Depression and Suicides

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Recent spurts of suicides by persons from the films and television medium and has been widely reported in Electronic & Social media networks. The recent one being that of a TV artiste Pratyusha Banerjee who supposedly committed suicide. There are scores suicides that take place among farmers of rural India that hardly get a mention in the news unless being stoked by political parties. Come to think of these deaths, the causes in most of the suicidal deaths have been due to depression. So logically depressions can kill you unless you are able to overcome the same. 

Depression occurs when one feels burdened beyond an extent… it may be non-repayment of loans or mounting loans, no success in chosen field, lack of love, lack of companionship and so forth and some of the reasons may be out right silly too. Depressed people will never admit to being depressed as they think that they would be ridiculed by their peers. Most of us do feel low sometimes but then if you are suffering from depression the down period is for a longer duration say weeks or months. This feeling of depression is considered by most people as very trivial matter and not a medical condition but then they are very wrong and they should consult a doctor for this condition since this can be treated by medications. If left untreated it could lead to the person taking very harsh steps in life that cannot be retraced. Here I wish to narrate an incident that occurred in Gulf where I work, a colleague of mine was totally depressed since he had an affair with a Vietnamese woman who was insisting on marriage though he was married with two children. This caused him to neglect his work, stopped communication with family, friends and colleagues and was suicidal in nature. He was sent back to India for treatment and when he returned he seemed to have overcome the depression since he was able to convince his first wife to accept his second marriage. All was well for a year or so and then the second wife travelled to Australia to her higher studies and there she delivered their first child for which he had gone and come. During her second visit to Oman she came back pregnant with someone else’s child for which my colleague threw her out of the house after taking custody of the child. Now he was alone at Muscat with a 2 year old son and somehow was managing work as well as home. The second wife being Vietnamese brought in lots of pressures on this person to release the child to her custody and one such letter to our management from this woman and also from the Indian embassy pushed him beyond all control. He then one weekend afternoon smothered his two year old son to death and then hung himself to death. 

Depressions can cause a person to become alcoholic, violent, withdrawn, and listless. At extreme moments it sure can make a person suicidal and this tendency may dissipate if they are able to communicate their thoughts to either a family member or friends. Communication plays a vital role in helping people who are depressed and hence it is said that not to keep your feelings bottled up inside you but to vent it out to your companion, friend or relatives thereby avoiding volcanic eruptions of the feeling that can hurt the people around and self. It is very easy for us to call a person who has committed suicide a coward but then it takes immense courage to take the final step in the suicide. I have known of a friend who took this extreme step within a blink of an eye by taking poison but repent after having done the act and we could not save him because it was too late and the poison had entered the blood stream. Had he communicated his worries and thoughts to someone and maybe he would have been alive this day.

I am sure that all you readers would also have come across various incidents that would have resulted in a suicide and when we think about it find it to be a very silly reason to have thrown the precious life away. Do share your thoughts