HELPLINE...

Caller: Who is this?



Helpline: Mr… (states name)…



Caller: What do you do?



Helpline: Well, I… (states profession)… Right now, though I'm talking to you. What's up?



Caller: Nothing, just wanted to tell you I'm committing suicide.

And that's how a call for help begins.

"He heard when he walked into the water. The forgetful surf creaming on those ledges," was how poetess Sylvia Plath ended her poem Suicide Off Egg Rock, some time before she ended her life at 31, leaving psychologists to coin the word "Sylvia Plath Effect" for mental illness in creative writers. The causes for suicide however, span a far wider diaspora.

Take Ram Kumar, a medical representative who missed his MBBS entrance by two marks. After years having to try and sell medicines daily to doctors whose position he longed to occupy himself, Ram stood on a rail track for half an hour, hoping to end his life. Then realizing a therapist he knew had an office close by, he walked in for a life-saving last chat.

Or take Nita Sharma, a 12 year old who "fell in love" with the boy next door. Various movie scenes egged her on to try and kiss him. The boy's mother complained to her parents, who dealt her with sound admonishment instilling shame and the desire to slit her wrists. Luckily she was found and saved in time.

With a 20 % increase estimated in Mumbai's suicide rate in the last five years, WHO reports lay down Mumbai as accounting for 14 % of India's suicides. The proportion of women to have committed suicide has increased each year, as has the proportion of youngsters. Shocking the city today but, is the attempted and successful suicide of two qualified doctors (respectively): Dr Yogini Kaje and Dr Ashwini Patil. As the Hippocratic oath turns on itself almost, Psychologists Varkha Chulani and Dr Jagdish Shah (who also runs a helpline), lay out for us a brief but comprehensive guide to deal with this phenomena.

WARNING WATCH

Relationship failures, financial downfall and academic disappointments each embody unrealized expectation. Here are symptoms families and friends must look out for following such circumstances:

· Complete withdrawal from interaction

· A break in day to day activity pattern

· The discontinuing of things which held one's interest most

· Continuous crying

· A claim of wanting to commit suicide

MOMENT OF EPIPHANY

Asking one self these questions before committing the act, would place it in some perspective:

· Imagine yourself 10 minutes from now, dead. What do you think of yourself in connection to the world?

· Who are the people you most care about in this world. And who care about you?

· Can you picturize them now?

· How will they get on without you?

· Besides practical considerations, what social and emotional effect do you think your suicide will have on them?

· What situation, however impossible, would give your life the one ray of hope it needs?

AFTER THE ATTEMPT

Blanket treatment as a mentally ill person are often reasons for people who begin a suicide attempt to see it through. Resorting to the following, would provide for the best recovery.

· Whether drug treatment, by a psychiatrist, or counselling, by a therapist, would be appropriate – and the extent of each, should be decided carefully on a case to case basis, and after more than one professional opinion.

· After identifying the core reasons which led to the attempt, a two pronged approach should be followed by therapists: re-evaluating the client to discover where a faulty philosophy lies, and re-constructing a philosophy to take its place.

· The client should try out suggestions by the therapist and see if implementation in his life begets results, however adverse he may feel to such



DID YOU KNOW:

In one of legal history's most famous judgments – Smt Gian Kaur v The State Of Punjab – the Supreme Court held constitutional Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, punishing an attempt to commit suicide with simple imprisonment which may extend to one year, or fine or both. Funnily British law, where this section was drawn from originally, has amended it long ago. Rights activists protest that while attempting to commit suicide might be treated as a social aberration, to condemn such attempters to jail, rather than a rehabilitation centre, is inhuman. This should not be confused with threatening to commit suicide to achieve a material end, which would encompass other crimes.