Multiple Failed Suicide Attempts
One of the saddest things to see in the field of psychiatry is depression that hits the lives of young ones. Anyone young is considered 18 and below because they’re either barely an adult or still an adolescent or child. Think back to when you were 18 and how you felt like you were on top of the world, mature and an adult able to make your own decisions. At the time, you weren’t able to recognize your immaturity.
But now that you are older and look back at how you used to think and behave, you quickly realize without a shadow of a doubt how immature and potentially dangerous your decision-making was back then. Now as a psychiatrist, seeing an 18 year old suffering from severe depression and two failed suicide attempts breaks my heart.
Many of these young folks already have depression running in their family; in other words, they are genetically loaded. But it’s not like they’re born depressed or it just comes out of the blue. Most of the time, it’s environmental triggers that bring out the depression. Once it comes out, because they are so young and predisposed to experiencing it, the depression hits hard.
It’s interesting because these patients can tell you about some potential triggers to their depression, but do not exactly know what caused them to become depressed. In other words, they often state that it just came upon them and it doesn’t necessarily have to be around the time of the triggers; it can be months later.
Generally, the younger the age of onset of a mental illness, the higher the chances of a worse prognosis. In the case of severe depression, suicide attempts are not a surprise. Many of these patients won’t necessarily tell you that their intent was to end it all; they either feel ashamed and embarrassed or do not know the reason themselves due to the severity of their depression, which impairs their judgment, impulse and even insight sometimes.
The hard fact is that depression kills many lives every day all around the world. That’s why we must continue to remain strong and come together to share our stories, thoughts and feelings on a daily basis.
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Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)
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