Why People Commit Suicide

Bishaldeep Kakati

Life on earth more often than not remains in the form of a one act play or a mono act, where an individual has the core power to manipulate the script of his play according, to his or her own desire. And although success and failure are the two sides of the same play known as 'life', however it completely depends upon the individual as to how he or she takes the success or failure perspectives in a positive manner, in order to bring subtle changes to his life. The matter of the fact is that it is the tendency of almost each and every person to embrace success positively, but similar is not the case when one confabulates about handling failure in a pragmatic way. But the effect of failure in an individual's life can at times be so destructive, that it can also lead to an individual killing oneself, by completely losing his or her conscience. And that is the reason, it becomes really necessary for an individual to remember, understand and realise the evergreen quote, "Failures are the pillars of success".

In the modern era, words like, 'science and technology', 'business and commerce' etc have all showered a sanguine mindset among the people residing in this globe, and that has indeed come in handy in the process of making the planet climb the ladder of progress and development. But amidst this aura, a detestable term known as 'suicide' or the way to kill oneself has also silently kept on lingering in the logical atmosphere of this human dominated planet. And this has only happened because every now and then people corne across news where one finds individuals tempted to adopt this heinous way of killing themselves, and the sad fact is that with each passing year, the percentage of suicidal cases have only grown higher and higher.

Over the years, many authors as well as mind specialists have also given their descriptive and analytical views about suicide or ways to tackle suicidal tendencies, however it seems that all those writings and deliberations done simply went in vain. And the obvious reason of it is that recently four more meritorious students from four different educational institutions have also committed suicide, surprisingly within a period of less than one month. So that puts an alarming question: why are the youths inclined towards ending their lives in a sinful way? Furthermore statistics reveals that about 800,000 people commit suicide worldwide every year, of these 135,000 (17%) are residents of India. Moreover according to 2015 data (the latest available) from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), every hour one student commits suicide in India. Added to this, according to 2012 Lancet report, India has one of the world's highest suicide rates for youths aged 15 to 29. But the bigger question that arises out of here is: what are the core reasons that are causing individuals or especially youths to undertake this heinous act?

A few psychologists are of the mindset that an individual is actually born with the fear of two things- a) fear of falling down b) fear of loud noises. In fact according to those psychologists, even the above mentioned consternation cannot be tagged as 'fear', rather they are preventive measures that the human mind automatically generates within itself to help and protect an individual. So, the fact that is evident from this analytical reference is that the human mind never wants to kill the physical body; rather it helps the body to nurture itself and develop completely. Hence the suicidal tendency generating in an individual's mind is because of external factors which are more often than not pulled by an individual towards himself.

If one broadly analyses the core factors that force a person to commit suicide, then one will find that factors can be divided into—a) societal factors, and b) individual factors. Societal factors include constant pressure imposed upon an individual by the society, like to bring laurels to the society, to get more and more educational degrees, to get oneself admitted in high salaried jobs, to get married in time etc. On the other hand, the individual factors include the tendency to die without any reason, unfulfilled love affairs, not getting expected results, constant pressure from beloved ones, unhealthy matrimonial relationship, drugs addict etc. And both the societal and individual factors either in an amalgamated way or separately cause a person to suffer from depression and mental illness (illness like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality etc), traumatic stress, substance abuse and impulsivity, hopelessness, social isolation etc which ultimately instigate the person to commit suicide.

However, in the present scenario, it remains really crucial to come up with ways to reduce the number of suicidal cases. In order to reduce the number of suicidal cases in case of youths, the role of father, mother and the teacher remains vital. A teenager must be strictly monitored, his actions should be noticed, and if at any point of time, the teenager's behaviour turns out to be odd then it remains the duty of the parents and the teachers to talk to him, and if necessary should also treat him by taking him to appropriate counselling sessions of experts. The extra burden, pressure and expectation imposed upon a person should be reduced and the society should try to appreciate the individual as he is without comparing him with others.

Along with this, it is also believed that if a person before committing suicide even for a moment reconsiders his decision, then he will never be tempted to commit suicide again at least for that moment. Hence proper discussions with the right individuals, understanding oneself, trying to evaluate out the solutions to problems, trying to digest in pressure in a constructive way etc can all diminish the suicidal tendency residing in an individual's mind. Last but not the least, people should always realise the fact that life on this planet is unique and hence they should always try to make use of it in a better way, rather than ending it on a bitter note, giving due emphasis on the quote, "Where there is a will, there is a way".

Frontier
Vol. 51, No.20, Nov 18 - 24, 2018