“We must illuminate the dark corners of taboo and stigma. We must silence the loud voices of ignorance”—Adina Wroblesky.

In today’s political environment, it is extremely difficult to watch the evening news or read the morning paper without remembering terrorism and suicide bombers. Still, the social conspiracy of silence a suicide is very much alive and thriving. No topic is more misunderstood, even today, than suicide. still one of the last taboos So great is the taboo on suicide that some people won’t say the word, some newspapers won’t print reports about it. And, too often, scientists have avoided it as a topic of research. For example, I have checked EzineArticles and found only one article on suicide in the list of complain Y lossanother indication that the taboo he is at work. As I have already hinted, the bottom line is that people will kill each other and that playing the ostrich does not diminish this reality in the least. “Suicide,” the English poet and critic A. Alvarez writes in the notes, “has permeated Western culture like a dye that cannot be washed off.” The Wild God: A Study of Suicide.

Historical background

In western culture suicide has always been a taboo and an ecclesiastical prohibition, many religions consider the act of taking one’s life such a sin that they will not allow a person who committed suicide to be buried in “allowed” land. For example, in the early years of Christianity, Saint Augustine (345-430 AD) declared that suicide was a mortal sin and a century later, the Christian Church forbade saying masses for the souls of those who committed suicide, and they were denied burial in a holy place. The last recorded “unsacred” burial of a suicide in Britain occurred in 1823. Families go to great lengths to hide a suicide and there is tremendous shame associated with the act of suicide.

Suicide has occurred consistently throughout recorded history in all cultural and social settings. However, attitudes towards suicide have changed a lot in different times, cultures and societies. In ancient Greece and Rome, suicide was viewed primarily as a form of honorable or heroic death. Once again, the mass suicide of Jews at Masada in AD 73. C. was perceived as an honorable act to avoid falling into the hands of the defeated Roman army. In Japan, the Samurai ritual was codified for different methods of suicide that bring them death before dishonor. Even today in Japan there is little stigma associated with suicide, which may explain Japan’s high suicide rates.

In the Hindu faith there is a general rule taboo against suicide, especially among men. The concept of altruistic suicide is acceptable, there is also an honorable tradition associated with bereaved women committing suicide. For example, widows often commit suicide by burning themselves to fulfill their true role as wives. In another example, the surviving members of the Taino Indian tribe jumped from high cliffs in Puerto Rico to escape capture after Christopher Columbus’s men had already killed two-thirds of the tribe. Many Africans transported from Africa were known to take their own lives rather than be enslaved in so-called The new World.

It criminalized the act of suicide

Until the 1950s in Britain, people were sent to prison for attempting suicide. The Suicide Act of 1961 repealed the law according to which both actual suicides and attempted suicides were considered criminal acts. England and Wales were the last countries in Europe to decriminalize suicide. The typification of suicide is not such a far-fetched word suicide itself has the implication of being a criminal act, which literally means self-murder

The power of social taboo

Suicide it is a significant cause of death in the United States, in some cases surpassing car accident deaths annually. Many states spend a great deal of money on safer roads, but spend very little, if any, on suicide awareness and prevention.

Consider for a moment what society’s reaction would be if 35,000 airline passengers were killed in plane crashes each year in the United States. It can be safely assumed that there would be a political and social uprising demanding that the airline industry make safety improvements immediately. In 2004, six students took their lives by throwing themselves from tall buildings on the campus of New York University; according to the NYU spokesman, two students committed suicide in the same week. If six students were murdered, in less than a year, on the campus of a major American university, the public would demand accountability. And state officials would mount a full frontal attack on the problem. Tea mass media he would set up camp outside the university asking questions and interviewing everyone within range of his cameras and microphones. However, in neither of the two cases were there demands for accountability or social outrage over political interventions. In fact, if she lived outside the New York City area, he may not have read or heard of these suicides. Yes, suicide is clearly a taboo theme that society walks on tiptoe.

Lack of coping ability: not mental illness

Suicide attempts and suicidal ideas are usually a symptom that indicates that the individual is not coping very well. This inability to cope is often the result of some event or series of events that the person finds overwhelmingly traumatic Prayed distressing. In many cases, the events in question will pass, the impact can be mitigated, the overwhelming nature will gradually fade if the individual is able to make constructive decisions when the crisis is at its height. In the vast majority of cases, a person attempting suicide would choose differently if she was not highly distressed and could objectively assess her options. Most suicides give warning signs in the hope of being rescued, because the main intention is to stop their emotional pain and not die.

Most people who commit suicide do not have a diagnosable mental illness. They are people like you and me who sometimes feel isolated, desperately unhappy and alone. suicide the thoughts and actions may be the result of life stresses and losses that the person feels they cannot cope with and just wants the pain to stop.

In a society where there is much stigma and ignorance With regard to mental illness, a person who feels suicidal may fear that others will think they are crazy if they express how they feel, and may be reluctant to seek help in a crisis. People with a mental illness such as schizophrenia or clinical depression have significantly higher than average suicide rates, but they are still a minority of those who attempt it. For these people, having their disease correctly diagnosed may indicate that appropriate treatment can begin to address the problem.

For additional information on facts and myths about suicide: http://www.crisislink.org