Self-immolations in Lebanon blamed on economic collapse

A RECENT spate of self-immolation attempts in Lebanon have highlighted a growing mental health crisis fuelled by the country’s economic collapse, experts say.

In Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, protesters grabbed a man who tried to ignite a lighter after pouring fuel on his head. In the same week, a Syrian vegetable seller in the Bekaa Valley died after setting himself on fire, while in a suburb outside Beirut, bystanders pulled a taxi driver from a burning car after he set the vehicle ablaze.

“Every year it goes from bad to worse,” said Ali, the driver who survived with burns, who told local media he had tried to immolate after he could no longer afford rental payments on the cab he was also living in.

Even for a population renowned for coping, the past year has been a struggle. The recent suicide attempts, all reportedly linked to economic anxiety, coincided with the tenth anniversary of the start of the Arab Spring, which was fuelled by the economic frustrations of the region’s growing youth demographic but began with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit vendor.

In Lebanon, experts say the recent suicide attempts are manifestations of a much larger problem. “Looking at suicide rates as indicators of the mental state of the nation is unfair, as they’re really the tip of the iceberg,” said Joseph El-khoury, a consultant psychiatrist at the American University of Beirut.

A study he led confirmed that Lebanon’s past year of turmoil has produced a mental health crisis.

The university interviewed 2,000 people following the Aug 4 port explosion that devastated the Lebanese capital. These were people who had already lived through a year of economic collapse in which the currency shed 80 per cent of its value and poverty rose to over 50 per cent. The study found that 80 per cent of respondents had symptoms of depression and anxiety, while nearly 40 per cent had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The levels of stress and anxiety and depression in the society are much higher than you would expect even with Covid-19 and the economic downturn,” Dr El-khoury said. “Very few countries have been through what Lebanon is going through all at once.”

With spiralling coronavirus cases pushing the health system to the verge of collapse – intensive care beds are above 90 per cent capacity nationwide – Lebanon’s mental health crisis has attracted far less attention.

But since a total lockdown was imposed last Thursday, demand for mental health services, largely delegated to NGOS by the health ministry, has soared. “Today we’re supposed to be on lockdown, at the free walk-in clinic we saw 18 people,” said Georges Karam, a psychiatrist with Idraac, a Lebanese NGO.

“It’s the economy, the economy, the economy,” said Dr Karam. “Things will get worse because the economic situation is getting worse.”