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Depression: leading cause of suicides |
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South Korea’s suicide rate remains the highest among OECD members despite the government’s efforts to counter it. Everyday dozens of people take their own lives, leaving those left behind to suffer the loss and severe depression. The following is the second in a three-part series on suicide. — ED.
By Kim Tae-jong
Park Chun-hwa, 73, had long suffered depression and tremendous stress after she lost her two sons who took their lives due to economic hardship.
“After losing my two sons, I found no reason to live anymore. I wanted to follow them,” she said. “Actually, I put my suicidal thoughts into action twice.”
She said she thought taking her own life would be a lot easier than living with such tragic memories.
What made her move forward was her daughter. “I saw my daughter crying next to me when I woke up from my second attempt to kill myself. At that moment, I realized my life was not just mine,” she recalled. “I decided that I must not make my daughter feel the pain and sorrow again.”
As was shown in Park’s case, depression is one of the main reasons people choose extreme methods to escape from it once and for all.
Psychiatric disorders
Experts say suicide is never the consequence of one single cause or stressor. Still, they agree that acute psychosocial crises and psychiatric disorders are major causes of suicidal behavior.
“Key precipitating factors are depression and stressful life events. In fact a large proportion of people who have attempted suicide suffered from depression,” said Yoon Dae-hyun, a senior official from the Korea Association for Suicide Prevention (KASP), who is also a psychiatrist at Seoul National University Hospital.
According to KASP’s survey of those who have attempted suicide, over 80 percent of them were found to be suffering from a mental illness.
The survey was conducted on 1,921 people who were transferred to emergency units at eight hospitals nationwide between January 2010 and February 2011. About 43 percent of them suffered from depression and 6.3 percent had bipolar disorders.
“It is obvious that those with depression are highly likely to commit suicide, and therefore, we need to help them overcome the disease to prevent them from doing so,” Yoon said.
Yoon and other experts said that the government needs to put forward measures to help people fight depression more effectively.
Sociological factors
Although depression is a major factor behind suicide attempts, experts also point out that it is necessary to understand suicide in a sociological context.
Experts say suicides happen more frequently in countries where social norms are changing fast through economic development and people are forced to face fierce competition.
The high suicide rate in Korea reflects that people are not happy due to growing competition and economic inequalities even though they have become more affluent than in the past.
“Simply, more and more people think they are unhappy. They face more conflicts, in the family, at work and in relationships, and that’s the dark side of the fast development of our country,” said Ahn Myoung-ock, a professor at the School of Public Health and Welfare at CHA University.
With the fast industrialization and dominant materialism, people focus on the importance of money and achievements, disregarding traditional values and losing respect for life, she argued.
Even young children are forced to win competitions with their peers from a very early age — typically working from early morning until late at night to simply get into a top university and secure a well-paying job.
Experts say that explains the high suicide rate among teenagers. Some high school students take their own lives around the time when they take university entrance exams amid extreme pressure to perform well.
Suicides were the leading cause of death among people in their teens, 20s and 30s. More than five out of every 100,000 teens killed themselves last year, while the rates for people in their 20s and 30s were measured at 24.4 percent and 29.6 percent, respectively.
“In a society where people from a young age are required to face fierce competition, they often feel extreme stress, especially when they experience a failure and they don’t know how to properly cope with it,” Park Yun-ok, a counselor at the Seoul Child and Adolescent Mental Health Center, said.
Lack of safety net
One of the obvious trends in the high suicide rate is an uptick in the number of elderly people who kill themselves. According to recent statistics, a total of 5,051 suicides by elderly citizens aged 60 or over were reported in 2009, up from 433 in 1990.
Experts say the country is fast aging but lacks supportive measures for senior citizens.
With the life expectancy increasing, more and more elderly people are left unprotected due to a lack of social safety programs.
“As they get older, people are financially challenged after a comparatively early retirement, and of course many of them have health problems,” said Park ji-young, a social welfare professor at Sangji University. “But they have fewer options to rely on as many of them can’t expect their children’s support in the absence of any effective social welfare programs. Society marginalizes them and so it is not so strange that many elderly people consider committing suicide.”
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우울증, 자살의 주요 원인
박춘화(73) 씨는 생활고를 이유로 자살한 두 아들로 인해 우울증과 심각한 스트레스에 오랜 동안 시달렸었다.
“두 아들을 잃고, 더 이상 살아가야 할 이유가 없었다. 아들들을 따라 가고 싶었다. 사실 2번 자살 시도를 했었다.” 라고 박씨는 말했다.
박씨의 생각을 바꾼 것은 그녀의 딸이었다.
“2번째 자살 시도 후 깨어났을 때, 옆에서 오열하는 딸아이를 보았다. 그 순간, 내 삶이 내 것이 아니라는 것을 깨달았다. 딸이 같은 고통이나 절망을 경험하게 할 수는 없다고 생각했다.” 라고 박씨는 회상했다.
박씨의 경우처럼, 자살을 시도하는 많은 사람들의 주요 원인은 우울증이다.
전문가들은 자살이 어떤 하나의 요인에 의한 결과는 아니라고 말하지만, 만성적인 정신 질환이나 증상들은 자살을 불러일으키는 주요 원인이라는 것에는 이견이 없다고 한다.
“자살의 주요 원인은 우울증이나 스트레스가 심한 일상의 경험들이다. 사실, 자살을 시도한 대부분의 사람들은 우울증을 앓고 있었다.” 라고 자살 예방 센터의 홍보 이사인 윤대윤 박사는 말했다. 윤 박사는 서울대 병원에서 정신과 의사이기도 하다.
우울증이 자살 시도의 주요 원인이기는 하지만, 전문가들은 자살을 사회적 관점에서 이해할 필요가 있다고 말한다.
전문가들은 사회 규범이 경제 발전과 함께 빠르게 변하며 구성원들이 치열한 경쟁에 내몰리는 사회에서 자살이 더 자주 발생한다고 주장한다.
전문가들은 높은 한국의 자살률은 더욱 치열해지는 경쟁과 경제적 불균형 속에서 사람들이 과거에 비해 물질적으로는 풍요롭지만 덜 행복해한다는 것을 보여준다고 지적한다.
“단순히 이야기해서, 점점 많은 사람들이 불행하다고 느끼고 있다. 더 많은 갈등을 느낀다. 가정이나, 직장, 사람들과의 관계. 이것은 우리 사회의 빠른 발전의 어두운 이면이기도 하다.” 라고 CHA 의과 대학의 복지학과 안명옥 교수는 말한다.
빠른 산업화 과정에서, 사람들은 돈이나 성공을 중요시하면서 전통적 가치가 무시되고 생명존중 사상도 잃게 되었다고 안 교수는 말한다.
심지어 아이들도 아주 어린 나이부터 좋은 대학을 나와 직장을 얻을 때까지 아침부터 밤 늦게까지 경쟁에 몰리고 있다.
전문가들은 이러한 현상이 십대의 높은 자살률의 주요 원인이라고 지적하고 있다.
높은 자살률 중 한가지 분명한 추세 중의 하나는 많은 수의 노인들이 자살을 시도한다는 점이다. 통계에 따르면, 60세 이상의 노인들 중 5,051명이 작년 스스로 목숨을 끊었다. 이는 1990년의 433건에 비해 급격한 증가이다.
전문가들은 급격한 사회의 노령화에도 불구하고 노인들을 지원할 사회 안전망이 부족하다고 지적한다.
“상대적으로 빠른 퇴직이 이루어지면서, 사람들은 나이가 들수록 신체적 건강에도 문제가 생기고 경제적으로 어려움을 겪게 된다.” 라고 상지 대학교 복지학과 박지영 교수는 말한다. “하지만 사회 복지적 프로그램들은 이들을 돌보기에는 턱없이 부족한 실정이고, 이런 이유로 노인들은 계속해서 궁지로 몰리게 되고, 결국은 극단적인 선택에 이르는 경우가 많은 듯 하다.”
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e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr |
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