World suicide prevention day 2017: Caring for wounded minds

September 10 is observed as World Suicide Prevention Day as endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).

Taking one’s life is not out of choice but a very strong indication that the subject requires immediate professional intervention. Suicide is, in fact, a cry for help for the lonely and depressed.

They don’t want to kill themselves rather want to lead normal lives but due to their psychiatric condition are unable to.
According to studies, one person commits suicide every 40 seconds worldwide (800,000 suicides per year), which is probably an underestimate given the huge number of the population and also that many suicides are not reported due to guilt, shame, and inadequate data collection.

Although suicide is an individual act which can be due to personal issues, suicidal behaviour is determined by a number of individual and social factors.

Suicide is best understood as a multidimensional, multifactorial social and clinical condition. Suicide is perceived as a social problem in our country and hence, mental illnesses are regarded as one of the conceptual statuses with family conflicts and social maladjustment etc. 

According to few pieces of research, the reason for suicide is not known for about 43% of cases while mental illness and family problems contribute to about 44% of suicides.

One can identify if a person is suffering from depression and can go to the extent of committing suicide. Look out for the following symptoms and help them out by caring, talking to them, and helping in resolving the conflict.

Symptoms of depression include:

1. Depressed mood   

2.Reduced interest or pleasure in activities previously enjoyed,  

3.Unintentional weight loss (without dieting) or low appetite

4. Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) psychomotor agitation (for example, restlessness, pacing up and down), or psychomotor retardation (slowed movements and speech)  fatigue or loss of energy  feelings of worthlessness or guilt worsened ability to think, concentrate, or make decision recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, or attempt at suicide

4.Always living alone

5.Reckless behaviour- Lack of interest in old hobbies 

6.Mood swings