Suicide And Suicide Prevention
As the world suicide prevention day approaches us on 10th September my mind is still fresh from article that I had written How to commit suicide and t...
As the world suicide prevention day approaches us on 10th September my mind is still fresh from article that I had written How to commit suicide and the response I achieved from it. The idea behind the article was to attract people who were looking to commit suicide and make them re-think about their decision. I am not sure how much successful I have become but even if it had helped one person to change his mind it’s a personal victory for me. I have always thought about suicide as the action one takes at the flick of the moment and it is that moment, which if passes, one realizes the blunder he was about to commit. But the fact remains that the people who commit suicide are not able to pass that moment and leave behind them much pain and sorrow for others especially their loved ones.
I was reading this article How Families find hope after suicide and my mind circled backs to the damage, people who commit suicide, do to themselves and their families. One action of one person leaves behind a trail that pulls other people to commit the same thing. As stated in article 42% people who commit suicide are among those who have seen other people closely related to them do it. The venom propagates like virus and instead of taking the life head one people end up choosing wrong role models.
We all live with a hope and there is hope in decreasing such number of large cases with suicide prevention steps which we all can undertake at individual and broader levels. Below are some steps for suicide prevention
1) Listen – It is important to listen to people who are in deep pain and work with them for some solution. It is important to help them get peace of their mind or a direction that does not lead to dead end. If no solution is in sight, it is important to keep the discussion going and keep the ray of hope alive
2) Symptoms- Many a time’s people are not willing to talk or share their problems. But they do give lot of signals that point in certain direction. It is important for us not to get ignorant of them and take them very seriously.
3) Seeking Help- There is no harm in seeking professional help for the person who is finding it difficult to cope up with life. The help is available in many form and the references for the same are available by searching over internet
4) Attention- People who have seen suicide in their families or their circle needs a special help too. While it important for adults it is highly important for the children too. We can always reason out with adults but with children we have to be a step ahead to help them sail through the bad time.
5) Awareness- Suicide at many places is perceived as a social stigma. This makes it all the less talked about subject. It is important to increase the awareness at all levels for suicide prevention. Suicide and suicide prevention should get the attention it needs to help people cope with it for themselves and for their near and dear ones.
6) Intervention- Lot of people turns everyday to internet to search for easy methods to commit suicide or how to commit suicide. One of way to prevent suicide is by making sure people don’t have access to common methods of suicide. Having no access to firearms, pesticides, lethal chemicals has proved effective worldwide to curb this rate.
7) Health- There are certain conditions like depression that leads to suicide. An effective prevention technique is treatment of such problems and giving such people due attention.
8) Abuse- Alcohol, drugs etc are many methods that makes people more vulnerable to suicide. Identifying and selectively helping such people can be a definite step towards suicide prevention.
9) Special Focus- People who have attempted suicide once needs special attention too. Though the moment has passed for them but it is not the definite sign. Suicide prevention and help becomes all the important in such cases
10)Larger Level- Suicide definitely needs to be taken at larger levels within families, communities, groups, local and national arenas so that various support groups, help lines can be formed that are easily accessible and give people with suicidal traits an opportunity to reconsider their decision.
In my last article best way to commit suicide I had looked into all the reasons that can lead to suicide and how one can reason them out. It was an attempt towards the direction of suicide prevention. Through this article I have tried to urge people to give attention to the people they love and care about so that they do not take the extreme step. The last thing I remember “Life is what we see it to be and it is all the more special because of people around us”.

