I wrote a column with this title, and it was published in the weekend Magazine of daily Dawn, Karachi, Pakistan, on 13th November, 1992. The reason of writing such a column was to convey to a young man, that I knew was suffering from schizophrenia, and was always demanding luxuries of life from the family who did not have the resources, and he did not want to make the efforts by getting a better education or getting a job. He might have read that column, but it did not change his attitude or desires. I do not know if that column had any affect on any of the readers of the newspaper. This young man was my younger brother, who died last year (2023) after a prolonged illness and suffering due to medical treatment for more than 40 years. We will miss his pleasing personality as long as we live.
It is very easy to desire or want to have the best car, the best home, best job and thus an ideal life. But, different people in different countries may have a different meaning attached to this word “best” and ideal. So how should a common person living in any part of the world start to dream about this “best” or ideal life style. The best way is to think logically and look around your immediate family, your neighbor hood and the find out how people you know personally or otherwise, as to how he or she has now and how much struggle, hard work or sacrifices that person had to make before having the life style that he or she is enjoying.
Then look to other successful business people, leaders in your country and around the world. You will find that a number of factors were involved in their success. Some had the educational opportunities and financial background that their parent provided, who worked their butts and long hours for providing such an environment to their child or childern.
According to the data published by CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of USA, over 48,000 people died in 2021 in USA as a result of suicide, in other words there was a 1 death by suicide every 11 minutes. CDC’s websites declares that “Suicide is a serious public health problem. Suicide rates increased approximately 36% between 2000-2021. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2021, an estimated 12.3 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.7 million attempted suicide.”
According to 2023 report on the website of WHO, World Health Organization more than 700,000 people die every year by committing suicide, and it is considered as the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds. This figure may not be accurate, as in many countries such death may never be reported as suicide to save the humiliation, shame, disgrace or set back to the family.
If you or anybody you know lives in USA and may be suffering from depression and my consider attempting suicide call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
I will discuss various factors for suicidal death and what steps we as a family and the community can take to reduce or prevent it.
In this post I can only say that desire only if you really deserve any thing in life and you may reduce the chances of becoming an statistics in suicidal deaths.
Rambler's Corner 