10th September.

10th September,?another normal calendar day. Apparently there is no specialty in look, orientation, numbers, palindrome, nothing. Still this day is important, not only for me or you, for entire world. Do you know why? Because it’s been observed as WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY from 2003. The single word SUICIDE can catch your attention, terrorize you with unforeseen situations or can shake your memory as well if you have any prior experience to deal with such situation or act. It’ll be tough to find any people who doesn’t have witnessed such undone situation. Be it family member, neighbor, friend or known person. When we come to know such news, a sigh of sadness automatically comes inside out. A lot of WHY start to knock our mind, our thinking and even in some cases it can disturb our regular schedules depending on emotional attachment with the diseased. That’s why this day is being observed to prohibit any such act by any means.

Have you ever thought, why people take such ultimate step to end oneself? Question is very common but answer is still a riddle. Some says it’s an act of cowards. People who don’t have guts to fight odds in life opt such easy escapes. Some others say that it’s an act which requires a lot of courage and hatred for self to perform such self destruction. Another opinion is there stating emotional turmoil is the main cause to unsettle inner equilibrium and people just before committing suicide may get completely mad, may be out of rage, anger, urge of taking revenge, or to teach a lesson to someone by winning post death sentimental statements. Whatever be the reason, a loss is there on the card. So, to avoid such loss we must know the possible ways to prevent suicides by any means & that’s the objective of 10th September.

Let’s look some facts and figures first to have some preliminary understanding.

1.??????More than 700k people die every year globally due to suicide. Rate of such act is much higher in economically backward zone of world. Almost 77% of global cases.

2.??????Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death for adolescents.

3.??????Specially 15 – 19 years age group kids are victims.

4.??????Most easy and common mediums are self poisoning, hanging, deep cut or fire arms.

5.??????According to National Crime record Bureau, the suicidal census of 2019 (which was released on 2020) is 1,39,123. It means in India, 381 people on an average are taking their own lives daily which is growing day by day.

Now, question is what type of precautions we can take and after all preparations if someone tries to end life, what kind of intervention should be done. It’s quite clear that we can have two different situations to manage i.e. one where someone tried to commit suicide but failed and another is when someone has suicidal thoughts running in mind.

We must remember in both the cases that people going through such phases are on borderline. So caretakers must keep their attitude calm and cool and must be selective in expressions. Any overreaction from caretaker’s part can ignite the flame in victim’s thought process. So, let’s divide the method into two categories depending on situation. For first situation it should be prevention and for second, it should be precaution.

Let’s check out possible methods of prevention first. It can be physical or material prevention and psychosocial prevention.

Material prevention:

1.??????Limit access to the means like pesticides, concentrated acids, rope, sharp objects like knife, sword etc, certain medicines like high dose sedatives /consumption of bulk tranquilizers / high derivative antibiotics which are generally prescribed y specialists mentioning controlled doses etc.

2.??????Foster socio emotional life skills in adolescents.

3.??????Early identification & interception,?immediate clinical support, manage provocations and steady follow up so that further recurrence can be eliminated.

Psychosocial preventions:

It was revealed in research that a person who is keeping suicidal thoughts in priority can be identified by attitude and expression time to time. At least he/she opens up for once to anyone who he/she thinks reliable. We very often underrate such expressions and try to manage through instant sermonizing. But the person remains detached from inner self and his/her distorted thinking don’t let him/her to settle down emotionally. All the sermons thus remain ineffective and after few moments victim’s thought process again stats to flow on destructive track. So to educate the victim psychosocially, we must have some clear idea about symptoms which victims usually show. Symptoms are actually like wake up calls.

1.??????Talking about death frequently. Like desire to taste death, life after death, reincarnation etc.

2.??????Talking about hopelessness. Everything in this world seems like useless to victim.

3.??????A sign of helplessness in attitude. Even the easiest task looks like mammoth to victim.

4.??????Feeling physical or emotional pain for no definite reason. Failure to identify reasons actually irritates victims badly and they start to be prone to unrest nature.

5.??????Feeling like a burden to others. It’s aftereffect of hopeless & helpless feelings.

6.??????Sudden social withdrawals. Victim opts self isolation even in house also. Refuse to talk to friends, relatives or guests. Deliberately avoids all types of social gatherings.

7.??????Tendency of taking extreme risky and hazardous steps which can be proved as a death threat like rash driving, blindly crossing the road, scaling rail tacks when a train is passing.?

Well, all these discussions were being made on the basis of situational interventions. If someone tries to commit suicide or if you can find anyone feeling like such mood. The topic itself is so vast and wide that elaborating every option can construct a novel. I’m trying to share surface level information and want to make you all aware about pros and cons of such act. Now let’s focus on everyday affairs. Not every family possess minimum a person who’s trapped in such kind of mindset. But we can take some precautions for family members especially adolescent members of family whose psychological crux is mostly based on sentimental emotions. They may be rude on every little thing, may be proactive on any emotional issues, may be disobedient when there will be a tussle between their and caretaker’s / parent’s thought process. Out of sentimental thoughts, they may take any silly step like this. Actually it’s happening throughout the world. Irrespective of cast, creed, financial situation, social status, most adolescents took overreactive steps on any confrontation with loved ones which could be solved through intelligent discussions. Next may be yours! May be. Who knows! It’s better to take early precautions so that you’ll not repent later. Prevention is always better than cure. Have a look.

1.??????Help budding kids to find perspectives of their lives. Make the understand about the difference between existing and living.

2.??????Don’t suppress kid’s natural emotional growth by overburden of expectation. As a parent you have every right to show the path of future and advice children. But don’t be rigid and start dictating. They’ll either be scared and become unconfident or resist with full authority and become adamant. Either way you’ll be on loosing side as parents.

3.??????Make your kid confident on own ability and let them be competent enough to pursue multiple domain of employment. Don’t restrict their focus on single goal. Obviously there will be a solid goal statement, but provide them opportunity to learn some alternative skills also so that they can combat any sort of failure.

4.??????It’s my personal dream to start proper sex education from high school level when most students attain puberty. They should know that sex is a normal biological process like eating or urinating. Like other process it also have an objective. Train your kids with proper knowledge on sex so that they can prevent themselves from falling prey in the trap of forbidden interest. Maximum teen age suicidal thoughts have a reason of sexual adventure.

5.??????Stop labelling kids. Let them identify their own position on this earth. Don’t label them like “you’re good for nothing”, “you’re horrible” or like “you’ve to grab more numbers than X”. llet them flourish with own colors. Just be there as a pioneer with all your experiences and resources to guide them as a friend – philosopher – guide.

6.??????Encourage kids to maintain a healthy social life like making friends, having fun with them, spending quality time with each other. It’ll help them to understand differences in beliefs, practices, values, ideas. It’ll also help them to vent out anguishes (if any). Let them realize the beauty as well as the ugly face of outer world. Any first hand experience is the best teacher.

7.??????Avoid any sort of social bullying and tell kids to do so. Social bullying may be an amusement for trolls but it actually cuts deep in mind of victim. They get more occupied with social stigmas and taboos. They start withdrawing themselve from society and start living in a cocoon of self imposed isolation. Depressive disorders start to strengthen it’s roots from this point.

8.??????MOST IMPORTANTLY IT’S NOT ONLY FOR ADOLESCENTS, IT’S APPLICABLE FOR ANY AGE GROUP TO KEEP EMOTIONAL FRESHNESS.

I'm not the last man to decide what's right to do. Want to have your views also. It'll not only enrich the discussion, but also give me some new dimensions in thinking. For more such brainstorms, follow me here or at Nirmalya Saha - Put life into focus or at Althought