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World Suicide Prevention Day is marked on September 10 every year.
Stigma, or the blame and shame linked to suicide, poses a tough challenge.
Not criminal or immoral, suicide reflects social realities that must change.
Suicide is often the tragic end to a long, silent struggle. But should it also carry a sting in its tail? In its September 21, 2023 issue, 'Suicide Isn't a Moral Question', Outlook peered into the hidden world of those who have thought about ending it all, those who could step away from the chasm, and those who were saved. And also those who remain, picking up the pieces, one by one, having lost a loved one.
Some, like Sreemoyi Kundu, are brave enough to describe the arduous journey after experiencing The Deepest Cut, the loss that can never really be made peace with, but which can be processed, understood, at least a little.
Suicide is rooted in social causes and realities, just like everything else that happens in society. Then why do we think about it as something that affects the Other differently? In Understanding Despair: Let Stories Help us, Outlook editor-in-chief, Chinki Sinha, begins with describing a casual encounter that became so much more:
'He was a stranger, someone you know on social media, a projected persona. He said he had felt betrayed. He was in love. A love that made him feel helpless. He said there was nobody he could talk to. His best friend had said he was busy. We spoke for a long time until the urge passed. He said thank you. I checked on him a few times later and he said he was fine.'
That Outlook issue then cross-examined the primary witness—society's inability to understand despair—best reflected in that infamous parody fashioned from a tragedy: the Sushant Singh Rajput 'case'.
As Sneha Kher, a psychologist writes, returning from the brink is similar to putting together shards of smashed pottery. It's difficult, but possible. The journey begins from the ruins of a life, but it also heads towards renewal, she explains in Battling Mental Illness And Suicide.
Poverty and the inability of society to comprehend the needs of its anna data, the farmer, is the subject of Anisha Reddy and Haima Deshpande's thoughtful piece on the reasons why one lakh farmer families were marked as extremely sensitive to suicide risk in the Marathwada region. You can read about it in Seeds Of Distress Behind Farmer Suicides.
Death and the right to call it the end are never too far apart. Outlook examines why they are almost Siamese twins in some cases, one unable to 'live' without the other. A look at the tragedy of Aruna Shanbaug's vegetative state over 42 years, and what it meant for the euthanasia debate.
'Everyday I Pray for Love,' Outlook's recent cover issue on how society can erase the stigma attached to mental health care, examines the social, political, caste, gender and myriad factors that cause mental, emotional, psychological distress.
The string that ties each piece in this issue together: We must let those who have grappled with, or still deal with, mental health concerns, cures and responses speak out for themselves. That, as a series of first-person accounts in this issue show, is the clearest way forward, if not out, of the fog that surrounds the debate that society still shies away from.
In association with The Banyan, Bengaluru, this issue carried a diverse set of views, reports, issues and debates on the reasons for suicide, the prevention of the act, but most of all, on de-stigmatising any mental health issue that would otherwise be under rug swept.
