Causes of Suicide: Mental Health, Traumatic Experiences, and Family History - Essay Example

Causes of Suicide Suicide is the number ten cause of death in America. There are various reasons why people would resortto suicide. Major reasons as to why people commit suicide include mental illnesses, traumatic experiences and family history of an individual. The rate of suicide continues to increase as people do not find ways of getting help. There is still a lot of stigma regarding suicide that people are afraid of looking for help even when they need it and the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation without anyone to help them. The stigma is due to the fact that suicide is still a sensitive issue and those contemplating suicide are seen as weak individuals. Additionally, some people do not take threats of suicide seriously and thus leaving the patient to kill themselves. There is no proper structure to help people suffering from suicidal thoughts and also people are not keen enough to identify when a person is likely to commit suicide. Research has shown that people who are thinking of suicide try to communicate the action to their friends and family through subtle hints. Hints may include calling friends and relatives to say goodbye to them, putting their financial details and wills in order, withdrawing from people and frequently talking about death. Thesis Statement: There are many causes that lead to suicide including mental health, traumatic experiences, and family history. Depression alters the normal functioning of the mind and the individual feels very helpless without any hope in life. The symptoms of depression include loss of interest in e things that a person used to do before, mood swings, lack of interest in relationships with people, too much sadness and hopelessness. People who suffer from depression are more likely to commit or attempt suicide more than the general population and in the United States, depression causes more than two-thirds of all suicide cases. Research reports that 50% or more of those who kill themselves has a history of acute depression (Flanders).The youth are at a higher risk of committing suicide due to depression than the older generation due to the pressures they face from their peers daily. Males are also seven times more likely to commit suicide from depression than women and the suicide rate from depression is still higher than deaths from chronic liver diseases and hypertension (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance). Bipolar disease is a condition where the patient has extreme bouts of mood swings ranging from very happy to very sad. The feelings are always very intense moving from one end of the spectrum to the other exposing them to suicide. Research has shown that out of three people suffering from bipolar disease, one will attempt suicide more than once. Research has also shown that people suffering from bipolar disease are twenty times more likely to commit suicide than the rest of the population. About 15-17% of patients suffering from bipolar disorder commit suicide (Treatment Advocacy Center). Suicide remains the number one killer of patients suffering from bipolar disease. The world today has made body image such an important issue that men and women are pressured to looking a certain way. Women who are heavy are not seen as attractive, and women who are skinny are more beautiful according to the standards set. Therefore, most people strive as much as they can to look in a certain way. However, people’s genetic make-up is very different, and some people cannot be skinny at all which means that they will be struggling for their entire lives. Failure to achieve the desired weight and appearance leads to feelings of low self-esteem and consequently higher chances of suicide. Furthermore, in the attempt to achieve the desired look, the individual may lead to other illnesses such as anorexia or bulimia. Anorexia and bulimia are mental illnesses, and this places them at a higher risk of suicide (Alden). Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that affects people who have gone through traumatic experiences. Such people may include soldiers from a war, a child who went through physical abuse or even someone who has gone through a robbery. Such people are normally unable to deal with the feelings of hopelessness and despair from the traumatic experience. Soldiers suffer from extreme feelings of guilt about the people that they had to kill during the wars. The risk of suicide is higher among the people who have gone through such traumatic experiences in that the guilt that they feel or their fears direct how they act and how they respond to issues. High levels of intrusive memories predispose one to suicide (Hudenko, Homaifar, and Wortzel). Physical trauma occurs when a person has some injury on the body and something that can be seen or physically felt. Some of the symptoms of physical injury include lethargy, paleness, fatigue, poor concentration and a racing heartbeat. A person in this condition is not able to function in the normal way and thus more predisposed to committing suicide. Physical trauma may lead to chronic pain that the individual is unable to handle and thus seeing death as the best possible way out of their misery. Brain injury predisposes a person to a higher chance of suicide. Most traumas are usually physically violent in nature, and they include rape, domestic violence, or even witnessing a violent act. Physical trauma causes the individual to have low self-esteem and a low sense of self-worth and thus, the individual may get mental illnesses such as PTSD or bipolar which in turn leads to a higher chance of suicide than the rest of the population. The stress levels arising from physical trauma may be too high for the individual to handle (National Drug Strategy). Emotional abuse applies to individuals who are unable to control their emotions or have been made to feel worthless by people who are important in their lives. For instance, a child may be emotionally abused by their parents of the parents are constantly putting them down without any reason or even just abusing them verbally, a spouse may be emotionally abused by their partner. An emotionally abused person is more likely to commit suicide due to feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem (Sarchiapone, Carli, and Cuomo). Emotional abuse on a child is carried on into adulthood and usually is very hard to cure and heal the individual. Genetic mental illnesses are passed on from the parent to the child, and they move from one generation to the next. The fact that some mental illnesses are passed on from the parents to the child has led to speculation that there are genes that are associated with suicide. However, this issue is still very controversial as genes are very complex, and they vary widely. However, it could be argued that personality of an individual is influenced by the genes, and thus such personalities may come with depression. Mental illnesses are mostly inherited from parent to child and thus may predispose one to suicide. Suicide in itself does not have a gene; rather, a person inherits a mental illness that predisposes them to suicide (McGrath). Mental illnesses that are inherited include bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. People who have family members, friends, and even neighbors are more likely to commit suicide than those who have no committed suicide. When a person is exposed to suicidal tendencies of other people, they are also likely to commit suicide. This may come about as a result of trauma from seeing their close relatives going through the same. A child who has a parent commit suicide is likely to commit suicide in future as well as the image remains in their minds and may result in depression and other mental illnesses. Exposure to suicide is a traumatic event that may make a patient severely depressed and thus more likely to commit suicide (Mercy, Kresnow, and OCarroll). Most people yearn for a connection with the rest of the humanity and those who are unable to make emotional connections with other people are likely to commit suicide than people who can form healthy relationships with other people. When a person is unable to connect with other people and develop meaningful relationships, they are likely to feel lonely and have no reason to live. Human beings derive pleasure and fulfillment in their relationships with other people, and this means that if they cannot find such relationships then they become very depressed with no one to connect to and relate with appropriately. Lack of emotional connection may also mean that the person does not have any feelings towards anything and do not have any reason to live (Philips). Such people see death as the only way out of their misery and thus have a higher chance of committing suicide than people who have meaningful relationships. People who most likely do not have any emotional connections with other people include homeless people, depressed people, people with mental illnesses and so forth. In conclusion, the rates of suicide need to be decreased, and it is important to recognize the warning signs of a person likely to commit suicide so that they are rescued in time. Solutions such as counseling, medication and being close to other people should be sort to reduce the skyrocketing numbers. People who are likely to commit suicide have a saying that ‘Prolong human life only when you can shorten its miseries and therefore of there is a way that lives could be improved then suicide rates can be highly reduced. Works Cited Alden, Sharyn. Centre for Advancing Health. 29 August 2013. 12 April 2015 . Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Depression Statistics. 2015. 12 April 2015 . Flanders, Stephen. Suicide. New York: Facts on File, 1991. Hudenko, William, Beeta Homaifar and Hal Wortzel. National Center for PTSD. 3 January 2014. 12 April 2015 . M. Sarchiapone, et al. "Vulnerability to Suicidal Behaviours: Risk and Protective Factors." n.d. 12 April 2015 . McGrath, Patrick. Is suicide Genetic? 2014. 12 April 2015 . Mercy, James, et al. American Journal of Epidemiology. 17 January 2001. 12 April 2015 . National Drug Strategy. Brain injury, mental disorders and substance use. n.d. 12 April 2015 . Philips, Suzzane. This Emotional Life. 2009. 12 April 2015 . Treatment Advocacy Center. Eliminating the Barriers to the Treatment of Mental Illnesses. 2011. 12 April 2015 . Read More