Suicide less of a social taboo
Professor of Psychiatry at UCD Dr Patricia Casey told pilgrims at the annual Knock Shrine Novena in Mayo yesterday that taboos and sanctions serve useful functions in controlling social behaviour.
"Those who speak of the removal of the stigma of suicide should tread very warily indeed," Dr Casey said. The overall suicide trend was upward and last year over 400 people, mostly men, died by their own hand, she said.
Dr Casey said a consistent finding among those who took their own lives was the extent to which they see nothing but gloom and misery ahead of them.
Nowhere was self-loathing more apparent than among those who die by suicide, she added.
Dr Casey said many younger people who took their own lives did not have any long-term psychiatric illness but rather were reacting to some immediate life-crisis to which they saw no solution and which they believed rendered their life meaningless.
The decision to die stemmed from a belief their life was only of relative value rather than of absolute value.
Dr Casey also pointed out there has been a lot of discussion in recent years about the suicide issue and aspects of this were welcome.
"On the down side however, I wonder if by constantly talking about it we were desensitising ourselves and others to it and unwittingly contributing to its increase," she said.
"I also wonder if by removing the cultural and religious sanctions against it we are unwittingly presenting it to vulnerable people as an option in some circumstances."
However, Paul O'Hare, spokesperson for the Samaritans believes otherwise. "The Samaritans have spent a great deal of time and effort into removing stigmas. We think the removal of taboos would be central to informed discussions about suicide, and as the part of the solution of the problem. Not talking about suicide just creates myths," Mr. O'Hare said.
Dr Casey also added in her address that the view of life as being only of relative rather than of absolute worth is a new one to Irish society.
Almost 500 people commit suicide in Ireland every year.
There are up to 6,000 attempted suicides annually. Hanging and drowning are the most common forms of suicide in Ireland.
Overdoses of medication and cutting are the two most common forms of parasuicide.
Of those who overdose, 50% have taken a form of alcohol.
About one third of all suicides in Ireland are preceded by parasuicide.
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