Suicide and depression



Why will one commit a suicide? Is suicide really the only choice? Are we to blame suicide on depression? Or are there other instrumental causes to the deadly choice? All these questions are those that i keep brooding about as i attempt to see if there is a causal relationship between the two.

Many suicide have occurred which i’ve been able to experience but the one that caught my attention was the one that happened when i was in part 2 to a 16 – year old lady, a fresher in my school, Obafemi Awolowo University, microbiology whom the release of her first 3 semester result were instrumental to her suicidal action... 




A lady, by the virtue of her profile picture, was seen to have been brought up well in a religious way, Christianity to be precise which i presume that the religion rebuked any form of suicide owing it to the fact that they don’t own it( their life) and a ticket to hell is certain to any perpetrator of the act, still found herself caught in the web of the same act. Well, tried to do a little research about her but found that she wasn’t that social, and i couldn’t get some facts needed to add to my repertoire of knowledge but concluded in using inductive reasoning

Probably the 2nd or 3rd or other flights apart from 1st flight (which is merit list) took her in through road one to the prestigious university, she have put in for something higher, like a course in the health sciences but her score didn’t merit a spot in the faculty and she was handed a sit in the department of microbiology.

Though parental hopes or expectations were high in seeing their child become a successful Nurse or Doctor and so on but still felt like going on with microbiology, seeing her first 3 results in her illustrious life as an undergraduate shattered her optimism and she felt like, “i’ve failed my parent”.  Not knowing what she could expect from the parent or what her parent could say, probably the first child entering university, knowing how university education is highly dignified in Nigeria, felt like the nearest option for her is taking a route which her religion highly rebuke (suicide).

The aforesaid story motivated me into writing a proposal on suicidal ideation during my 1st semester in my last part as an undergraduate, in which i looked on how parental expectations and academic performance could serve as determining factors of suicidal ideation which i feel its researchable in lieu of suicide( i sha wont research on the deads).  I’d be delving into the part as a student in coping with suicidal ideation and YOU in the outside world.

Well, at one point in life, we’ve been depressed which might consequentially lead to having suicidal ideation and the concept of suicide is process in which depression is a causative factor....  this simply means before suicide could happen, there must be a causative factor , depression, then thinking about suicide which is suicidal ideation, then making some attempts to commit suicide but not courageous enough act upon and later committing the act.

Depression----------->suicidal ideation------------> suicidal attempts------------->suicide

Many things can implicated for this behaviour like, parental expectation like i stated earlier, academic performance, academic stress, mental health, depression, at the most mundane factor of it all, loneliness, thought of been rejected or isolated.  We might want to know some symptoms to suicide which might include too much consumption of alcohol or drug to ameliorate the unfascinating situation, feeling hopeless, threatening to hurt him/herself, looking for ways to suicide e.g. seeking access to pills, weapons, or other means, deliberately hurting him/herself, Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, Acting recklessly or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking Withdrawing from friends, family or society, No reason for living, no sense of purpose in life e.t.c.

There are ways to ameliorate the situation, you must be aware of yourself, your present situation, physical and mental status, your emotional glitch, your present state of mind, associating yourself with people, communicate your present predisposition, i believe there would be no failure when you are actually doing what you love doing, parent should probably give liberty to children to do what they want to do and mitigate their expectations, make parent to child relationship so interesting that child can really relate with them, to once in a while check up their ward in school to see the other life of them they wouldn’t want others to know, intimating people with the symptoms of suicide so as to keep them cognisant of any victim near them, associating themselves to victims of depression or suicidal attempts, giving them motivation to mitigate their pessimism, not all is ‘devil’s work’ regarding the stereotypical notion we give the suicide victims, some people’s mental state have crossed the line of normality, referring them to the appropriate quota could be effective in treating them, a person facing some sort of challenges like rape assault shouldn’t be stigmatized instead should be embraced with open arm, though it might not happen to us but let the victim know he or she isn’t alone...

Depression kills but a hasty move could help victims shift from having suicidal ideation not to talk of the rest to a good reason to leave and a good perspective about life... 

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