Are suicides on the rise in Guyana?

ON November 9, the Guyana Chronicle carried the story of a 17-year-old girl from Affiance who committed suicide by hanging herself. This followed the suicide of another 17-year-old girl from New Road, Essequibo Coast, who committed suicide by ingesting deadly poison. The Kaieteur News of November 12, 2013 reported that five men took their own lives during the previous week in just Region 6. And on Saturday a 55-year-old man from Industry on the East Coast of Demerara reportedly killed himself by burning down his house.

Those are a lot of suicides for a country with a small population the size of Guyana, no matter how one looks at it. The World Health Organisation, in its 2009 report rated Guyana as the country with the highest rates of suicide in South America and the Caribbean. Judging by the number of newspaper reports on actual suicides, it seems as though the situation hasn’t improved, but may in fact have gotten worse.
Suicide is described as “the action of killing oneself intentionally” and the reasons people commit suicide are as varied as the methods they use to commit the act.
According to psychologists, people generally take their lives for six reasons:
1. They’re depressed. This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering, as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear. The state of depression warps their thinking, allowing ideas like “Everyone would all be better off without me” to make rational sense.
2. They’re psychotic. Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression, and is arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is 1% and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfil their original promise. Schizophrenics are just as likely to talk freely about the voices commanding them to kill themselves as not, and also, in my experience, give honest answers about thoughts of suicide when asked directly.
3. They’re impulsive. Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is often genuine, but whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime. Hospital admission is therefore not usually indicated. Substance abuse and the underlying reasons for it are generally a greater concern in these people and should be addressed as aggressively as possible.
4. They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don’t believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don’t think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who’s hurt them, but they are sometimes tragically misinformed. The prototypical example of this is a young teenaged girl suffering genuine angst because of a relationship, either with a friend, boyfriend, or parent, and swallows a bottle of pills.
5. They have a philosophical desire to die. The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision, often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destinies and alleviate their own suffering, which usually could only be done in death. They often look at their choice to commit suicide as a way to shorten a dying that will happen regardless.
6. They’ve made a mistake. This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people feel that the mistakes they made are too grave and have difficulty forgiving themselves.
The wounds suicide leaves in the lives of those left behind by it are often deep and long lasting. The apparent senselessness of suicide often fuels the most significant pain. Thinking we all deal better with tragedy when we understand its underpinnings, I’ve offered the preceding paragraphs in the hope that anyone reading this who’s been left behind by a suicide might be able to more easily find a way to move on, to relinquish their guilt and anger, and find closure. Despite the abrupt way you may have been left, guilt and anger don’t have to be the only two emotions you’re doomed to feel about the one who left you.
According to the World Health Organisation, not all suicides can be prevented, but a majority can.
The measures that can be taken at community and national levels to reduce the risk include:
1. Reducing access to the means of suicide (e.g. pesticides, medication, guns);
2. Treating people with mental disorders (particularly those with depression, alcoholism, and schizophrenia);
3. Following-up on those people who made previous suicide attempts;
4. Training primary health care workers on how to work with people who may be suicidal.
The World Health Organization further notes that only a small number of suicides happen without warning and that most people who kill themselves give definite warnings of their intention. Therefore, all threats of self-harm should be taken seriously.
If you suspect that your child or family member may be at risk of harming themselves, talk to them and ask if something is bothering them, and how if possible you may help. If you feel not up to the task ask a trusted adult or family friend or even a trained professional such as a psychologist to help.