Child's suicide is disgrace to adults!

Recently there have been more and more reports about juvenile suicides in mass media. Why exactly children? Why does a little person decide to go away from life? Why does it seem such senseless and unavailing to him? It occurs not too many to make attempt to understand children-suicides. Basically everyone is satisfied with official formulations of reasons for such acts. And what is a real reason for it?

September, 10 – the World day of prevention of suicides

According to the data of the World Health Organization life of million people is broken annually from suicide. How paradoxically though there are citizens of rich countries in the vanguard of sad statistics. In particular, Swedes are leaders according to the amount of volunteers to escape from this world.

The WHO and the International association on prevention of suicides appeal to public to conduct measures on strengthening of sense of responsibility for the rescues of lives, which can be lost in the result of suicide. Teachers, doctors, limbs of the law, politicians, lawyers and also church and mass media join annually to these undertakings.

The welfare standards of family is an important factor in the child’s desire to live, however, not on itself but only with its reflection in the context of self-appraisal of personality. That is why children from financially well-to-do families also come to have suicidal intentions. Exactly children, who feel that everybody is indifferent to them, although, they wish to live as financially well as their parents and they take money from them, feel lonely more frequent. We will mark that this feeling is connected exactly with the absence of spiritual support from adults.

The psychological analysis of specific situations shows that suicides  are distinguished with such individual psychological features:  infantilism, pungency of emotional experiencing, propensity to self-examination, bashfulness, timidity, heightened sensibility, insufficient self-control, impetuosity, absence of conformity, propensity to doubting, inconstancy of emotional state, lack of confidence, dependence, unformed system of values, inability to react adequately on conflicts in the interpersonal sphere, impressionability, excitability, instability of mood, propensity to the depressed disorders, inadequate self-appraisal. When a man is in a state of depression: melancholy, depression, alarm, fear or apathy, joylessness, boredom. Feeling of hopelessness, guilt, shame and disgrace develop. Scientists who work on this problem assert that more frequent teenagers have the combination of symptoms of depression and antisocial conduct as the predecessor of suicide.

Affect suicidal conduct: sometimes suicidal demonstrations can be result of reaction on pungent affect situations. Such “affects” are more frequent caused by attack on pride, humiliations in the eyes of surrounding, by the loss of hopes. Real suicidal conduct is the result of the considered decision to go away from life. Numerous flashes of suicidal thoughts without realization of certain attempts are possible. They can usually appear when life delivers a blow at “weak places”, especially if at the same time there are the thoughts of own inferiority and suicidal character can have in critical situations. Suicidal actions are done under the influence of the chain of failures, disappointments, and some useless occasion can become the last straw.

Psychology of suicide is foremost psychology of hopelessness. Why children? Because first of all children feel parent’s complications very delicately; secondly, children always have their personal psychological problems which seem to be trifles to adults on the background of their own confusions. But child's soul does not want and can not consider so, and once a child does not stand such burden of open questions which she simply has nobody to put...  There is a very important question — how could the destructive thought in the head of a quite young person appear, ripen and grow in action?

Several features of desire to lay hands on oneself can be distinguished, such as: problems with sleep, loss of appetite, apathy; propensity to loneliness and alienation; drastic changes in appearance and conduct; abuse of alcohol and drugs; excited or aggressive condition;  talks about death, messages about suicide, pictures in black light that represent cruelty especially directed on itself; repentance; feeling of hopelessness, alarm, depression, weeping without reason; distribution of personal things; inability to remain attentive for long time; loss of interest to favorite work; unexpected worsening of progress, missing of school lessons; membership in some group or sect;  euphoria after depression and others.

The initial and secondary preventive measures of suicidal conduct are distinguished. The initial preventive measures are the measures (socio-economic, medical, psychological, pedagogical and others) directed on prevention of origin of suicides. 

The secondary preventive measures are the measures directed on lessening of suicidal tendencies and warning of repetition. The first center on prevention of suicides was organized in 1948 in Austria; in 1953 the mentioned service appeared in England, in 1955 — in Los Angeles. One of important directions of initial preventive measures of suicidal conduct is the control of nature of reports about suicides in mass media. It is considered to be proved now that the reports about suicides or their pictures which appear in mass media have a negative effect and can provoke suicide actions, especially with children and teenagers. English scientist K. Houghton studied the consequences of demonstration of episode where a hero perishes in the result of overdosing of paracetamol in the popular weekly serial. During the first week after the demonstration of episode the amount of attempts of auto-intoxication grew up, at the same time the cases of auto-intoxication with paracetamol were traced more often than cases of auto-intoxication with other matters. Summarizing the results of the researches conducted in different countries, K. Houghton came to conclusion that report or demonstration of suicides in mass-media result in the increase of both common amount of suicide and amount of cases of the use of separate methods of suicide. Important direction of preventive measures of suicidal conduct, related to activity of mass-media, is the informing of population about the present system of delivering of medical and psychological help. Information about activity of “telephones of trust”, centers of social and psychological help, crisis departments, where people who are in crisis can appeal for help, is to be widely represented in the press, radio and television.

Anatoliy NAUMENKO