When celebrities take their own lives, teenagers may also think about suicide.
Since the 1997 financial crisis, the country’s suicide rate has been skyrocketing. According to data from the Korea Statistical Office, the suicide rate in 2005 was 26 per 100,000 population; a total of 12,047 Koreans committed suicide that year. That was nearly twice the number in 2000, when 6,460 Koreans killed themselves.
This is the fastest rate of increase among the 29 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
National Statistical Office data also show that suicide is the leading cause of death among Koreans in their 20s and 30s, and the second most frequent cause of death for teenagers and people in their 40s in 2005.
The number of people who killed themselves was 1.5 times more than the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents in 2005.
A bigger problem is that the number of teenagers taking their own lives, or reporting feeling an impulse to do so, has kept growing.
In a survey in September last year by the Songpa public health clinic in southern Seoul, 63.8 percent of 4,150 teenagers surveyed acknowledged that they have thought about killing themselves. According to a September 2005 Korea Youth Counselling Institute survey of 3,117 teenagers, 48.6 percent said they have felt an impulse to take their own lives. Among them, 13.7 percent have thought about detailed plans for suicide.
The word “suicide” comes from the Latin words sui meaning “self,” and caedo, meaning “to kill.” Put together, it means, literally, “to kill self.”
Killing oneself is not a crime under Korean criminal law. But most people consider suicide to be an extreme crime, destroying the dignity of life.
Reasons for suicides among teenagers include mental illness, academic problems, family problems, relationship problems with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, isolation from friends, lack of confidence in one’s appearance or verbal violence on the Internet. In other words, suicides are caused by a constellation of social pathologies.
About 80 percent of the people who take their lives suffer from depression; the rest commit suicide on impulse.
When people cannot find hope in a desperate situation, they feel helpless and want to run away from reality. Then, they suffer from depression and make an extreme choice.
Depression is a serious illness affecting many people. Untreated, about 15 percent of depressed people may commit suicide.
In many cases, depression is caused when certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine, do not work properly.
Patients suffering from depression have a hard time talking with anyone and usually have no motivation to do anything.
They have trouble remembering or concentrating. In some cases, they suffer from physical symptoms such as headaches, diarrhea, constipation and feelings of choking or heaviness in the chest.
When these symptoms persist, depressed persons feel extremely guilty, blame themselves for everything and choose to kill themselves to end the pain.
But if treated in time, about 80 percent of people suffering depression can recover.
When someone loses pleasure in everyday life and feels helpless for longer than two weeks, it is necessary to see a psychiatrist. Family members and friends also need to show a depressed person constant care and attention.
To ensure they can do so, it is urgent to change negative perceptions about depression and let everyone understand that the illness can be treated, just like a cold or high blood pressure.
Careless reporting in the media is another cause of “copycat” suicides. Sensational reporting on suicides, without careful background explanations, and the plots of many popular TV dramas where lead characters commit suicide, might encourage teenagers to commit suicide. Research shows that massive media coverage of a celebrity’s suicide influences 14.3 times more copycat suicides than reporting on ordinary people’s suicides.
Not a few people in our society consider suicide as a means to escape from reality, thinking everything will be solved once they die. They do not understand death.
“Death is the final stage of growth,” said Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on death and dying.
That is, people are born to grow and when dying, they should be able to reflect on their lives, make a proper closure and embrace death with dignity. If people end their lives in suicide, their way of dying, as well as living, will be considered foolish.
Suicide is not just a misfortune for one person; it also leaves the suicide’s family and friends in indescribable pain.
Moral arguments and forceful persuasion cannot stop teenagers from ending their lives. It is necessary to educate the young about death so they can understand its meaning and prepare themselves for their own death.
Many people committing suicide show signs of seeking help before they die. Thus, it is necessary to establish a system to help people recognize these signs early and regularly check on people in need of help.
Vigilant monitoring must be required of Internet sites that teenagers are likely to visit and learn how to commit suicide.
Most of all, it is urgent that we develop an education program to help teenagers enjoy healthy cultural experiences and learn to respect themselves.
*Oh Chin-tak is a professor of philosophy at Hallym University, and Lee Min-soo is a professor of psychiatry at Korea University.
Translated by the JoongAng Daily staff.
Warning signs for teen suicide
·Threatening to commit suicide
·Writing about death in a journal or talking about death to friends
·Refusing to go to school or running away from home
·Continuously feeling depressed
·.Showing drastic changes in personality; academic performance becomes significantly lower
·Drinking of alcohol or smoking cigarettes
·Giving away of possessions
·Pulling away from friends or family
·Staying alone in a room and not eating
·Sleeping more than usual or not sleeping at all
·Having trouble concentrating
*Source: Chosun University Hospital
Depression self-assessment
·Continuously feeling depressed, anxiety and emptiness
·Feeling devastated
·Feeling guilty or worthless
·Losing interest in favorite items or activities
·Not sleeping at all or sleeping too much
·Suddenly losing appetite or eating too much
·Feeling fatigue or helplessness
·Thinking about death or suicide
·Being easily irritated or nervous
·Losing concentration or memory
*Source: University of California, Berkeley
By Oh Chin-tak, and Lee Min-soo Contributing writers [enational@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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