DR MARGARET NAKHID-CHATOOR
MAY IS Mental Health Awareness Month. On a daily basis we have become very much aware of the many senseless deaths of people, including the deaths of very young children, that have created a heavy grief that blankets our country at the present moment.
Parents have lost their children to gun violence, children have lost fathers and mothers to murder, and there are numerous unreported cases of domestic violence and abuse that continue unabated in some homes.
Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorder and paranoia are on the rise due to these and other factors, such as crime, poverty and social isolation, affecting family life, decreasing job performance and increasing sick leave and bereavement leave in work spaces.
There is yet another heaviness that is not spoken about, except in hushed tones or in quiet circles. Suicide. For many parents and caregivers, the prospect of losing a young son or daughter to suicide is an unspeakable fear. Every week there are parents and relatives who are traumatised by loved ones – both young and old – who have chosen to end their lives.
Those parents and relatives continue to wonder why they missed the red flags people may talk about, such as feeling empty, hopeless, having no reason to live, extremely sad, anxious, agitated, or in some cases anger and rage – unbearable emotional or physical pain that were cries for help.
More and more young people are speaking of a hopelessness that surrounds them, like a heavy cloak that they want to take off but cannot. This hopelessness clings to them, interrupting their lives and plunging them into darkness, while worried relatives and friends look on with concern and despair, not knowing what to say again, or how to help their loved one.
Slavery and suicide
Suicide and hopelessness are not new to Caribbean territories. During slavery, men and women killed themselves for a number of different reasons. Many were unable to cope with the long and traumatic transatlantic journey, which regularly involved beatings, murder and rape, and they hoped that death would take them back home to Africa.
Dying by suicide was also an act of rebellion and the crews of slave ships were always anxious to prevent enslaved people from killing themselves because each person who managed to take their life reduced the voyage’s profits.
Enslaved Africans leapt overboard to drown, jumping into the sea together, holding hands or embracing until the end. This tactic was not as easy as it might seem since many slave ships put up netting to stop people from jumping overboard.
As seen above, suicide happens when trauma exists, in whatever form and circumstance. Different circumstances, such as parental divorce or separation, the loss of a loved one, school examinations, relationship issues, and experiences of bullying and abuse, can trigger emotional distress and suicidality in young people.
Presently, Guyana tops the list of the highest rates of suicide in the region, with Suriname second, Cuba (Cuba?!!) third an
