Alwaez Rai Abu Ali
Waez # 819
Date: November 5, 2004
Place: Austin, TX
Towards the end of the waez, he lists 10 Gunah-e-Kabirah which will follow one to the grave. They are as follows:
1. Breaking Bayat to the Imam-e-Zamaan
2. Hurting your parents
3. Testifying a false witness (lying as a witness)
4. Breaking another's trust
5. Rape
6. Cheating a widow or an orphan
7. Hurting a learned man (teacher, scholar)
8. Accusation to destroy one's reputation
9. Hurting your children (i.e. spends money on gambles instead of providing for children)
10. Suicide (the punishment lasts for 5,000 years)
Suicide
-
Mehreen1221
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:02 pm
- Location: London, England
- Contact:
-
shiraz.virani
- Posts: 1256
- Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 2:52 pm
4:29 (Y. Ali) O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you Traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful!
it is said in one of the hadiths that if a person commits suicide by hanging/stabbing/drinking poison etc etc he will receive the same punishment in hell i.e stabbing himself/choking or drinking poison forever in hell
it might be that the waizeen was pointing @ above , 5000 years of same punishement in hell = 18,25,000 days
it is said in one of the hadiths that if a person commits suicide by hanging/stabbing/drinking poison etc etc he will receive the same punishment in hell i.e stabbing himself/choking or drinking poison forever in hell
it might be that the waizeen was pointing @ above , 5000 years of same punishement in hell = 18,25,000 days
-
hussainkhan55
- Posts: 46
- Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 1:35 am
Fate of the soul
A person who takes away his life by hanging does not attain salvation and angel procures his soul and it (soul) remains at the vicinity of point where death has taken place.
Can We Stop Suicides?
It’s been way too long since there was a new class of drugs to treat depression. Ketamine might be the solution.
Excerpt:
The suicide rate has been rising in the United States since the beginning of the century, and is now the 10th leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s often called a public health crisis. And yet no new classes of drugs have been developed to treat depression (and by extension suicidality) in about 30 years, since the advent of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac.
The trend most likely has social causes — lack of access to mental health care, economic stress, loneliness and despair, the opioid epidemic, and the unique difficulties facing small-town America. These are serious problems that need long-term solutions. But in the meantime, the field of psychiatry desperately needs new treatment options for patients who show up with a stomach full of pills.
Now, scientists think that they may have found one — an old anesthetic called ketamine that, at low doses, can halt suicidal thoughts almost immediately.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/opin ... 3053091202
It’s been way too long since there was a new class of drugs to treat depression. Ketamine might be the solution.
Excerpt:
The suicide rate has been rising in the United States since the beginning of the century, and is now the 10th leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s often called a public health crisis. And yet no new classes of drugs have been developed to treat depression (and by extension suicidality) in about 30 years, since the advent of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac.
The trend most likely has social causes — lack of access to mental health care, economic stress, loneliness and despair, the opioid epidemic, and the unique difficulties facing small-town America. These are serious problems that need long-term solutions. But in the meantime, the field of psychiatry desperately needs new treatment options for patients who show up with a stomach full of pills.
Now, scientists think that they may have found one — an old anesthetic called ketamine that, at low doses, can halt suicidal thoughts almost immediately.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/opin ... 3053091202
-
swamidada1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
Newser - Current News - Breaking Stories
20 Students Commit Suicide After Faulty Exam Results
Errors will be rectified, but too late for some in India's Telangana state
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2019 7:51 AM CDT
(NEWSER) – Since April 18, student suicides have been a daily occurrence in India's Telangana state. On that day came results of a state examination taken by almost 1 million 12th graders, per Fox News, and nearly 350,000 failed—supposedly. An independent panel has since found the software developed by outside firm Globarena, commissioned by the state Board of Intermediate Education to process exam results, was faulty. Many students said they sat for the exam on which most university admissions are based but were marked absent, received zero marks in sections they'd completed, or otherwise failed as a result of incorrect marks, per CNN. After failing zoology, a 17-year-old girl set herself on fire in Narayanpet district on Saturday, reports the Khaleej Times. She's one of more than 20 to die by suicide since April 18, per the Telegraph.
"People should not resort to such kind of extreme steps," says a senior police official, noting exam errors "can be checked and rectified." But he adds getting the message out is difficult since "all these people are spread over a large area." Telangana's Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has ordered that all failures be reexamined. One student who failed a subject reportedly received 93% after such a review, per the Telegraph. Yet the outlet points to larger issues: a booming population, the highest unemployment rates in 45 years, and university acceptance rates below that of Harvard. CNN likewise highlights intense pressure on Indian students, noting parents climbed school buildings to pass cheat sheets to 10th graders in Bihar state in 2015.
20 Students Commit Suicide After Faulty Exam Results
Errors will be rectified, but too late for some in India's Telangana state
By Arden Dier, Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2019 7:51 AM CDT
(NEWSER) – Since April 18, student suicides have been a daily occurrence in India's Telangana state. On that day came results of a state examination taken by almost 1 million 12th graders, per Fox News, and nearly 350,000 failed—supposedly. An independent panel has since found the software developed by outside firm Globarena, commissioned by the state Board of Intermediate Education to process exam results, was faulty. Many students said they sat for the exam on which most university admissions are based but were marked absent, received zero marks in sections they'd completed, or otherwise failed as a result of incorrect marks, per CNN. After failing zoology, a 17-year-old girl set herself on fire in Narayanpet district on Saturday, reports the Khaleej Times. She's one of more than 20 to die by suicide since April 18, per the Telegraph.
"People should not resort to such kind of extreme steps," says a senior police official, noting exam errors "can be checked and rectified." But he adds getting the message out is difficult since "all these people are spread over a large area." Telangana's Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has ordered that all failures be reexamined. One student who failed a subject reportedly received 93% after such a review, per the Telegraph. Yet the outlet points to larger issues: a booming population, the highest unemployment rates in 45 years, and university acceptance rates below that of Harvard. CNN likewise highlights intense pressure on Indian students, noting parents climbed school buildings to pass cheat sheets to 10th graders in Bihar state in 2015.
What Lies in Suicide’s Wake
Along with everything else, I wasn’t prepared for the stigma of becoming a widow this way.
When I lost my husband in 2008, I learned that the shocking cause of his death wasn’t as rare as I had thought. More than 45,000 Americans died last year from suicide, in a staggering but seemingly silent epidemic. All this week mental health professionals are sounding the alarm about this crisis, drawing attention to the warning signs that someone you love may be at risk.
I missed those signs until it was too late. Once he was gone, my life was unimaginably altered, both by his deadly decision and the stigma it left in its wake.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/opin ... 3053090914
Along with everything else, I wasn’t prepared for the stigma of becoming a widow this way.
When I lost my husband in 2008, I learned that the shocking cause of his death wasn’t as rare as I had thought. More than 45,000 Americans died last year from suicide, in a staggering but seemingly silent epidemic. All this week mental health professionals are sounding the alarm about this crisis, drawing attention to the warning signs that someone you love may be at risk.
I missed those signs until it was too late. Once he was gone, my life was unimaginably altered, both by his deadly decision and the stigma it left in its wake.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/opin ... 3053090914
-
swamidada2
- Posts: 297
- Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2019 8:18 pm
OCTOBER 17, 2019, 1:14 PM ET
‘She Died In My Arms’ : Teen Takes Own Life 2 Years After Being Sex Trafficked, Family Says
“The family deserves justice and peace of mind that her death is not in vain,” Letty Serrano's godmother said.
BY JILL SEDERSTROM
A HOUSTON TEENAGER TOOK HER OWN LIFE Saturday morning, two years after family says she was drugged and sold to sex traffickers.
“She died in my arms,” her father, Mariano Serrano, told local station KTBC of his 15-year-old daughter’s tragic death.
Letty Serrano barricaded herself in the bathroom Saturday morning as her desperate father tried to reach her, but he would be too late.
The teen’s death is a tragic end for a girl who was once described by her godmother as a “good student” who got good grades until her family said she caught the attention of a sex trafficker.
“She was the perfect target for them,” Cynthia Rivera told the station, saying the teen had also been “kind of a loner” and had been struggling after the death of her brother when she was targeted by the man.
Her family said when the teen was just 13 years old, she was drugged and sold to sex traffickers, local ABC affiliate KTRK reports.
Her family searched for the teen for days. Eventually, they found her, but the girl who returned home was never the same as the one who had vanished.
“We got her back damaged,” Rivera said.
The man who her family believes took her was arrested — but later released just a short time later, KTBC reports.
Her family believes Serrano was torn between the man who trafficked her and her family — even running away again on two different occasions to be with him.
“She wanted to be with him,” Mariano Serrano told KTBC. “But, she also didn’t want to hurt her family.”
Letty's family is now hoping to raise awareness about the devastating cost of sex trafficking and seek justice for the teen.
“I want to see him in court,” Mariano Serrano told the station. “I want to tell him it’s his fault my daughter is dead.”
Houston Police Commander Jim Dale said he plans to look into re-opening the case.
“She was a victim and somehow her cries fell through the cracks and I think that’s why it’s so imperative that we get the schools involved,” he told KTBC of efforts to increase education about sex trafficking dangers in local schools.
https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/letty ... amily-says
‘She Died In My Arms’ : Teen Takes Own Life 2 Years After Being Sex Trafficked, Family Says
“The family deserves justice and peace of mind that her death is not in vain,” Letty Serrano's godmother said.
BY JILL SEDERSTROM
A HOUSTON TEENAGER TOOK HER OWN LIFE Saturday morning, two years after family says she was drugged and sold to sex traffickers.
“She died in my arms,” her father, Mariano Serrano, told local station KTBC of his 15-year-old daughter’s tragic death.
Letty Serrano barricaded herself in the bathroom Saturday morning as her desperate father tried to reach her, but he would be too late.
The teen’s death is a tragic end for a girl who was once described by her godmother as a “good student” who got good grades until her family said she caught the attention of a sex trafficker.
“She was the perfect target for them,” Cynthia Rivera told the station, saying the teen had also been “kind of a loner” and had been struggling after the death of her brother when she was targeted by the man.
Her family said when the teen was just 13 years old, she was drugged and sold to sex traffickers, local ABC affiliate KTRK reports.
Her family searched for the teen for days. Eventually, they found her, but the girl who returned home was never the same as the one who had vanished.
“We got her back damaged,” Rivera said.
The man who her family believes took her was arrested — but later released just a short time later, KTBC reports.
Her family believes Serrano was torn between the man who trafficked her and her family — even running away again on two different occasions to be with him.
“She wanted to be with him,” Mariano Serrano told KTBC. “But, she also didn’t want to hurt her family.”
Letty's family is now hoping to raise awareness about the devastating cost of sex trafficking and seek justice for the teen.
“I want to see him in court,” Mariano Serrano told the station. “I want to tell him it’s his fault my daughter is dead.”
Houston Police Commander Jim Dale said he plans to look into re-opening the case.
“She was a victim and somehow her cries fell through the cracks and I think that’s why it’s so imperative that we get the schools involved,” he told KTBC of efforts to increase education about sex trafficking dangers in local schools.
https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/letty ... amily-says
The Crisis in Youth Suicide
Too often, suicide attempts and deaths by suicide, especially among the young, become family secrets that are not investigated and dealt with in ways that might protect others from a similar fate.
The death of a child is most parents’ worst nightmare, one made even worse when it is self-inflicted. This very tragedy has become increasingly common among young people in recent years. And adults — parents, teachers, clinicians and politicians — should be asking why and what they can do to prevent it.
In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that after a stable period from 2000 to 2007, the rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 increased dramatically — by 56 percent — between 2007 and 2017, making suicide the second leading cause of death in this age group, following accidents like car crashes.
“We’re in the middle of a full-blown mental health crisis for adolescents and young adults,” said Jean M. Twenge, research psychologist at San Diego State University and author of the book “iGen,” about mental health trends among those born since 1995. “The evidence is strong and consistent both for symptoms and behavior.”
Along with suicides, since 2011, there’s been nearly a 400 percent increase nationally in suicide attempts by self-poisoning among young people. “Suicide attempts by the young have quadrupled over six years, and that is likely an undercount,” said Henry A. Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, who called the trend “devastating.” “These are just the ones that show up in the E.R.”
Had any other fatal or potentially fatal condition leapfrogged like this, the resulting alarm would surely have initiated a frantic search for its cause and cure. But too often suicide attempts and deaths by suicide, especially among the young, become family secrets that are not investigated and dealt with in ways that might protect others from a similar fate.
“We’re at a point now where this issue really can’t be ignored,” said John P. Ackerman, clinical psychologist and coordinator of suicide prevention at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “We invest heavily in crisis care, which is the most expensive and least effective means of preventing suicide.”
He proposed instead that more time and money be spent “on identifying kids who are most vulnerable, helping them respond effectively to stress, and teaching them what they can do in a crisis. And we need to start early, in the elementary grades. We haven’t even begun to use the resources that we know work. We have to be proactive.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/well ... 0920191203
Too often, suicide attempts and deaths by suicide, especially among the young, become family secrets that are not investigated and dealt with in ways that might protect others from a similar fate.
The death of a child is most parents’ worst nightmare, one made even worse when it is self-inflicted. This very tragedy has become increasingly common among young people in recent years. And adults — parents, teachers, clinicians and politicians — should be asking why and what they can do to prevent it.
In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that after a stable period from 2000 to 2007, the rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 increased dramatically — by 56 percent — between 2007 and 2017, making suicide the second leading cause of death in this age group, following accidents like car crashes.
“We’re in the middle of a full-blown mental health crisis for adolescents and young adults,” said Jean M. Twenge, research psychologist at San Diego State University and author of the book “iGen,” about mental health trends among those born since 1995. “The evidence is strong and consistent both for symptoms and behavior.”
Along with suicides, since 2011, there’s been nearly a 400 percent increase nationally in suicide attempts by self-poisoning among young people. “Suicide attempts by the young have quadrupled over six years, and that is likely an undercount,” said Henry A. Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center, who called the trend “devastating.” “These are just the ones that show up in the E.R.”
Had any other fatal or potentially fatal condition leapfrogged like this, the resulting alarm would surely have initiated a frantic search for its cause and cure. But too often suicide attempts and deaths by suicide, especially among the young, become family secrets that are not investigated and dealt with in ways that might protect others from a similar fate.
“We’re at a point now where this issue really can’t be ignored,” said John P. Ackerman, clinical psychologist and coordinator of suicide prevention at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “We invest heavily in crisis care, which is the most expensive and least effective means of preventing suicide.”
He proposed instead that more time and money be spent “on identifying kids who are most vulnerable, helping them respond effectively to stress, and teaching them what they can do in a crisis. And we need to start early, in the elementary grades. We haven’t even begun to use the resources that we know work. We have to be proactive.”
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/well ... 0920191203
DAWN.COM
Why are more Pakistanis taking their own lives?
Rising number of traditionally under-reported suicide cases indicates hidden mental health epidemic remains unaddressed.
Tanzeel Hassan
Updated May 13, 2019
Although figures for suicide and suicide attempts are notoriously sketchy in the country, doctors agree that they are seeing an increase in the number of such cases.
What they indicate, however, is that aside from increasing stressors, there is a mental health emergency that remains unaddressed.
Draped in a red plaid scarf worn loosely around her head, 21-year-old Aasia* has just been shifted to the ward after five days in intensive care. Her skin looks pale and her legs are flexed.
Even at 21, Aasia seems to have carried the weight of the world on her tender shoulders. And perhaps, this burden was all too much for her to bear: Aasia is in hospital after ingesting rat poison in an attempt to end her life.
Standing beside her is an elderly man, her father, while her mother is sitting on a vacant bed next to her. “Aasia doesn’t have any mental health issues,” her father avows.
The family has been lodged at the National Poison Control Centre (NPCC) at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical and Dental Centre (JPMC) in Karachi ever since Aasia was brought in.
The father simply doesn’t understand how matters came to such a head. Being the only daughter remaining in the house after the marriage of her six elder sisters, he claims she is loved unconditionally.
“She tried to end her life because her mother had taken her to task for cooking the food too spicy,” he narrates. “She was making mistakes for the past few days while preparing meals for the family and was being criticised over that.”
Little did the parents know the toll such taunts were taking on Aasia. Fed up with the bickering, Aasia consumed poison. It took the family three hours to take Aasia to the NPCC, but luckily, they reached in time.
The increasing number of suicide cases reported indicates is that there is a mental health emergency that remains unaddressed.
On the extreme right to Aasia lies another young woman named Khizra* who attempted suicide by consuming insecticide. The 20-year-old was admitted to the hospital a few hours ago and is now stable after receiving the treatment.
A small quarrel with her younger brother over ironing of clothes had made her feel worthless and convinced her to take her own life.
Khizra ran and consumed insecticide soon after the quarrel was over, giving no time to the family to comprehend the situation. Her mother laments that children don’t think about their parents when they resort to such extreme decisions.
Aasia and Khizra are only two of the patients admitted at Ward 5 of JPMC.
There are many other patients of both genders who have either intentionally ingested poison or are victims of venomous insect bites or stings.
Dr Muhammad Junaid Mahboob, resident doctor at the NPCC, tells Eos that approximately 15-20 patients are admitted daily at the NPCC, many of whom consume poison deliberately in order to kill themselves.
The number of patients brought in is surprisingly higher on weekends.
While 98 percent of the patients of intentional poisoning survive, Dr Mahboob states that the survival chances depend on the type of poison, the amount taken, and the time it takes to reach the hospital.
While poisoning is one of the three leading modes of suicide in Pakistan besides hanging and firearms, Dr Mahboob specifies insecticide and rat poison as the most-opted poisonous substances by people who attempt suicide. The other less-reported poisonous substances are phenyl and acids.
Explaining the reasons of poisoning, he says, the most common problems reported by patients are loneliness, family quarrels, domestic violence, and interpersonal relationship issues.
The NPCC, established in 1989 with the help of the World Health Organisation (WHO), treats patients of intentional and accidental poisoning.
As routine practice, doctors at the centre recommend all suicide survivors to see a psychiatrist at Ward 20, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, when they are being discharged.
Despite doctors’ recommendation and the psychiatry ward being only a few metres away from the NPCC, Dr Mahboob believes that not many patients see a psychiatrist because they never accept they need professional help.
“[Underlying] causes when left untreated increases the vulnerability to suicide risk after attempted suicide,” he says.
“Within the first six to 12 months following a suicide attempt, people are at increased risk of another attempt,” corroborates Dr Murad Moosa Khan, president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Aga Khan University.
“Since these people have already experienced death closely, they are not afraid of dying anymore,” he elaborates. “This persuades them to attempt suicide more aggressively.”
Trust and betrayal
Most loved ones respond to suicide as something out of the blue.
In reality, those thinking about suicide have been doing so for long. And in many cases, it’s a pressure cooker inside those people’s minds — in terms of helplessness and feeling overwhelmed — that has exploded and manifested as suicide or suicide ideation.
That said, there is no single cause for suicide, states the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
It occurs when stressors and health issues converge to create an experience of hopelessness and despair.
Millions of women in Pakistan, for example, are constantly being told, by their spouses, by in-laws, and even by parents, that they are good-for-nothing; they are neither beautiful nor intelligent so much so that it kills their self-esteem and they gradually start doubting themselves.
“This is called conditioning,” explains Adeel Hijazi Chaudhry, CEO of psychiatric helpline Talk2Me.
“We receive numerous calls from women plagued by self-doubt asking us whether they are really not good enough.”
Such situations tend to hurt a person’s ego.
If loved ones are questioning their existence, who does one find love and validation from?
Such existential questions can, and often do, lead to an abyss, out of which there is no return.
“More than the chemical changes in the brain, suicide is linked with the thoughts running in the brain. When a person is unable to find solutions to the problems and has lost the ability to control their thoughts, they resort to suicide,” says Dr Khan.
More than 90 percent of people who die by suicide have some form of mental illness at the time of their death.
Dr Iqbal Afridi, dean of JPMC’s Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences department, argues that depression is one of the leading risk factors of suicide but other medical conditions, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, can also contribute to it.
Dr Khan implies that any change in behaviour or the presence of a new behaviour is a warning sign that should never be ignored.
For instance, if a person stops receiving calls, starts avoiding people or going to gatherings, he should be reached out to understand what triggered this change.
Warning signs indicate a person is in crises and needs immediate attention, whereas risk factors suggest someone is at increased risk of suicide, but not necessarily in crisis.
Risk factors classified by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention into health, environmental and historical factors, are conditions that increase the chances of a person attempting suicide.
Establishing and identifying risk factors can improve the prevention and treatment of suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
“According to a conservative estimate, nearly 15-20 percent adults and 10 percent children in Pakistan have some form of mental disorders. Some studies quote an even alarming number of 34 percent,” says Dr Khan.
The most common mental illnesses are depression and anxiety, but they either remain undiagnosed or untreated, and therefore, increase the risk for suicide.
The uncertainty of numbers
The WHO estimates that nearly 800,000 people die by suicide every year, making it a global phenomenon.
Suicide, an act of killing oneself voluntarily and intentionally, is quite prevalent in low- and middle-income countries and is the second leading cause of death among young people (15-29 years of age).
Although Pakistan is said to have lower suicide rates than other countries, the absence of official statistics makes these rates hard to determine.
Suicide rates are described as the number of self-initiated, intentional deaths.
Accurate collection of data on suicide is affected by a number of reasons, including whether a suicide is reported in the first place, how a person’s intention of killing himself or herself is determined, who is responsible for completing the death certificate, whether a forensic investigation is carried out, and the confidentiality of the cause of death.
Existing data [for official purposes] relies on reported cases.
It follows, then, that existing data relies largely on reported cases, the number of unreported cases goes misrepresented and is not part of the official count.
For each adult who dies by suicide, there may be 25 others attempting suicide, and 100 others struggling with suicidal ideation.
“There are indications that for each adult who died by suicide there may have been 25 others attempting suicide and 100 others with suicide ideation,” says Dr Afridi.
If ever there was any doubt about the growing scale of this phenomenon in Pakistan, the numbers show it is slowly becoming an epidemic.
“More than 13,000 people died by suicide in Pakistan since 2012, according to a WHO report on suicide prevention,” states Dr Khan. “These are the latest statistics we know,” he adds.
Data generated by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an independent non-government organisation, also presents a grim picture.
Based on the monitoring of leading newspapers and reports from volunteers, the HRCP estimates that more than 3,500 cases of suicide and attempted suicide were reported in 2017, over 2,300 cases were registered in 2016, while more than 1,900 cases were recorded in 2015.
The WHO has also researched the extent of known suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm cases (reported to hospitals) and declared reported cases to be only the tip of the iceberg.
The organisation claims that a majority of cases remain “hidden” under the surface and are never reported to healthcare services.
The crude suicide rate in Pakistan, according to WHO Global Health Estimates 2016, was 2.9 per 100,000 population in 2015 and 2016.
Although the WHO Global Health Estimates provides a comprehensive assessment of mortality for countries, these figures underestimate the actual magnitude of the issue, taking the legal, sociocultural and religious stigma, and poor reporting of cases in consideration.
An associated matter in the Pakistani context is the issue of death certificates.
Since a death certificate is mandatory to make funeral arrangements in urban areas, suicide cases are often reported to police and hospitals, but many family members don’t opt for autopsy or forensic investigation due to religious and legal issues, hence the manner of death remains unknown, says Dr Khan.
While in rural areas, where a death certificate is not a requirement for burial, he suspects that many suicide cases are hushed up.
“Ending the stigma associated with suicide, making forensic investigation compulsory to determine the manner of death and decriminalizing suicide and suicide bid can improve the reporting of such cases,” proposes Dr Khan.
He adds that Pakistan is among the few countries of the world where attempting suicide is a criminal offence with an imprisonment of up to one year or with fine or with both, according to Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The legal status of suicide in a country has a massive impact on the reporting of such cases.
Although decriminalizing suicide and suicide attempt may not lead to its prevention, it can improve the reporting and access to medical treatment.
dawn.com/news/1281826
Why are more Pakistanis taking their own lives?
Rising number of traditionally under-reported suicide cases indicates hidden mental health epidemic remains unaddressed.
Tanzeel Hassan
Updated May 13, 2019
Although figures for suicide and suicide attempts are notoriously sketchy in the country, doctors agree that they are seeing an increase in the number of such cases.
What they indicate, however, is that aside from increasing stressors, there is a mental health emergency that remains unaddressed.
Draped in a red plaid scarf worn loosely around her head, 21-year-old Aasia* has just been shifted to the ward after five days in intensive care. Her skin looks pale and her legs are flexed.
Even at 21, Aasia seems to have carried the weight of the world on her tender shoulders. And perhaps, this burden was all too much for her to bear: Aasia is in hospital after ingesting rat poison in an attempt to end her life.
Standing beside her is an elderly man, her father, while her mother is sitting on a vacant bed next to her. “Aasia doesn’t have any mental health issues,” her father avows.
The family has been lodged at the National Poison Control Centre (NPCC) at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical and Dental Centre (JPMC) in Karachi ever since Aasia was brought in.
The father simply doesn’t understand how matters came to such a head. Being the only daughter remaining in the house after the marriage of her six elder sisters, he claims she is loved unconditionally.
“She tried to end her life because her mother had taken her to task for cooking the food too spicy,” he narrates. “She was making mistakes for the past few days while preparing meals for the family and was being criticised over that.”
Little did the parents know the toll such taunts were taking on Aasia. Fed up with the bickering, Aasia consumed poison. It took the family three hours to take Aasia to the NPCC, but luckily, they reached in time.
The increasing number of suicide cases reported indicates is that there is a mental health emergency that remains unaddressed.
On the extreme right to Aasia lies another young woman named Khizra* who attempted suicide by consuming insecticide. The 20-year-old was admitted to the hospital a few hours ago and is now stable after receiving the treatment.
A small quarrel with her younger brother over ironing of clothes had made her feel worthless and convinced her to take her own life.
Khizra ran and consumed insecticide soon after the quarrel was over, giving no time to the family to comprehend the situation. Her mother laments that children don’t think about their parents when they resort to such extreme decisions.
Aasia and Khizra are only two of the patients admitted at Ward 5 of JPMC.
There are many other patients of both genders who have either intentionally ingested poison or are victims of venomous insect bites or stings.
Dr Muhammad Junaid Mahboob, resident doctor at the NPCC, tells Eos that approximately 15-20 patients are admitted daily at the NPCC, many of whom consume poison deliberately in order to kill themselves.
The number of patients brought in is surprisingly higher on weekends.
While 98 percent of the patients of intentional poisoning survive, Dr Mahboob states that the survival chances depend on the type of poison, the amount taken, and the time it takes to reach the hospital.
While poisoning is one of the three leading modes of suicide in Pakistan besides hanging and firearms, Dr Mahboob specifies insecticide and rat poison as the most-opted poisonous substances by people who attempt suicide. The other less-reported poisonous substances are phenyl and acids.
Explaining the reasons of poisoning, he says, the most common problems reported by patients are loneliness, family quarrels, domestic violence, and interpersonal relationship issues.
The NPCC, established in 1989 with the help of the World Health Organisation (WHO), treats patients of intentional and accidental poisoning.
As routine practice, doctors at the centre recommend all suicide survivors to see a psychiatrist at Ward 20, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, when they are being discharged.
Despite doctors’ recommendation and the psychiatry ward being only a few metres away from the NPCC, Dr Mahboob believes that not many patients see a psychiatrist because they never accept they need professional help.
“[Underlying] causes when left untreated increases the vulnerability to suicide risk after attempted suicide,” he says.
“Within the first six to 12 months following a suicide attempt, people are at increased risk of another attempt,” corroborates Dr Murad Moosa Khan, president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Aga Khan University.
“Since these people have already experienced death closely, they are not afraid of dying anymore,” he elaborates. “This persuades them to attempt suicide more aggressively.”
Trust and betrayal
Most loved ones respond to suicide as something out of the blue.
In reality, those thinking about suicide have been doing so for long. And in many cases, it’s a pressure cooker inside those people’s minds — in terms of helplessness and feeling overwhelmed — that has exploded and manifested as suicide or suicide ideation.
That said, there is no single cause for suicide, states the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
It occurs when stressors and health issues converge to create an experience of hopelessness and despair.
Millions of women in Pakistan, for example, are constantly being told, by their spouses, by in-laws, and even by parents, that they are good-for-nothing; they are neither beautiful nor intelligent so much so that it kills their self-esteem and they gradually start doubting themselves.
“This is called conditioning,” explains Adeel Hijazi Chaudhry, CEO of psychiatric helpline Talk2Me.
“We receive numerous calls from women plagued by self-doubt asking us whether they are really not good enough.”
Such situations tend to hurt a person’s ego.
If loved ones are questioning their existence, who does one find love and validation from?
Such existential questions can, and often do, lead to an abyss, out of which there is no return.
“More than the chemical changes in the brain, suicide is linked with the thoughts running in the brain. When a person is unable to find solutions to the problems and has lost the ability to control their thoughts, they resort to suicide,” says Dr Khan.
More than 90 percent of people who die by suicide have some form of mental illness at the time of their death.
Dr Iqbal Afridi, dean of JPMC’s Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences department, argues that depression is one of the leading risk factors of suicide but other medical conditions, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, can also contribute to it.
Dr Khan implies that any change in behaviour or the presence of a new behaviour is a warning sign that should never be ignored.
For instance, if a person stops receiving calls, starts avoiding people or going to gatherings, he should be reached out to understand what triggered this change.
Warning signs indicate a person is in crises and needs immediate attention, whereas risk factors suggest someone is at increased risk of suicide, but not necessarily in crisis.
Risk factors classified by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention into health, environmental and historical factors, are conditions that increase the chances of a person attempting suicide.
Establishing and identifying risk factors can improve the prevention and treatment of suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
“According to a conservative estimate, nearly 15-20 percent adults and 10 percent children in Pakistan have some form of mental disorders. Some studies quote an even alarming number of 34 percent,” says Dr Khan.
The most common mental illnesses are depression and anxiety, but they either remain undiagnosed or untreated, and therefore, increase the risk for suicide.
The uncertainty of numbers
The WHO estimates that nearly 800,000 people die by suicide every year, making it a global phenomenon.
Suicide, an act of killing oneself voluntarily and intentionally, is quite prevalent in low- and middle-income countries and is the second leading cause of death among young people (15-29 years of age).
Although Pakistan is said to have lower suicide rates than other countries, the absence of official statistics makes these rates hard to determine.
Suicide rates are described as the number of self-initiated, intentional deaths.
Accurate collection of data on suicide is affected by a number of reasons, including whether a suicide is reported in the first place, how a person’s intention of killing himself or herself is determined, who is responsible for completing the death certificate, whether a forensic investigation is carried out, and the confidentiality of the cause of death.
Existing data [for official purposes] relies on reported cases.
It follows, then, that existing data relies largely on reported cases, the number of unreported cases goes misrepresented and is not part of the official count.
For each adult who dies by suicide, there may be 25 others attempting suicide, and 100 others struggling with suicidal ideation.
“There are indications that for each adult who died by suicide there may have been 25 others attempting suicide and 100 others with suicide ideation,” says Dr Afridi.
If ever there was any doubt about the growing scale of this phenomenon in Pakistan, the numbers show it is slowly becoming an epidemic.
“More than 13,000 people died by suicide in Pakistan since 2012, according to a WHO report on suicide prevention,” states Dr Khan. “These are the latest statistics we know,” he adds.
Data generated by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an independent non-government organisation, also presents a grim picture.
Based on the monitoring of leading newspapers and reports from volunteers, the HRCP estimates that more than 3,500 cases of suicide and attempted suicide were reported in 2017, over 2,300 cases were registered in 2016, while more than 1,900 cases were recorded in 2015.
The WHO has also researched the extent of known suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm cases (reported to hospitals) and declared reported cases to be only the tip of the iceberg.
The organisation claims that a majority of cases remain “hidden” under the surface and are never reported to healthcare services.
The crude suicide rate in Pakistan, according to WHO Global Health Estimates 2016, was 2.9 per 100,000 population in 2015 and 2016.
Although the WHO Global Health Estimates provides a comprehensive assessment of mortality for countries, these figures underestimate the actual magnitude of the issue, taking the legal, sociocultural and religious stigma, and poor reporting of cases in consideration.
An associated matter in the Pakistani context is the issue of death certificates.
Since a death certificate is mandatory to make funeral arrangements in urban areas, suicide cases are often reported to police and hospitals, but many family members don’t opt for autopsy or forensic investigation due to religious and legal issues, hence the manner of death remains unknown, says Dr Khan.
While in rural areas, where a death certificate is not a requirement for burial, he suspects that many suicide cases are hushed up.
“Ending the stigma associated with suicide, making forensic investigation compulsory to determine the manner of death and decriminalizing suicide and suicide bid can improve the reporting of such cases,” proposes Dr Khan.
He adds that Pakistan is among the few countries of the world where attempting suicide is a criminal offence with an imprisonment of up to one year or with fine or with both, according to Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The legal status of suicide in a country has a massive impact on the reporting of such cases.
Although decriminalizing suicide and suicide attempt may not lead to its prevention, it can improve the reporting and access to medical treatment.
dawn.com/news/1281826
America’s suicide rate has increased for 13 years in a row
Those living in rural and less-populated areas have been hit especially hard
IN 2010 AMERICA’S Department of Health and Human Services set a goal of reducing the country’s suicide rate from 12.1 to 10.2 per 100,000 population by 2020. Instead of falling, however, the rate has climbed. On January 30th the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal government agency, reported that more than 48,000 Americans had taken their own lives in 2018, equivalent to 14.2 deaths per 100,000 population. This makes suicide the tenth-biggest cause of death in the United States—deadlier than traffic accidents and homicide.
A recent paper by researchers at Ohio State University and West Virginia University tries to understand why such tragedies occur more frequently in some parts of the country than others. Using county-level CDC data on the nearly half a million 25- to 64-year-old Americans who committed suicide between 1999 and 2016, the authors found that isolation may be an important factor. In 2016 the suicide rate was 25% higher in rural and less-populated counties (those with fewer than 50,000 people) than in more populous ones (with at least 1m). Fifteen years ago, it was only 10% higher.
Several other characteristics go hand in hand with high suicide rates. Deprivation—as measured by low levels of education, employment and income, and high levels of poverty—correlates with more suicides. So does loneliness, which the authors estimate by using the share of households with single or unmarried residents, or residents who have been living in the area for less than a year. Places with fewer opportunities for social interaction (parks, museums, stadiums and the like) tend to have more suicides, too.
Easy access to guns also seems to boost the risk of self-harm. Using a database of firearm-sellers from Infogroup, a data provider, the authors found that the presence of a nearby gun shop was associated with significantly higher suicide rates. American health officials may never find a complete solution to the country’s suicide crisis. Making guns less easily accessible might be a start.
Chart at:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... a/391324/n
Those living in rural and less-populated areas have been hit especially hard
IN 2010 AMERICA’S Department of Health and Human Services set a goal of reducing the country’s suicide rate from 12.1 to 10.2 per 100,000 population by 2020. Instead of falling, however, the rate has climbed. On January 30th the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal government agency, reported that more than 48,000 Americans had taken their own lives in 2018, equivalent to 14.2 deaths per 100,000 population. This makes suicide the tenth-biggest cause of death in the United States—deadlier than traffic accidents and homicide.
A recent paper by researchers at Ohio State University and West Virginia University tries to understand why such tragedies occur more frequently in some parts of the country than others. Using county-level CDC data on the nearly half a million 25- to 64-year-old Americans who committed suicide between 1999 and 2016, the authors found that isolation may be an important factor. In 2016 the suicide rate was 25% higher in rural and less-populated counties (those with fewer than 50,000 people) than in more populous ones (with at least 1m). Fifteen years ago, it was only 10% higher.
Several other characteristics go hand in hand with high suicide rates. Deprivation—as measured by low levels of education, employment and income, and high levels of poverty—correlates with more suicides. So does loneliness, which the authors estimate by using the share of households with single or unmarried residents, or residents who have been living in the area for less than a year. Places with fewer opportunities for social interaction (parks, museums, stadiums and the like) tend to have more suicides, too.
Easy access to guns also seems to boost the risk of self-harm. Using a database of firearm-sellers from Infogroup, a data provider, the authors found that the presence of a nearby gun shop was associated with significantly higher suicide rates. American health officials may never find a complete solution to the country’s suicide crisis. Making guns less easily accessible might be a start.
Chart at:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... a/391324/n
Home / India News / Nearly 7 die by suicide in Delhi every day: NCRB
Nearly 7 die by suicide in Delhi every day: NCRB
The absolute number of suicides stayed constant – 2,526 in each year, with “family problems” remaining the number one cause. Family problems relate to quarrels in families, relatives not doing well in their lives, etc.
INDIA Updated: Sep 11, 2020 02:06 IST
Shiv Sunny
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130.
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130
New Delhi: The number of people who died by suicide in Delhi because of mental illness rose by more than two-and-a-half times in 2019 compared to the previous year, although overall suicides because of various health reasons dipped significantly, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The absolute number of suicides stayed constant – 2,526 in each year, with “family problems” remaining the number one cause. Family problems relate to quarrels in families, relatives not doing well in their lives, etc.
The data does not capture the number of suicide attempts. Nearly seven people died by suicide every day on average, much more than the fatalities in road accidents, which left four persons dead every day in 2019.
This is the latest data available for suicides in the Capital; Delhi Police doesn’t share suicide statistics.
Mental illness was attributed as the reason for 47 suicides in Delhi last year, a 161% jump from 18 such deaths in the year before that. The number of women in both years remained constant at six, while the number of men who died by suicide because of mental illness rose from 12 to 41.
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130.
In 469 (18.5%) of all 2,526 suicides, the NCRB couldn’t ascertain the cause.
Psychologists could not point to any specific reason behind the trend, even as they contended that NCRB may not have been able to capture the exact data. “If a person did not seek medical treatment for his or her mental illness despite suffering from it, it is not going to be counted as that,” said psychiatrist Samir Parikh, who is the director of Fortis National Mental Health Programme.
Unemployment and education
Unemployment was a factor that led to more suicides in 2019 than the previous year. At least 118 people died by suicide on turning jobless, a 20% jump from 98 such deaths in 2018. Also, the number of suicides by jobless people rose from 611 in 2018 to 677 in 2019.
Overall, a vast majority of people who died received only a basic education and earned little money, showed the data.
Over 80% of the suicides were by people who had studied only up to Class 12, and more than 61% were people who earned less than Rs1 lakh annually. Nearly 10% of all suicides were by daily wager labourers.
Rajat Mitra, a clinical psychologist, attributed the relation between poor financial/educational backgrounds and suicides to a sense of “despondency and gloom”. “This class of people tend to feel a sense of hopelessness and lack of options in their lives. It hurts their self-esteem and leaves them with suicidal tendencies,” said Mitra.
He said that a possible solution to this problem was to cultivate the culture of entrepreneurship among such people. “They need to be able to pick up skills to earn a livelihood and the government needs to step forward to encourage them to start their own venture,” said Mitra.
Relationship issues
Relationship issues -- be it marriage, family, love affairs or relationships outside marriage -- were the reason for 1,007 dying by suicide, nearly 40% of all suicides. However, suicides related to marriages dipped from 233 to 123.
But there were more in the list who recently lost their partners – either due to death or separation. Thirty widows and widowers died by suicide in 2019, up from 10 in the year before that; and the number of people who were recently separated from their partners went up from 31 to 93 in the corresponding period.
Hanging was the method used in three out of every four suicides, followed by poison in 6.76% of the cases. Mitra said that most people don’t realise that hanging or even other suicide methods often do not kill people and instead leave them with other injuries, which sometimes last a lifetime.
A study by the American Association of Suicidology showed that only one in every 25 suicide attempts in the US ended in death.
Until July 2018, suicide was criminalised under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 309, and made punishable with a year in jail, or a fine or both. But the Mental Healthcare Act of2017(which came into force from 2018) restricted its application and said that unless proved otherwise, a person who attempts suicide is to be presumed to be under severe stress.
A senior Delhi Police officer said that the IPC Section 309 was now pressed in rare cases. “If an apprehended suspect, for example, tries to bang his head against the wall with an intention of getting away, we book them under this section,” said the officer who didn’t want to be identified.
Eish Singhal, the Delhi Police spokesperson, said that the process followed now is to carry out an inquest proceeding after a suicide to ascertain if it was due to pressure or harassment by anyone. “We look for suicide notes, for statements of relatives of the victims, and to understand if someone had abetted the suicide,” said Singhal.
Fear worse this year
While the data for this year is not still available, there have been a number of instances when people have died by suicide either after getting infected by Covid-19 or due to financial impact of the pandemic.
Mitra feared that suicide figures this year could be significantly higher than in previous years. “People have lost their jobs and their businesses have taken a hit, but right now they are living off their savings. Once they begin getting a sense of the loss and their savings start drying up, the situation could get bad,” said Mitra.
He said that such affected people need to acknowledge the loss, look for entrepreneurship opportunities and realise that they can always bounce back. “They must take inspiration from the times of the partition when so many people lost everything, but built up as entrepreneurs to recover,” said Mitra.
Parikh said India needs a suicide prevention policy and more and more suicide helplines. “In the long run, we need to impart life skills in schools so that people can cope with such situations,” he said.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... 4RPfL.html
Nearly 7 die by suicide in Delhi every day: NCRB
The absolute number of suicides stayed constant – 2,526 in each year, with “family problems” remaining the number one cause. Family problems relate to quarrels in families, relatives not doing well in their lives, etc.
INDIA Updated: Sep 11, 2020 02:06 IST
Shiv Sunny
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130.
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130
New Delhi: The number of people who died by suicide in Delhi because of mental illness rose by more than two-and-a-half times in 2019 compared to the previous year, although overall suicides because of various health reasons dipped significantly, according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
The absolute number of suicides stayed constant – 2,526 in each year, with “family problems” remaining the number one cause. Family problems relate to quarrels in families, relatives not doing well in their lives, etc.
The data does not capture the number of suicide attempts. Nearly seven people died by suicide every day on average, much more than the fatalities in road accidents, which left four persons dead every day in 2019.
This is the latest data available for suicides in the Capital; Delhi Police doesn’t share suicide statistics.
Mental illness was attributed as the reason for 47 suicides in Delhi last year, a 161% jump from 18 such deaths in the year before that. The number of women in both years remained constant at six, while the number of men who died by suicide because of mental illness rose from 12 to 41.
In comparison, suicides due to illnesses of all kinds – such as mental, critical and prolonged physical illness.-- dipped by 48%, from 218 to 130.
In 469 (18.5%) of all 2,526 suicides, the NCRB couldn’t ascertain the cause.
Psychologists could not point to any specific reason behind the trend, even as they contended that NCRB may not have been able to capture the exact data. “If a person did not seek medical treatment for his or her mental illness despite suffering from it, it is not going to be counted as that,” said psychiatrist Samir Parikh, who is the director of Fortis National Mental Health Programme.
Unemployment and education
Unemployment was a factor that led to more suicides in 2019 than the previous year. At least 118 people died by suicide on turning jobless, a 20% jump from 98 such deaths in 2018. Also, the number of suicides by jobless people rose from 611 in 2018 to 677 in 2019.
Overall, a vast majority of people who died received only a basic education and earned little money, showed the data.
Over 80% of the suicides were by people who had studied only up to Class 12, and more than 61% were people who earned less than Rs1 lakh annually. Nearly 10% of all suicides were by daily wager labourers.
Rajat Mitra, a clinical psychologist, attributed the relation between poor financial/educational backgrounds and suicides to a sense of “despondency and gloom”. “This class of people tend to feel a sense of hopelessness and lack of options in their lives. It hurts their self-esteem and leaves them with suicidal tendencies,” said Mitra.
He said that a possible solution to this problem was to cultivate the culture of entrepreneurship among such people. “They need to be able to pick up skills to earn a livelihood and the government needs to step forward to encourage them to start their own venture,” said Mitra.
Relationship issues
Relationship issues -- be it marriage, family, love affairs or relationships outside marriage -- were the reason for 1,007 dying by suicide, nearly 40% of all suicides. However, suicides related to marriages dipped from 233 to 123.
But there were more in the list who recently lost their partners – either due to death or separation. Thirty widows and widowers died by suicide in 2019, up from 10 in the year before that; and the number of people who were recently separated from their partners went up from 31 to 93 in the corresponding period.
Hanging was the method used in three out of every four suicides, followed by poison in 6.76% of the cases. Mitra said that most people don’t realise that hanging or even other suicide methods often do not kill people and instead leave them with other injuries, which sometimes last a lifetime.
A study by the American Association of Suicidology showed that only one in every 25 suicide attempts in the US ended in death.
Until July 2018, suicide was criminalised under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 309, and made punishable with a year in jail, or a fine or both. But the Mental Healthcare Act of2017(which came into force from 2018) restricted its application and said that unless proved otherwise, a person who attempts suicide is to be presumed to be under severe stress.
A senior Delhi Police officer said that the IPC Section 309 was now pressed in rare cases. “If an apprehended suspect, for example, tries to bang his head against the wall with an intention of getting away, we book them under this section,” said the officer who didn’t want to be identified.
Eish Singhal, the Delhi Police spokesperson, said that the process followed now is to carry out an inquest proceeding after a suicide to ascertain if it was due to pressure or harassment by anyone. “We look for suicide notes, for statements of relatives of the victims, and to understand if someone had abetted the suicide,” said Singhal.
Fear worse this year
While the data for this year is not still available, there have been a number of instances when people have died by suicide either after getting infected by Covid-19 or due to financial impact of the pandemic.
Mitra feared that suicide figures this year could be significantly higher than in previous years. “People have lost their jobs and their businesses have taken a hit, but right now they are living off their savings. Once they begin getting a sense of the loss and their savings start drying up, the situation could get bad,” said Mitra.
He said that such affected people need to acknowledge the loss, look for entrepreneurship opportunities and realise that they can always bounce back. “They must take inspiration from the times of the partition when so many people lost everything, but built up as entrepreneurs to recover,” said Mitra.
Parikh said India needs a suicide prevention policy and more and more suicide helplines. “In the long run, we need to impart life skills in schools so that people can cope with such situations,” he said.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... 4RPfL.html