Be a Bridge to someone who is in need
(World Suicide Prevention Day-2020)

The aim of this blog is to create awareness about prevention of suicide on this day 10th September which is declared as World Suicide Prevention Day. According to WHO, about 8,00,000 people die every year due to suicide i.e around 2200 people each day. According to WHO, India has the highest suicide rate in the South-East Asian Region. India also had the third largest female suicide rate in the world after Lesotho and Republic of Korea. As per WHO reports that suicide is responsible for more deaths than malaria, breast cancer, war or even homicide. The reasons may be different but it is time to generate awareness. Especially now due to COVID Pandemic and loss of income these numbers could increase lot more. It is important to understand and find out if any of your near and dear ones are showing suicidal tendencies so that we could save their lives.

How to identify the suicidal tendencies?

  • Excessive sadness or moodiness
  • Being Pessimistic about future
  • Having problems in sleeping
  • Avoiding friends or social activities and choosing to stay alone
  • Sudden change in attitude or behaviour like speaking or moving with unusual speed or slowness.
  • Suddenly turning less concerned about physical appearance
  • Involving in dangerous and self harmful behaviour (Eg: Involving in reckless driving, using drugs or excessive alcohol)
  • Recent trauma or crisis in their life like losing a loved one, loss of income or any other serious relationship issues.
  • Writing or thinking about death
  • Also some time antidepressants can cause suicidal thoughts in the first week or when dose is changed even though in long run they help them in preventing suicidal thoughts.

What you can do?

The first and most important thing to do is to start communicating with the person. Once the person opens up please listen patiently to them. Give them a chance to share their issues or problems in a supportive and non- judgemental way. Also if you feel your communication is not helping the person encourage the person to take professional help. Make them understand that there is nothing to shy away from taking the necessary help. This small help could save a life. The problem these days is social media has become the most important way of communication which is not even happening on an personal level. All our communications are only forwarding messages and discussing politics. But let the communication go to a personal level. Especially when joint family system is becoming thing of past, the nuclear family is widening the gap among family members leaving many people with loneliness, distress and depression. Stress is the one of the undesirable outputs of our growth and development. But we need to recognise and tackle the stress in a smart way so that we don't get victimised by it. But to tackle it we need communication and relationships to flourish. So be a bridge to someone who is in need and help them overcome suicidal tendencies