It’s easy to write suicidal people off as mentally unstable or think of them as foolish, but there are societal reasons for suicide that go beyond mental health.
While it’s true that mood disorders are present in 30 percent of suicide cases, depression is found on the psychological profile in almost every case. The University of San Diego published findings in 2007 that 1 in 5 college students have higher depression levels due to social and academic stresses.
The study found that alcohol was a factor in 50 percent of all suicides, and 70 percent of suicides among college age students. It also found that cocaine was involved in almost 30 percent of the suicides in San Diego.
A former suicide hotline worker and Laney College student (who wished to remain anonymous) described suicide, especially among students, as a cultural problem rather than a psychological one.
She said that people aren’t born with the urge to take their own life; they grow older and are traumatized by an oppressive and indifferent society.
Describing her work on the hotline, she related that people feel divided and alone. With an ever-growing sense of ennui and no one to confide in they feel like suicide might be a viable option. “Most don’t want to hear why suicide is bad; they just want someone to talk to on the other end of the phone,” she said.
Financial responsibility, failed romances, drug addiction, debt and having to survive for the first time without the support of a nuclear family are all little pieces of the puzzle that is suicide.
For young people these pressures are thrust upon them with little to no warning. Is it any wonder that suicide it the second-leading killer of those under the age of 25?
Unfortunately, too few realize the full impact their actions have on the people around them, and when they do they often have trouble empathizing.
Suicide doesn’t just affect the victims but those that love them as well. As the playwright Arthur Miller once said, “Suicide kills two people … that’s what it’s for.”
Mark Oehler
Laney Tower