September 10, few days back, was the world suicide prevention Day, a first to me , addressing the grave ever growing epidemic world wide. claiming over a million lives each year globally , causing untold grief and tremendous losses. It is world wide and increasing in alarming numbers, and being classified now as one of the leading causes of death .
Depressed people in general, and youths more particularly are very vulnerable nowadays to lack of opportunities , secure futures and huge wealth discrepancies and incomes, discrimination and a culture of bullying against all forms of nonconformity are becoming the norms in our schools, universities and work places, especially in more advanced societies.
An estimated 1.3 millions per year die by suicide, and there are approximately 20 attempts for each actual successful suicide. According to WHO, the suicide rates (per 100,000) of world population, goes as follows ; Europe 13%, South Eastern Asia 26%, Western Pacific 25%, Americas 14.5%, Africa 13%, Eastern Mediterranean 8.5% . Suicides have a number of complex, interrelated and underlying contributing factors, that adds to the feelings of pain and hopelessness, having access to means of killing oneself, most typically are firearms, medicine and poisons, they are all risk factors.
Stress in our lives and work, is becoming very common, we live in a culture where many if not most of us , want continuously only the best for ourselves and our dependents, and to be at all times very distinguished, different and superior, but we all fail to realize that specifically this pattern of reasoning is the source of our stresses and depressions in life, leading eventually to serious crises .
To be a happy person, we don't necessarily have to have the best of everything , nor be the best always. Reflecting on our present situations, world wide, 21st century Sapiens are facing a deteriorating resiliency of its youth, their desperation of modern times and conditions, makes it some of our darkest times historically, Sapiens were never through history more depressed, more anxious, more worried about economical and living standards and continuity, more desperate about their image in life among their peers.
The more our societies are advanced at least economically and technologically, the more disparity of wealth distribution, and more brutality in all aspects of life, and tighter controls on behavior from institutions, manufacturers, and big conglomerates and corporations, the more we observe desperation, depressions and rebellions.
Not all suicides are just simple individual acts as it appears though, I consider collective injustices, economical or political, an important factor in the general suicidal trends, Palestinian youths committing different acts of resistance, with bare hands against their occupiers' brutality, hegemony, and their willful and determined dehumanization, are sort of simple and different suicide forms . Or escaping extreme dangerous places, and riding the high seas on dinghies with a 50/50 chance of survival are another form of suicides by desperate fugitive individuals.
Wars, and civil wars and mass deportations, are of course further reasons for total desperation and suicidal tendencies. US veterans of adventurous wars , were in an alarming upward spike of suicides, as the death toll from suicides in the US is approx. 50,000, per year. of all ages . globally, rates by age are around 55% for the 15 to 44 years of age, and 45% for the 45 and older .
Still in much of the world, suicide is much stigmatized , ignored and condemned, mostly for religious, social and cultural reasons, rendering suicides often a secretive act, surrounded by taboo. Preventing serious help, or adequate open discussions to alleviate the seriousness and gravity of the high numbers of futile deaths.
As always my many thanks to all, all over the world.
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