Psychology, Cause and Prevention of Suicide - Essay Example

? Psychology, cause and prevention of suicide Suicide is the desire to end someone’s own life. The word suicide bears its origin from two words of Latin decent, Sui and cidium. Sui stands for oneself and cidium is to kill. Statistics show that it is the tenth causative of death in most of the countries around the world. Most professionals do associate suicide with mental illness since many use it as an escape from their problems. The effects of suicide cause misery to the relatives and friends of the suicide victim since it leads to death most of the time. In the world of psychology, doctors classify the thought of committing suicide into either active or passive. In active thought, one has the desire to commit suicide and proceeds to plan for it. As a passive thought, one bears feelings of the need to die but does not plan to commit suicide. People do commit suicide for various purposes, and this can be due to a factor or a combination of factors such as depression and schizophrenia among others. Depression, caused by sadness over a long time, is the number one causative of suicide. The sadness leads to imbalance of components within the brain, such as chemicals. Most people do not realize that they are under depression, and end up ignoring any medical checkup early enough. In turn, this increases the chances of committing suicide. However, other factors may increase the chances of an individual to commit suicide. These factors may be associated with emotions such as anxiety and anger. Other factors are drug related such as substance abuse, and withdrawal syndrome. In addition, low self-esteem, depression, negative life experiences such as physical, sexual or verbal abuse among other societal related factors may also lead one to committing suicide (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011). Ways of committing suicide may differ from one place to another, for example, from country to country. For example, within the United States, people mostly use firearms to commit suicide. While in England, people poison themselves to death using domestic gas. Other methods common all over the world are hanging and jumping from tall heights, in addition to jumping in front of speeding vehicles (Fowler, 1999). Demographic results estimate that, annually, about one million people die from committing suicide or suicide related cases. Surprisingly, this rate is on an upward trend as in the past, recent years it has increased to sixty percent. Moreover, it has mainly increased in developing and developed countries. The demographic results also show that more women attempt suicide than men do. However, the rate of people dying from committing suicide is higher among men than in women. Women undergo more troubles than men do, but other factors put men more at risk than women. Such factors include lack of employment, chronic diseases, age, and stress brought about by the work they do among other factors. The suicide rate is higher in two distinct age groups, adolescents of the ages between 14-20 and adults of the age of 66 and above. The reasons why adolescents consider suicide include socially related troubles such as torture by fellow teenagers, stigmatization by peers, lack of high self-esteem, undergoing brutal abuse such as sexual, ignorance by their guardians causing a disconnection between the two and separation or divorce of their parents among other factors. Depression is the main causative of death through suicide among adults within the age group of 66 and above. Many at this age have undergone retirement and may lack affection and attention from their close ones. In turn, this may lead to loneliness and cause a feeling of neglect; thus, driving them to suicide. Suicide rates depend on several factors such as economy stability, religion, job opportunity, culture, social aspects among others. This rate is higher in North America and west European countries. In a majority of these countries, this rate increases as the level of education and the economy increases. Some countries mainly in Africa, Central America and Asia, show little or no cases of suicide (Dryden-Edwards and Stoppler, 2011). Often people who are about to commit suicide have various indicators of doing so, such as, the person may start by threatening or talking about killing oneself, in addition to seeking means to achieve it. They look for either weapons or pills that will help them to do it. They appear restless and act carelessly. Majority of suicide victims may start indulging in drugs or increase the dosage in case they were indulging before. They feel entrapped hence, death forms the only way out. They tend to stay away from close people such as friends and family. These people are ever full of anger and get agitated about everything and anything. These feelings make them even plan for revenge. Before they commit suicide, they take everything for granted, care for nothing and see no purpose for living. Suicide prevention commences by spotting any warning signs and integrating any immediate actions to curb it. Rather than sympathizing with them, one should express concern. Concurrently, one should display a high degree of understanding towards the suicidal victim’s situation. Moreover, a show of willingness to aid them may still assist in reverting the victim’s decision of committing suicide. They should make the person free by talking about the idea and its effects. This will make one talk and result to giving the reasons as to why they want to end their life. Talking is therapeutic as it helps release the stress, anger or agitation they hold within them. Assurance that their life is the most valuable thing also helps in the prevention of suicide (Grohol, 2005). One should be supportive all the way and make them feel that the information shared is safe. Everybody should take care of himself or herself always especially where there is a past record of suicide in the family. This will help them deal with any psychological changes at an early stage. In extreme cases, one should consult professionals for assistance. The media can also aid in preventing suicide in the society. The media can provide viewers with detailed information of warning signs and ways of preventing it from occurring. The media should also be cautious on how they report on issues about suicide. Their report should be proactive and not on things that will contribute to the idea of committing suicide. Christians across the world view the act of committing suicide as a grave sin. They believe that death out of committing suicide seals one’s fate. According to them, those who commit suicide go to hell. Christians believe that those who have committed suicide pay for the sins done by their fore fathers. Once one commits suicide and dies, he or she cannot repent. They use the example of Judas who betrayed Jesus and then hung himself on a tree. Christians believe that the thought of committing suicide is unnatural, and associate it to the spiritual world. This causes stigmatization of those who attempt committing suicide, and tend to be highly condemned. In conclusion, committing suicide has become one of the main concerns of the world. The thought of committing suicide is a mental disorder that needs a sound understanding. The signs and symptoms are common in many places, in the world. Risk factors that lead to thoughts of suicide vary from time to time, and frequent updates are necessary in order to come up with recent statistics. From the statistic done on the rate of suicide, it is clear that the factors leading to the act are more or less the same. Teenagers and young adults being at a higher risk of committing suicide need help in identifying these factors. They need education on how to help their peers in cases where they notice these factors. Medical centers and hospitals around the world have come up with programs to assist suicide victims and those who are considering doing the act. Victims of suicide need psychological support from time to time, and advised to seek help from a psychologist who can assist them get over the effects. The various methods of therapy given to victims are standard and applicable across all communities (American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, 2011). References American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, (2011). About Suicide. Retrieved on December 12 2011 from >http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=74295647-AAD5-B47F-340249697DAC238A< Dryden-Edwards R. & Stoppler C. M., (2011). Suicide. Retrieved on December 12 2011 from >http://www.medicinenet.com/suicide/article.htm< Fowler A. J., (1999). Suicide. Retrieved on December 12 2011 from >http://www.christinyou.net/pages/suicide.html< Grohol M. J., (2005). An Introduction to Suicide. Retrieved on December 12 2011 from >http://psychcentral.com/library/suicide_general.htm< National Institute of Mental Health, (2011). What Is Depression? Retrieved on December 12 2011 from > http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/complete-index.shtml Read More