For every one person who dies after committing suicide, there are twenty who have attempted it and hundreds more who have contemplated it.

The statistics are chilling. Case after case is brought up to do the media rounds, to be later forgotten as it settles down into the records as just another number. Just another statistic. These forgotten number have come back to haunt Bangalore in the form of the infamous tag ‘Suicide City’.

The number of suicides among the youth in the city has already reached alarming proportions and urgently needs to be dealt with head on. Though Tamil Nadu and Kerala have higher suicide rates than Bangalore, the metamorphosis of the latter from a sleepy garden city to the fast-paced IT hub that it is now, has put the spotlight on the city. Interestingly, it is within these changes and ‘positive’ developments that the problem essentially stems from.

Though each individual case is distinct in the reasons involved, therefore making suicides impractical to generalize, there have to be a few underlying social factors that define majority of the cases. Until now discussions on the issue have been limited to psychologists dissecting the situation and churning out possible reasons. Debates on individual vulnerability versus social stress as the cause of suicide have surfaced and have divided our thoughts on the issue.

A recurring reason, stated in most discussions on the topic, is parental and peer pressure. This would explain the spurt in suicides during examination results. In a rapidly changing city like Bangalore, the word ‘competition’ is an understatement. In almost all socio-economic environments, education and career fields have turned into battle fields where it’s a case of survival of the fittest. Insurmountable pressure is something that children all around us are dealing with on a daily basis.

But what causes youngsters to buckle under this pressure? What could possibly drive so many youth, who have their whole lives in front of them waiting to be lived, to something as horrific as committing suicide? What passes through the minds of these souls as they experience the lowest point of depression?

The tell tale signs of anxiety and then depression are common to most victims. The glaring reality is that almost all victims tend to shrink from society and go into a shell, unable or unwilling to share their distress with family or friends. This is usually not something that develops overnight. It goes back a long time, maybe even a lifetime. Lack of a healthy communicative environment is the real killer. A loving home and family, where a child feels a sense of safety and belongingness, goes a long way and shapes that child’s thoughts and behaviour accordingly.

According to reports, nearly one-third of the people who commit suicide actually give a clue directly or indirectly, but are often not taken seriously. We need society as much as society needs us. And when society, particularly the people around us, fails to provide the support needed to fall back on in times of crises, we tend to snap.

It all comes crashing down after that. Either the act is committed in a moment of extreme hopelessness, or after a slow deterioration that renders the victim alone, emotionally at least. Those who lack a strong support system in the form of family and friends are likely to break down in the face of stress, and fall prey to extreme depression, leading to suicidal thoughts.

We see people like these all the time. Yet our thoughts on their situation barely extend beyond pity. Now that we are aware of the epidemic proportions suicide is heading towards (and I am not exaggerating here; suicide is the third leading cause of death worldwide.), lets begin to look at these people a little more closely. Their crises could be ours any day. How would we deal with the situation in their place? Honestly, wouldn’t we crave for acceptance, support, love and a reason to go on?

It just takes a little sensitivity from us to identify and help someone who is psychologically and silently crying out for support. Awareness and openly communicating within families and peer circles are critical, and must become a priority at this stage of Bangalore’s history. Only then will we have a shot at ridding the city of its infamous tag.