Essay on Suicide

Essay on Suicide

            Suicide is a catastrophic matter to happen in anyone’s life and it is the 10th leading cause of death for all ages in the United States. There are 123 suicides per day in the US and 44,965 Americans die by suicide annually (asps.org). Suicide is not a solution; therefore, it is a permanent solution to a temporary predicament. For every suicide, there are more people who attempt suicide every year. Suicide is the result of people taking their own life due to intolerable depression and major life changes.

The problem has already been acknowledged in the whole world and therefore looking at the preventive measures has remained the only option, whether for a friend or individual. Some of people who later become victims of suicide have indicated some unique characteristics and ignorance of these characteristics by their close friends usually lead to the incidence taking place (afsp.org). One of the unique characteristics of suicide victims is their threats of committing suicide from time to time, although in a more like jokes manner and later end up committing the act. So it is advisable for those who have such characteristics to be exposed so that they can be assisted through counselling.

The other category of suicide victims usually has the feeling of committing suicide whenever faced by some hard situation or under stress. Although most of the people under this category tend to ignore such a feeling at personal basis, research has showed that whenever the feeling overcomes the emotions the chances of committing suicide increases (nimh.nih.gov). Therefore, the best way of overcoming such a situation is by approaching someone whom you are comfortable with and explaining the situation. The person to approach can be a close friend or a family member and through sharing, the feeling can be overpowered and learn to control personal emotions under different circumstances.

It is however frustrating that at some incidences of suicide; the close friends to the victim play the role of dark angels which on their own opinions think that they are keeping friendship.  A good example is a case in Ridgewood High School, where a very friend to the victim noticed his friend with a poisonous drug which was believed to have the ability of causing death when taken by a human being (nimh.nih.gov). The victim persuaded with his friend not to tell anyone of the issue and accepted in order to keep their friendship only to find his friend dead on its bend the following morning. Some are worthy more than mere friendship indeed, because if the friend had taken an initiative of informing the school counsellor, they would have saved the life of the victim who was only stressed by his failure in terminal exams.

In United States of America, suicide cases have been on rise, up 24% from the year 1990 through 2014 attracting its rank as the 10^th cause of deaths among the citizens of America for a long period of time, in fact a head of Homicide. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has recently reported that suicide rate hit the target it were 25 years ago in 2013 and since then has been rising gradually up to where it is at the moment, 13 deaths per 100,000 people annually. This is approximately 800,000 people each year (suicideprevention.ca).

Unlike long time ago where committing suicide was a challenge and which could take time to be achieved, current suicides don’t even call for much struggle since someone just needs to buy a pesticide with an excuse of controlling pests and he or she is good to go. It was really a whole process those time because a rope had to be acquired secretly and kept safely from being noticed since it could easily raise an alarm. Again, the process had many obstacles since wherever it was supposed to take place ought to be a place far and interior, probably inside some bushy areas. As if that was not enough, the chances of it being successful were minimal since the branch were the rope was tied could break and that would mean a failed attempt which could leave the victim under injuries which could hinder any second attempt. Well, such a long process was advantageous since it played a great role in reducing these incidences compared to current situation where someone is capable of committing suicide even under the same room or even bed (who.org).

The fascinating aspect of suicide is that it applies to all the people regardless of age and gender. This is especially affirmed from the cases of suicide which have been recorded in history and even up to today. There are aged people who have been committing suicide equally to young people and crossing on gender, both women and men have all been victims of this act and this proves that the issue should be addressed publicly if its rate has to be reduced (who.org).

Suicide is a complex issue which is brought about by a number of factors and therefore should not be addressed in a single approach. Initially, it was believed to be caused by mental illness but the myth has been proved wrong since not all people with mental illness who attempt suicide and again to all the victims of suicide have had mental illness. However, people have suicidal feelings and thoughts are characterized by tremendous experiences of emotional pain and most of the victims of suicide have had overwhelming feelings of despair, helplessness and hopelessness.

Although it has been mistaken for moral weakness and character flaw, suicide has many contributing factors and circumstances. Some of those factors have been linked with childhood trauma, loss, serious physical illness, addictions, depression, and some changes in life which makes people feel overwhelmed and unable to withstand (who.org).

In accordance to Durkheim, a specialist in sociology, there are four suicide forms or types. He described the first example as Egoistic suicide and which involves the feeling of being alone in the world (Durkheim 12). The person experiences this state due to his or her low social interaction and therefore suffers because he keeps the problems inside. He described the second type as Altruistic suicide and which involves a social group due to certain demands especially those from cults and religions in form of sacrifices. In this form, the person who commits the suicide act dies together with several others

The third type was described as Anomic suicide and which was associated with people who lack self-control.  When things get tough for such people, especially when under stress and frustrations which may be as a result of financial losses or a financial market collapsing, they experience high levels of stress and uncontrollably resolve to commit suicide. The last type is the Fatalistic suicide which is mainly as a result of people being put under strict regulations and expectations are beyond their ability. This eventually leads to a sense of no self and may result to suicide cases (Durkheim 12).

As it has been observed by different researchers, people with suicidal habits have some character traits in common. For instance, most of them usually talk of wanting to die or to kill themselves and many of them will be seen searching for ways to kill themselves even online. The second character is those who talk of having no reason to live and therefore acting in some suspicious ways like driving recklessly and making their wills and putting things in order when still alive and healthy.

Conclusively, suicide has been depicted a common problem which affecting the human race equally regardless of age, gender or race. This calls for the attention against the issue as it’s irreversible and the only way to deal with it is by preventing it. The characters of potential victims of suicide have been scrutinized exhaustively and therefore should be paid attention to in order to control the cases of this evil act.

Work cited

Durkheim, Emile. Suicide: A study in sociology. Routledge, 2005.
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-faq/index.shtml#pub2
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/suicide-prevention/index.shtml#part_149720
https://suicideprevention.ca/understanding/what-is-suicide/
http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide
https://afsp.org/about-suicide