A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM-WHY PEOPLE GIVE UP ON LIFE

Underlying Factors

"Much of the decision to die is in the construing of events," says Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  She adds: "Most minds, when healthy, do not construe any event as devastating enough to warrant suicide."  Eve K. Moscicki, of the U.S.National Institute of Mental Health, notes that many factors -some of them underlying-work together to lead to suicidal behavior. Such underlying factors include mental and addictive disorders, genetic makeup, and brain chemistry.  Let us consider some of them.

Foremost among these factors are mental and addictive disorders, such as depression, biopolar mood disorders, schizophrenia, and alcohol or drug abuse.  Research in both Europe and the United States indicates that  more than 90 percent of completed suicides are associated with such disorders.  In fact, Swedish researchers found that among men who were not diagnosed with any disorders  of that kind, the suicide rate was 8.3 per 100,000, but among the depressed it jumped to 650 per 100,000! And experts say that the factors  leading to suicide are similar in Eastern lands. Still, even the combination of depression with triggering events doe snot make suicide inevitable.

Professor Jamison, who once attempted suicide herself, says:  "People seem  to be able to  bear or tolerate depression as long as there is a belief that things will improve."   However, she has found that as the cumulative  despair becomes unbearable, the ability of the mental system to restrain suicidal impulses gradually weakens. She likens the situation to the way that the brakes on a car are worn thin by constant stress.  

It is vital to recognize  such a trend because depression  can be treated.  Feelings of helplessness can be reversed.  When the underlying factors are dealt with, people  may react differently to the heartaches and stresses that often trigger suicide. 

Some think that one's genetic makeup may constitute an underlying factor in may suicides. True, genes play a role in determining one's temperament, and studies that some family lines have more incidents of suicide than others.  Yet, "a genetic predisposition to suicide is inevitable," says Jamison. 

Brain chemistry  too can be an underlying factor.  In the brain billions of neurons communicate electrochemically. At the branched out ends of the nerve fibers , there are small gaps called synapses across which neurotransmitters carry information chemically. The level of one neurotransmitter, serotonin, may be involved in a person's biological vulnerability to suicide.  The book Inside the Brain explains:  "A low serotonin level . . . can dry up the wellsprings of life's happiness, withering a person's interest in his existence and increasing the risk of depression and suicide.

The fact is, however, that nobody is destined to commit suicide. Millions of people cope with heartaches and stresses. It is the way the mind and the heart react  to pressures  that leads some to kill themselves. Not just the immediate triggering causes bu the underlying factors must also be dealt with.

So, then, what can be done to create a more positive outlook that will regenerate a measure of zest for life?  

Next time: A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM - YOU CAN FIND HELP

From the Awake! magazine