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OPSYCHODELIC STALL RUNSFORD LARYEA

VER the years, one very eerie phenomenon that has grown as an almost absolute feature of our social life is how common it is to hear about a suicide case; be it, in the news or in and around our communities. The ‘ugly head’ of suicide still ‘lurks in the shadows’ of our schools, homes and society in general, with suicide ideation plaguing the minds of both the young and old.

As is always the case, the heart-wrenching despair and psychological trauma that comes about as a result of this is often too much for those left behind (particularly relatives and close friends) to make enough sense of and in most cases, they as well are left in prolonged states of bemusement and psychological disturbance.

The consistently tricky bit about suicide is, unlike a physical ailment, it cannot be seen as being the result of only one cause; rather, what is looked at is more in the mould of what drives the individual towards consciously making the decision to end their own life. To elaborate, the manifestation of a suicide case has its roots deeply set in the psycho-emotional realms of the human being, meaning; the arrival at that point is the cumulative result of consistent psychological ‘wear-and-tear’ that breaks the individual down to a state that narrows down their willingness and zeal to live. Of course, the content and quality of the individual’s external environment cannot be downplayed; their social circle: their families, workplace and close friends and how well their relations are with those bodies in an emotional and social support standpoint.

Role

In most cases an individual’s external environment plays a massive role in how they see themselves and how they feel generally, which also directs certain ways in which they live their lives. With this in mind, it only makes sense that if your external environment (or what goes on around you, essentially) has a colossal impact on how we feel, how we think (of ourselves) as well our overall psychological direction of travel. This means, if what we experience consistently eats away at our confidence, demoralises us or causes us to doubt ourselves in many ways, overtime, we begin to psychologically succumb to those thoughts and

feelings and before we are conscious of them, we begin to lead our lives in accordance with them.

The world we live in is riddled with life situations that tend to take more out of us than what they return. Unemployment, being in debt, failures in relationships, breakdown in emotional connection with family and friends are some of the weights that many carry as they trudge towards deciding on ending their own lives. For the younger generation, bullying, peer pressure and ‘struggling to fit in’ are at the forefront of suicide drivers which explains the growing trend in the youth deciding to take that route.

Thoughts

The decision to end ones’ life is the conclusive result of the uninterrupted prolonged, progression of negative thoughts that the individual ‘chews on’ until they begin to believe. This is the reason why, most times it is difficult to pick a specific source of the tragedy and because it is rare that someone contemplating suicide actually shares this idea they have, it is often quite tricky to monitor their psycho-emotional changes. Behavioural changes are usually a handy tell-tale as to what may be going through an individuals’ mind, particularly if they have been freshly-exposed to a potentially traumatising experience. That way, the route to monitoring our friends and relatives’ mental health may be more useful in providing information about who needs any form of socio-emotional support. Send comments to: runsford0505@ gmail.com.