It was shocking to hear last evening that every day in this country, a teenager is attempting to or managing to commit suicide because of the feeling of impending gloom that has fallen across this country. Pieta House which is currently the country’s only centre for the prevention of suicide, released the details last evening. It is ideally placed to learn the reason behind this upsurge in young people attempting to take their own lives. In the past, many coroners have blamed the rise in suicide on the rise in alcohol consumption and there is still a lot of truth in that. However the trend among young people in the past year is that teenagers, whose stage in life anyway has always been inextricably linked to feelings of angst or joy, are giving up on life, because they fear that it will never get as good again economically.
Pieta has revealed that they are trying to end their lives because of the despair they pick up on from the people around them, most notably their families and friends. There isn’t a household in this country that has managed to escape the effects of the recession. Jobs have been lost, luxuries have been eliminated, and lifestyles have been altered, so it is not a shock to discover that such problems play a large part of the discourse in every house. However, perhaps there is a tendency for us all to over exaggerate the despair of it all, to feel that life is over just because we cannot party again like we did in the first decade of the noughties. Perhaps we are putting too much of a burden on our children when we explain bluntly why we can no longer afford the things we used to. Perhaps there is more onus on parents to ensure that young shoulders are not given such a weight to carry and that we should be able to explain that life will get good again, that there will be job opportunities again. That these things go in cycles and that we as adults have already been through several recessions.
God knows, we have done enough damage to their future prospects by participating in the bubble that future generations will be paying for. Let’s not ruin their formative years by being miserable about our lot.
While it is not possible to ever entirely put yourself into the shoes of a person who is contemplating ending his life, surely, there is nothing, no embarrassment, no financial misdemeanour, no marital infidelity, no breakdown in a relationship, no rejection that is ever worth taking one’s life. The world is a big place and there are many corners into which you can disappear if you wish to, without having to recourse to suicide. I have lost several friends to suicide, people whose professional lifes seemed at first glance to be idyllic, but behind the facade lay a deep feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s lot. Things will turn around. Let’s make sure that all our teenagers are there to witness that and to help make this country great again.
