Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Depression, Capitalism and suicide


Suicide cases are on the rise in Malaysia. A study done by the National Suicide Registry Malaysia back in 2007 revealed that most suicide cases occured in married Chinese male. A recent article in freemalaysiatoday.com suggested that chinese male still tops the list. Comparing the suicide cases between Malaysia and Singapore sees a common trend where married male chinese tend to be more suicidal than female.

OK...

Among the cause of suicide were financial, legal and job related issues. Sounds like money related problems. Although investigators point out that spiritual strength could be the factor why suicide cases in the other two main races in Malaysia were lower, social perspective and way of life of the Chinese which heavily revolves around money and modern living, could also play a role in suicide case. The chinese race leads the others in Malaysia in terms of gathered wealth.

So, tired hubby comes home, wifey asks money to go to spa, hubby got no money, wifey got sad, hubby gone mad, hubby kill himself.

Depression is another main cause of suicide. Prolonged exposure to depression (i.e more than two weeks) could potentially lead to suicide. The rise of depression case is of no surprise since the world is undergoing economic fluctuations and people could easily get depressed when they got no money. Most Malaysian are living on monthly salary and to those who are on the 'barely surviving' list, they are potentially exposed to depression for 2 weeks (starting from the middle of the month). Although it subsides the moment one received his paycheck, one day he will grow tired of the same vicious cycle.

OK. Hubby got tired money never enough, kill himself after CNY...

It is not an understatement to say that capitalism is affecting our lives. We work long hours to keep up with the lifestyle, to pay the bills and rents, we dont really care about our health, spirituality or even family. We dont go to social events unless attendance is recorded. And these things are not only affecting the chinese. It's affecting everyone in this country.

The horrifying part is that most cases happend to age range between 25-45. Bare in mind that these statistics are reported cases gathered in selected hospitals and institutions. Which mean that the rate of suicide could be higher than recorded. So the 25-45 Malaysian population is either under alot of stress, depressed or suicidal. No wonder we're running out of brains.

Two new outcomes are expected from these observations: suicidal or depressed victims could lead to self-destruction (i.e submit into alcoholism or drug abuse hence suicide cases will continue to rise) or the crime rate is going to increase (or becomes more creative).

If no more natural disasters happen until end of 2012, or the Koreans dont invlove in war, we expect to see this after Malaysian public got nothing else to take their minds off after #GE13.

And we seriously pray we're wrong. Like always...