Suicide by Jeffery Arnaud

               

            On average, every 17 minutes there is a suicide committed in the United States (Hidaka, Brandon). “Over 90% of people who die by suicide have clinical depression or another diagnosable mental disorder” (Recognize the Warning Signs of Suicide). Depression amongst people in the United States is at an all-time high, especially amongst teens and young adults. Depression is a mental illness causing low self-esteem, little to no motivation, and loss of interest in everyday activities. These kinds of symptoms are nothing to take lightly and can impact people’s lives tremendously. This absurd epidemic of depression is no doubt at an all-time high in our society in America, but what is causing this?

            Depression has obviously been around for as long as anyone can remember, for many different reasons that many of us probably could never understand. Although it has been around for a long time, it is at an all-time high specifically in the twenty first century. There are many, many different causes for this mental disorder ranging from ones’ physical activity, to their diet, to the social environment they are surrounded in, and even to the amount of sleep they get daily. Researchers have done cross cultural studies and other techniques to try and identify some sort of correlation between depressed individuals and the main reasons why they are experiencing this depression. These studies are incredibly hard and not always accurate. The correlations between the characteristics of depressed individuals range and therefore don’t make these studies completely accurate. Although, we do know a lot of the things that undoubtedly influence whether someone is depressed or not; “Declining social capital and greater inequality and loneliness are candidate mediators of a depressiogenic social milieu. Modern populations are increasingly overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, and socially-isolated. These changes in lifestyle each contribute to poor physical health and affect the incidence and treatment of depression” (Hidaka, Brandon). These are certain symptoms researchers have found to affect the health of modern day depressed patients. Basically, what they are saying is the more modern our world becomes, those who do not feel as equal as others will become increasingly lonely. This makes a lot of sense nowadays because we live in cities and go to schools where some of us might drive nice cars or have money and the people that are sitting next to us might not have those things. Because of this social inequality, people might feel they are less of a person than others due to this. Throughout the modern populations around the world, more individuals are experiencing obesity, or on the contrary, not getting enough nutrition(Suicide Causes). They are also more likely to experience things such as not replenishing their bodies with enough sleep day to day, or feeling isolated from the rest of society. These are all generalizations of some basic characteristics that can help cause depression through people this day and age that seem like such small things but can have astronomical impacts to one’s mental health.

            Depression is a very negative mental illness that could end up impacting more people than anticipated. If people are depressed that is going to impact their family hugely. The relationship they might have with their families might be seriously damaged if depressed because those happy and great times they might have had with them are no longer going to happen when depressed. This could also impact a community, too. For example, I had a friend named Cooper, who was depressed the year he went off to college. Cooper never told anyone about the feelings that he was having so nobody really knew. But one day his roommate and my other friend Adrian come back to their dorm, and Cooper hung himself. Cooper committing suicide was one of the saddest things I have had to go through, watching so many people genuinely hurt over our friend dying. As a community, we had a light festival where we all met at the high school football field and lit a candle and released a balloon in honor of Cooper. We also had a memorial service for him where myself and probably 200 other people attended. Watching this amount of people mourn over a lost one was an incredibly hard thing to watch. Cooper impacted more people than he probably ever imagined and as a community it hurt to see everyone go through this together. But, depression can impact even larger amounts of people.

As this epidemic of depression continues to keep growing, it could impact us as country as well. If we all knew of at least one person who might be depressed think of how that can impact our lives and everyone around us’ lives. Because if what happened to Cooper happened to one person in every city at one point, which it usually does sooner or later, that would be affecting every community around the country. Every time I get on social media I read about a suicide from a young teenager that couldn’t take it anymore with numerous amount of people showing support and grief over whoever it might be. Out of all of those suicides a huge percentage of those are caused by depressed mindsets and illnesses, thinking that there is no hope for them and making their conditions seem a lot worse than they probably are due to this illness. Depression has the power to impact as a community, as a state, as a nation, and even as a world. This epidemic needs to be treated and growth in this illness needs to discontinue and be put to an end.

           

There are many “solutions” to treating depression and the mental illnesses that come along with it. Some of these may work while others may not. It generally just depends on the person, what state of mind they are currently in, and how deep they are in their stage of depression.

            I think the most effective way to treat depression is simply by communicating with these people that suffer from this mental illness, finding out what the root cause of the depression is, and then helping them to recover and make improvements into a healthier state of mind. So, by saying this I mean that when those who have these mental illnesses are diagnosed, they should be required to go and see a specialist a couple of times a week. This will allow them to talk and release their emotions to another human being. “All of my patients receive supportive therapy. At each appointment, I provide an empathic environment in which they can discuss any number of concerns and stressors in a supportive, non-judgmental and non-critical atmosphere. I seek to help my patients make their own connections, discover insights and solutions, while working through difficult problems and situations.” (Goldenberg).

 This will also help them feel a little less lonely, and this specialist can monitor and log their improvements and strives from visit to visit. Talking and communicating with other people always allows us to get whatever we want off our chest and trust someone else with that information. Certified psychiatrists are professionals at making people feel like they can trust them and have a way of being able to get the most out of the patients. After all, that is their job. These professionals would undoubtedly be the most qualified to help with these patients and to get them to talk the most. The patients could be required to see this specialist twice a week for an hour each time. Not taking away from too much of their time, but enough for the specialist to truly see if the patients are making improvements from week to week.

Secondly, I believe that one crucial and very overlooked thing can greatly help ease depression, exercise. Yes, it might sound funny at first but I believe that along with putting depressed patients on a schedule including psychiatrist visiting, a schedule that intertwines those visits and exercising daily can tremendously improve depression. By doing a physical activity such as exercising, our body releases endorphin's into our system that can help trigger a sense of happiness that in turn, helps ease depression. Not only do the chemicals naturally released in our brain help us to feel better during and after an exercise session, but seeing ourselves set and achieve physical goals can also help people feel better about themselves. This is indeed a strange philosophy but I believe in it. This is a workable and achievable solution. So, patients should be encouraged, if healthy and physically able, to train with a certified trainer at least four days a week, every week. This will allow them to set goals for themselves physically and achieve them, while making themselves feel better by exercising. Also, I strongly believe that releasing these natural endorphins from the brain into the body is far better overall than drowning in yourselves in prescription medications. These medications just numb you for a little while and I feel that you are not making any real progress as a person, but rather relying on the drugs to numb the pain for a while. I believe this is cowardly and not a worthy solution.

Camus’ beliefs of absurdity relate to the topic of depression in that he believes there is not really a meaning to life. This belief relates to the mentally ill people with depression as in they may be thinking there is really no purpose in living and that their life is pointless. This topic and Camus’ beliefs greatly intertwine because Camus could relate to the depressed people of today’s day and age in the fact that both think too much about life, and in the end, that could do more harm than good to the mind. Depressed people most likely think too much about life, what their purpose is on this earth, or maybe why they are even where they’re at. They could find everything meaningless and believe that there is really no meaning to anything.

Depressed individuals often find themselves overthinking their own life so much, that they begin to contemplate ending it. Thoughts might go through their head such as “Why am I even here on earth?”, or “Nobody would miss me if I’m gone.”. By filling their mind with these thoughts and emotions, it’s only a matter of time before people act. Depressed people often commit suicide if they feel that nothing will make them feel better and they really have no purpose in life. Now on the contrary, while Camus also thought about life deeply and what people’s purpose was, suicide was a topic that confused him. Camus believed that suicide was cowardly in a way, but he also thought that if there was no purpose to life, one should have the option to choose whether they want to be in it anymore. Therefore, this topic confused Camus because like all other things, Camus thought about it deeply. Camus did believe though, that the best way to deal with absurdity, was to just keep on living, day by day. These are just a few ways that Camus and his beliefs intertwine with the topic of depression and all the thoughts that come with that topic.

 Works Cited

D.O., Dr. Matt Goldenberg. “How a Psychiatrist Treats Depression: A Peek Behind the Curtain.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 1 Dec. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-matt-goldenberg-do-/how-a-psychiatrist-treats_b_6244256.html. Accessed 24 Apr. 2017.

Hidaka, Brandon H. “Depression as a Disease of Modernity: Explanations for Increasing Prevalence.” Journal of Affective Disorders, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330161/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.

“Recognize the Warning Signs of Suicide.” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/depression/guide/depression-recognizing-signs-of-suicide#1. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.

“Suicide Causes.” Suicide Causes. Suicide.org. Suicide Causes. Suicide.org. Suicide Causes. Suicide.org., www.suicide.org/suicide-causes.html. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.