The Culture of Suicide

The society is in a state of constant flux. External environmental factors have a direct impact on trends and culture at any point in time and the society moulds itself accordingly. The rising trend of suicide among the youth is one such churning which is taking place in the society right now. Let us inspect the phenomenon to understand what lies beneath.

It was a quiet evening at my friend’s place when her daughter arrived from college looking distressed. All of us noticed her demeanour and sat up to enquire. After keeping quiet for some time she came out with the truth.

“My lab partner has committed suicide”, she conveyed. My friend looked distressed as well; she too had known her daughter’s lab partner. Over the next few days the news was all over the media with everyone, from police to journalists and even the victim’s friends speculating about the likely reason for committing suicide. A lot of reasons emerged, from unrequited love, broken relationship and academic pressure, no one was sure. Sometime later a suicide note was found which established the reason to be ‘academic pressure and failure to perform as per expectation’. 

Every other day we come across news of such suicides in media reports. More often than not most of us take a very detached view on the issue unless it affects someone known to us.

The incident set me thinking about the denouement of the event. From what I gathered, the parents of the student were small time farmers. Such ripples touch us, and I too viewed it with a lot of compassion and tried to comprehend the gravity of the event. I did some research on my own with the intention of unravelling the reason behind the spurt in suicide among youths.

As reported by WHO, about 170 000 deaths by suicide occur in India every year. The report suggested that suicide death rates in India are among the highest in the world. A large proportion of adult suicide deaths occur between the ages of 15 years and 29 years (Patel et al., 2012).

World over the occurrence of suicide is on the rise and one of the most important reason for such deaths is academic pressure which taxes young minds. The desire to excel brings in an intensity, which if left unbridled, can cause students to go over the edge and commit suicide.

Some significant finds from the reports and news items on suicide and suicidal trends point towards the following facts:

1.     Not limited to India or Asia alone: Youth suicide is a serious problem in many countries across the world and has been on the rise over the last few decades. School counsellors, school personnel, psychologists and social workers try to monitor psychological health and attempt to prevent, detect and secure assistance for the students.

As per available statistics, each year around 200 000 teenagers worldwide commit suicide while about 4 million adolescents attempt it. WHO statistics of 2011 list Lithuania among the countries with relatively high suicide rates. Russia has the highest underage suicide rate in Europe. Australia has a comparatively low suicide rate while the United States has one of the highest rates of youth suicide with close to 10% of all adolescents attempting suicide.

2.     Status in India and Asia: China has one of the highest female suicide rates in the world and it is pegged at around 56%. In South Korea around 20% of middle and high school students contemplate suicide.

Approximately 20 students kill themselves each day in India. The major reasons which are attributed to this are examination related stress, aspiration for securing admission to prestigious schools, not securing good marks in board and competitive exams among others, as per the records of the National Crime Records Bureau.

There is a need to delve further to ascertain which factors spawn such a tendency and address them properly to minimise such instances.

Experts are of the opinion that suicide rates are higher among people, who are not socially integrated and cannot count on social support (French sociologist, Durkheim 1897), (Barchetti Durisch, 2015). It is also seen from trends and records that students belonging to affluent families are under more pressure to perform ('Suicide rates in India are highest in the 15-29 age group: Report', 2012). The pressure to emulate famous and accomplished fathers and forefathers can create a lot of unwanted pressure on students. In such instances, a single failure of any sort can drive the student to the brink.

Over the years efforts have been made to address the issue through different channels like academic institutions, NGOs’ and the government. However there is little conclusive evidence that such bodies have been able to take preventive action and stop suicides. 

The University of Pennsylvania, USA has witnessed a high suicide on campus in recent times. After the suicide of one of its female students, the university formed a task force to look into the status of mental health in the campus. The report (University of Pennsylvania, 2015) submitted by the committee recommended that the university takes steps to reach out to students, expand hours of counselling, and have a dedicated phone line commissioned for the purpose so that students could seek help immediately. The report stated “there is however a strong need for the University to consistently and clearly communicate to students about the importance of caring for one’s psychological well being to the academic and future successes”.

Students across campuses are in a relentless quest for perfection. This syndrome gives rise to stress and acute depression if the results are not in keeping with their individual perceived standards. It was reported by some institutions that female students always felt the pressure to be perfect without showing any visible effort. They were expected to be fit, accomplished, smart, beautiful and popular, all at the same time. The Stanford University calls it a Duck Syndrome, which can be interpreted as the ability to glide effortlessly across the water while paddling relentlessly below the surface water (Scelfo, 2015).

The general feeling according to students is that one has to be perceived as perfect in every academic, co-curricular and social endeavour. Psychologists feel that earlier a minor setback was considered to be a disappointment, now it has assumed an entirely new meaning –it is perceived as a huge mistake for which they cannot forgive themselves.

Among the reasons, which can be attributed to the rise in suicide in youths, the following are those which claim more young lives:

1.     Academic pressure starting at an early age

2.     Easy access to drugs and alcohol

3.     Depression and mental illness

4.     Stressful life events   

The remedies which could help, students can range from counselling, talk therapies, use of antidepressants in cases where there is a history of depression and mental illness, cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, regular exercise, good food habits and enough rest.

Counselling centres can play a very important role in thwarting possible suicide attempts. Students who approach such centres can be quickly screened and briefly counselled so that immediate action can be taken, instead of delaying treatment by holding long counselling sessions.

Thinking openly and pondering over a few questions could perhaps give all of us a better perspective about life:

1.     What is the essence of life?

Sometimes failure to achieve a goal can be destabilising. However, failure or success in an endeavour cannot possibly be the essence of life.

2.     What does education mean?

It is often that academically brilliant people find themselves helpless when life throws something unpredictable at them. It is about experience and the ability to cope with adversities, which will stand in good stead in such situations and academics alone may not be able to provide the same.

While studies and academics are important to us as they provide us the key to fulfil the needs as per Maslow’s hierarchy, there is much more to life than merely fulfilling needs. Life is about insecurities, in happiness, of dealing with sorrows, nurturing relationships, of love and care. So let us broaden our horizon and look outward instead of measuring ourselves against the metrics of academics alone.