Bear with me. This isn’t one of my usual posts today. It’s written in memory of someone that I wish I would have been able to get to know better. If he would have had someone close to him who had access to this information, he might still be with us today. Bye Reggie – I’ll miss you.
This subject is really serious, and it is really uncomfortable. In today’s economy there are a lot of people that are feeling completely hopeless for a lot of different reasons. Their jobs are stressing them out completely, they are at the end of their rope financially (and possibly at the end of their bank account and credit), many people have lost their jobs. There is a huge amount of suffering going around and some people just do not have the coping mechanisms to deal with the amount of pain that they are in. For some of those people, the only solution they can come up with is suicide. The leading cause of suicide is untreated depression. In these times, depression is a lot more common. This article talks about how work, depression, and suicide can be related.
“A 2005 UK study of 250,000 employees found people with low job satisfaction were most likely to experience emotional burnout, have reduced self-esteem and suffer from anxiety and depression. Even a modest drop in job satisfaction could lead to burnout of “considerable clinical importance”, the report said, adding: “The relationships are particularly impressive for aspects of mental health, specifically burnout, lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and depression, where it can now be confirmed that dissatisfaction at work can be hazardous to an employee’s mental health and wellbeing.” (5)
A 2007 study (6) of almost 1,000 32-year-olds found 45 per cent of new cases of depression and anxiety were attributable to stressful work. The researchers defined a highly demanding job as involving a lack of control, long hours, non-negotiable deadlines and a high volume of work (Hazards 100).
Overall 10 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women in the study suffered a first episode of depression or anxiety over the year-long study. But the risk was double in those with the highest pressure jobs, according to the paper published in the August 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine.”
Here is a resource for depression signs.
There are a lot of things that you can do when you recognize that your friend or coworker is having suicidal thoughts. When people bring this up – it is a cry for help. People who really are contemplating taking their own lives will talk about it first.
Here and here are some resource to help you talk to someone who is feeling like they can’t go on.
