In addition to the loss of stature, people also might kill themselves over the loss of social ties. Ulrike Mai /Pixabay, CC BY Broken relationships Not surprisingly, social media shaming also provokes suicide.Ĭyberbullying can cause severe emotional distress. The growth of social media has made people vulnerable to public shaming on a mass scale. Gossip and scandal are powerful sanctions in small towns and villages. In 2017, a Kentucky state legislator killed himself after allegations of sexual misconduct. For instance, in South Korea, a former president killed himself after a corruption investigation in 2009. Reputation and good name are extremely important to most people, so all manner of shame and humiliation can cause suicide. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish an intentional overdose from an accidental one, and some researchers lump them together as “ deaths of despair.” Shame ![]() His case is hardly unique.Īlong with high rates of suicide go high rates of drug overdose. I am failing and feel like I’m gonna lose everything I’ve worked for,” before killing himself in 2019. South Dakota farmer Chris Dykshorn texted, “I seriously don’t know how we r gonna make it. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images Some argue, in many parts of the U.S., the recession never ended, which may help explain the rise in rural suicide.Īmber Dykshorn holds a photo of her late husband, Chris, who died by suicide in 2019 – leaving her with three kids and over $300,000 worth of debt. and many other countries – also rose during the Great Recession of 2008. Suicide rates spiked during the Great Depression of the 1930s and were more prevalent in areas where banks folded, taking their customers’ savings with them. Others show that rates rise during economic downturns. Numerous studies document that the unemployed have higher suicide rates than the employed. Loss of material wealth – reduced income, mounting debts and other financial disasters – can certainly provoke suicide. Thanks to the current pandemic, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is reporting a nine-fold increase in calls compared to this time last year. The human mind does not exist in a vacuum. Those who already suffer depression can be pushed over the edge by “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” It is likely no coincidence that poet Sylvia Plath, with her long history of depression, killed herself shortly after being abandoned by her husband. Not all who kill themselves do so after a long struggle with depression – from Cato to Hitler, many famous figures of history have taken their own lives after sudden reversals, such as military defeats. My research shows there are additional causes. But as a sociologist who studies suicide, I think the medical model of suicide is incomplete. ![]() ![]() This view is not incorrect: Clinical depression increases the risk of suicide, and so therapies that treat depression can help prevent it.
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