Here’s
a blog I submitted to Your Thurrock
today. I’m posting it here in case it
isn’t posted on that site.
There
is a fallacy that the suicide rate spikes at Christmastime but the truth is
that a rise in suicides is a springtime phenomenon. The reason for the Christmas fallacy is due
to the fact that suicides around the Christmas and New Year period have always
been deemed more newsworthy as they seem to jar with the notion of it being a time
of joy and happiness. How can a person
possibly commit such a desperate act during a time when the milk of human
kindness is supposed to overflow and everyone is supposed to be happy to be
alive?
People,
however, are less likely to take their own life at Christmas because many of
them are surrounded by friends and family which gives them the emotional anchor
to life that is needed to prevent such tragic acts. This support mechanism may not be as readily
available during the rest of the year and so Christmas becomes the shining
beacon for the suicidal individual, a rock to cling on to when the long nights
seem to call to their darkest fears and insecurities.
The
problem with Christmas is that not everyone has the social network to provide
the necessary emotional support. People
with mental health issues tend to be ostracised by society and become isolated
from any kind of attachments. They sit
in their homes watching the people outside being happy and joyful and sink into
despair. It’s at Christmas that the need
for individuals from the community to reach out to the emotionally and
psychologically vulnerable is most keenly felt and would be most appreciated if
only they would do so.
However,
it’s not just the mentally unwell who could do with such kindness at Christmas
and who may suffer. Loneliness in an
otherwise mentally healthy person can lead to a Christmastime malaise similar
to a low grade depression and they could certainly benefit from the kindness of
neighbours to help raise their spirits if there were any community-minded
enough to reach out.
There
are other groups who suffer at Christmas – the homeless, the poor – whose lives
beyond the festive period are equally dark for misery knows no calendar,
desperation knows no end. Christmastime
just makes their misery more pronounced and harsh as their lives gain a
heightened sense of failure compared to those more fortunate than themselves,
especially when their predicament is not of their own making but merely the
result of the punitive actions of Fate or whatever hateful entity runs the
Universe to the detriment of the nice and the benefit of the detestable.
It’s at
Christmastime that those who follow the Christian faith should do more than pay
lip service to their Church’s teachings and show some charity and compassion to
those suffering rather than turning their heads in judgement while distributing
gifts amongst their social network. It’s
at this time of year when Christian values should be foremost in the thoughts
of adherents and compassion for those less fortunate be at its height.
Despite
the myth of a festive spike, suicides happen at Christmastime because society
has become hardened and judgemental towards those less fortunate and they then
become isolated and sink into despair.
Even if it seems impossible to carry the sense of compassion towards our
fellow human beings beyond this special time of year, surely we can make the
effort to be kind and generous of spirit for the festive period, give those
desperate, unhappy people some sense of hope to get them over the rough spot
that the silly season represents.
Even
better, why can’t we throw caution to the wind and actually make a commitment
to being nicer to each other throughout the entire year, more compassionate and
less judgemental? Wouldn’t it be nice to
give the whole world the Christmas present of a better, kinder society?
It’s a
lovely dream. I wonder if anyone is
willing enough to make it come true?
