Why Some People Commit Suicide

All over the world, as many as a thousand people try to commit suicide every day.

• From the survey made in the U.K. it was estimated that a very large number of people make suicide attempts every year. Numerically the largest number of suicides and attempts of suicide occurred in cases of people over 55.
  

• Many cases of suicide attempts are those of impressionable young girls who take an overdose of sleeping pills or tranquillizers; but much less than half the cases of people who attempt suicide really want to die. What is important to know is that many suicide attempts are a means of communication: virtually a cry for help and sympathy.

• The motives for suicides include bad health, troubled relationships with other people, material problems such as shortage of money, bad housing, a disorganised life, failure in marriage and living in a depressing area. People from broken homes often attempt suicide; chronic alcoholism can also be a cause.

• Suicide is the ultimate act in succumbing to stress.

• Compared with the so-called working classes in the developed countries the upper social classes are more prone to kill themselves. Doctors, in particular, are two-and-a-half times more likely to commit suicide as other men and one-and-a-half times as likely as their social equals.

• Two countries whose suicide rates appear to be going down are Japan and Britain. In Japan the reason is because ideas of dishonor and disgrace are changing and in Britain because of an organization called the Samaritans.

• To prevent suicide is the reason behind the existence of a world- wide organisation called the Samaritans. Anyone who is considering committing suicide can contact a member of the Samaritans who are specially trained to deal with such cases. Usually, all that is required is a sympathetic ear — somebody who will listen. If persons desperate enough to commit suicide can get someone sympathetic to listen patiently to their problems, the urge to commit suicide frequently subsides and then vanishes altogether. And that is where the Samaritans play such an important part.

• Ten times more men in the age group 65 to 69 kill themselves eachyear in the U.K. than do young men aged 20 to 25. They kill themselves by hanging, drowning, by inhaling gas, or taking an overdose of sleeping tablets and other such drugs.