.
