Why Do People Commit Suicide?

Suicide has become a common occurrence that it is no longer taking everyone by

surprise. Suicides have become a public trend and the reasons the victims give in their suicide
notes seem trivial to the people who are left behind. But suicide is never trivial. It is real,
unnerving and scary. The number of countries with national suicide prevention strategies has
increased in the five years since the publication of WHO’s first global report on suicide, said the
World Health Organization in the lead-up to World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September.
But the total number of countries with strategies, at just 38, is still far too few and governments
need to commit to establishing them. “Despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds
from suicide,” said WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Every death is
a tragedy for family, friends, and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. We call on all
countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education
programs in a sustainable way.”. It is often difficult for us to imagine what led a friend, family
member, or celebrity to commit suicide. There may be no warning signs, and you may wonder
what clues you might have missed. Often, many factors combine to lead to a decision to commit
suicide. It is often an act made during a storm of strong emotions and life stresses rather than
after careful consideration. Psychologists have linked suicide with mental disorders such as
personality disorders (drug abuse and alcoholism), schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression or
traumatic stress. For example, a person with schizophrenia or other illnesses that produce
psychosis might be hearing voices that command her to kill herself. Bipolar disorder, an illness
in which a person experiences alternating periods of high and low moods, can also increase a
person's risk for committing suicide. Depression is commonly fingered in many suicide cases,
yet most people suffering from depression do not kill themselves (only about 5 percent Bering
says), and not all suicide victims were depressed. “Around 43 percent of the variability in
suicidal behavior among the general population can be explained by genetics,” Bering reports,
“while the remaining 57 percent is attributable to environmental factors.” Having a genetic
predisposition for suicidality, coupled with a particular sequence of environmental assaults on
one's will to live, leads some people to try to make the pain stop.
A person who has had a traumatic experience, including childhood sexual abuse, rape, physical
abuse, or war trauma, is at a greater risk for suicide, even many years after the trauma. Most
people who have been raped had attempted suicide at some point only some people who
experienced physical assault tried to take their own life at some point.
Being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or multiple incidents of trauma
raises the risk even further. This is partly because depression is common after trauma and among
those with PTSD, causing feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that can lead to suicide.
But not all the patients who suffer from these conditions commit suicide (Bloch 775). These
Conditions can only be said to be excused for people to commit suicide since suicide is not a
state of mind that develops within a day. People blame suicide victims without investigating the
underlying factors so that they can be in a position to comprehend the victims’ emotional
imbalance and thoughts.
These are certain groups who are at higher risk of committing suicide. Older adults,
people age 15 to 24, males. Older adults. People ages 65 and older have the highest suicide rates
of any age group. Contributing factors are untreated depression, death of loved ones, chronic
illness, and loneliness. Persons age 15 to 24. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in this
age group and accounts for about 20% of all deaths annually. Suicide risk factors for teenagers
include depression, alcohol or drug abuse, a recent traumatic event, and exposure to other teens
who have committed suicide. Males. Of those who attempt suicide, the completion rate for men
is 4 times higher than for women. However, women attempt suicide about 2 to 3 times as often
as men. Men who are 85 years and older have the highest rate of suicide.
Psychologists have identified peer pressure and bullying as one of the major causes of
suicide. Many people spend the better part of their young lives with their parents. When they
enter high school, they may not be psychologically prepared to deal with mean people who pull
dirty pranks on them and abusing them verbally in real life or in social media, especially
commenting on their physical appearance. It makes these teenagers feel cornered and their
confidence and self-esteem are beaten down to a bare minimum (du Roscoät, 519). It makes
them feel incapable of coping with their peers because they felt worthless because of the bad
comments that make them felt less confident. When they no longer feel the need for living, don’t
have a purpose in life they contemplated suicide. Since they think it is unlike a person of their
age to report to their teachers or parents, bullying inside the school's area or environment tends to
go unnoticed for a long time until the teenager cannot take it anymore. There are options for
them to end the bullying case, whether they tell the adult, like the parents and their teachers
about it, end it with committing suicide, or they are strong enough to keep it to themself for an
unknown time. There is a case that the Internet and social media can influence suicide-related
behavior. In January, the children’s commissioner for England has accused social-media
companies of losing control of the content carried on their platforms, telling them that recent teen
suicides should be a “moment of reflection” for the way they operate. In an open letter to
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat, Anne Longfield said the
suicide of 14-year-old Molly Russell has highlighted the “horrific” material that children were
able to easily access online. In May, a 16-year-old girl has reportedly killed herself in Malaysia,
after posting a poll on her Instagram account asking followers if she should die or not, and 69
percent of responders voted that she should. Her death prompted a lawyer to suggest that those
who voted for her to die could be guilty of abetting suicide.
Sexual orientation is yet another cause of suicide, especially for teenagers. It is at this age
that the children come to terms with their sexuality and some of them have difficulties in coming
to terms with reality. When a teenager learns that he or she is bisexual, lesbian or gay, they find
it difficult to share with their close friends and when they do, they are ridiculed and mocked.
Sometimes the family turns against these teenagers and brand them as social misfits and an
embarrassment to humanity, especially the parents with strong religious affiliations (Hall 230).
When a child comes out to share about his/ her sexual orientation and is rejected by the same
people that they trust, the turmoil within becomes difficult to handle. When this situation leads to
depression, and the teenager has nobody to talk to, they may end up taking their lives as an
escape route.
Alcohol and drug abuse are yet another cause of people's suicide, especially for
teenagers. At this age, teenagers are in the age of discovery and they can only discover by
experimenting. Some get indulged that what they thought was fun turns to be fully-fledged
addiction. Some hard drugs are expensive and these children cannot afford them (Hall 232).
They, therefore, use the money available to them as pocket money and some can spend their
tuition money on drugs. When they realize that they have messed all the money entrusted to
them by their parents and they feel they make their parents disappointed to them and a disgrace
to them, they may think of overdosing to end their miserable life.
In conclusion, most people commit suicide due to their feelings of helplessness and
hopelessness. Most people who have attempted suicide complain of suffering in silence because
they do not trust the people close to them, they don’t have a person to relay on or they trusted
people close to them and they turned on them and betrayed them. When they feel that they have
no solution for their feelings of being unloved, hurt, rejection or pain, they choose the easiest
route which is suicide for their final option. The least prevention that we can do for stopping
suicidal cases is by speaking up. While we speak up we can also encourage the patient to find his
or her purpose in life, their goals, dreams or maybe find them a person who makes them want to
be strong and brave for them to speak for themself. Don’t just stay still when you see or notice
some suicidal sign, and if that is a person that you know or close to you, you can be the person
that your friend can rely on.