Why a Pandemic?
Pandemic- A word we often associate with Diseases and Ailments such as Influenza, HIV, and currently COVID-19. The connotations that follow this word are ones of physical illnesses that are hard to ignore, leading to a disregard for those that might be more puzzling to diagnose with such a broad brush. This has, unfortunately, leaked into the mental health world, with one of our leading causes of deaths across the decades being a shining example of this phenomenon; The Suicide Pandemic. Currently, we are seeing a growth in cases of Suicides over the past few decades, while not seeing an appropriate response from any agency to such a large amount of lives lost. While talks of Suicide Epidemics have floated across history, no government group has been able to stand and tackle this as a Pandemic, spreading across border lines and through our communities that suffer from these losses.
In 2018, we lost around 800,000 people to Suicide in this world. [1] With each person who takes their lives, 147 people (with ~6 experiencing life disrupting consequences) are affected by the ripple effect each loss brings, leading to 40-50% of people having to live through the aftermath of someone who died by suicide. [2] This spread reflects many pandemics, with the numbers easily surpassing other past pandemics such as Cholera, Influenza, and Typhus. Despite this, the Suicide Pandemic has been struggling to receive recognition of its title by governmental bodies and suicide prevention groups.
We see the major responses to the growing suicide rate being futile at best; Awareness, Media portrayal, and Prevention of access to tools for suicide. The issue that arises with these three in how they are approached; while effective in spreading the message to a grand audience, they are Universal responses to a crisis based on Selective conditions. Sweeping changes haven’t proven to be as impactful in subsiding suicide, whereas Individual based specialized efforts to help fulfill those dealing with Mental Health issues have been found to be very beneficial in restoring hope and, ultimately; Saving lives.
Suicide needs to be classified as a Pandemic, but also needs to be approached at as a unique contagion. There are a variety of contributing factors to each case, with each person being different in how they encountered suicide and their current relationship with their ideations. Furthermore, we see a growing number of people being affected by suicide directly, in need of support and answers. This pandemic is one that has been under our noses for decades; But hope isn’t over yet.
[1] WHO Statistics
[2] https://suicidology.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2018datapgsv2_Final.pdf
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