Suicide

Suicide (Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of intentionally terminating one's own life. Suicide occurs for a number of reasons such as depression, substance abuse, shame, avoiding pain, financial difficulties or other undesirable fates.

Views on suicide have been influenced by cultural views on existential themes such as religion, honor, and the meaning of life. Most Western and Asian religions—the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, Hinduism—consider suicide a dishonorable act; in the West it was regarded as a serious crime and offense against God due to religious belief in the sanctity of life. Japanese views on honor and religion led to seppuku being respected as a means to atone for mistakes or failure during the samurai era.

The predominant view of modern medicine is that suicide is a mental health concern, associated with psychological factors such as the difficulty of coping with depression, inescapable suffering or fear, or other mental disorders and pressures. Suicide is sometimes interpreted in this framework as a "cry for help" and attention, or to express despair and the wish to escape, rather than a genuine intent to die. Most of the suicides do not succeed on the first attempt; those who later gain a history of repetitions are significantly more at risk of eventual completion.

Causes of suicide

No single factor has gained acceptance as a universal cause of suicide. Depression, however, is a common phenomenon amongst those who die by suicide.
Other factors that may be related are as follows

• Suffering (e.g. physical or emotional agony that is not correctable)
• Stress (e.g. grief after the death of a loved one)
• Crime (e.g. escaping judicial punishment and the inhuman conditions and boredom of incarceration; self-punishment due to guilt)
• Mental illness and disability (e.g. depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders or post traumatic stress disorder)
• Catastrophic injury (e.g. paralysis, disfigurement, loss of limb)
• Adverse environment (e.g. sexual abuse, domestic abuse, poverty, homelessness, bullying, social isolation, discrimination)
• Financial loss (e.g. loss of job/assets, debts)
• Self sacrifice reasons (e.g. Sati in old Indian Tradition)
• Unresolved sexual issues (e.g. sexism, sexual orientation, gender dysphoria, unrequited love, aftermath of a break up, involuntary celibacy, acquiring an incurable Sexually Transmitted Infection (HIV, Herpes, HPV))
• To avoid shame or dishonour (e.g. the Bushido ideal, under which a disgraced samurai could regain his honor by performing seppuku)
• Philosophical belief that life has no inherent value (e.g. absurdism, pessimism, nihilism)
• Religious cults (e.g. Heaven's Gate and Peoples Temple)

Suicide and mental illness

Studies show a high incidence of psychiatric disorders in suicide victims at the time of their death with the total figure ranging from 98% to 87.3% with mood disorders and substance abuse being the two most common. In schizophrenia suicide can be triggered by either the depression that is common with this disorder, or in response to command auditory hallucinations. Suicide among people suffering from bipolar disorder is often an impulse, which is due to the sufferer's extreme mood swings (one of the main symptoms of bipolar disorder). Severe depression is considered a terminal illness due to the likelihood of suicide when left untreated.

Suicide as a form of defiance and protest

Heroic suicide, for the greater good of others, is often celebrated. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike to prevent fighting between Hindus and Muslims, and, although he was stopped before dying, it appeared he would have willingly succumbed to starvation. This attracted attention to Gandhi's cause, and generated a great deal of respect for him as a spiritual leader. In Ireland there exists a long tradition of hunger strike to the death against British rule, predominantly in Northern Ireland during the infamous 1981 hunger strikes, led by Bobby Sands, which resulted in 10 deaths.

Ritual suicide

Ritual suicide is the act of suicide motivated by a religious, spiritual, or traditional ritual.
An extreme interpretation of Hindu custom historically practiced, mostly in the 2nd millennium, was self-immolation by a widow as an assurance that she will be with her husband for the next life. Other rituals of self-immolation or self-starvation were used by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist monks for religious or philosophical purposes, or as a form of extreme non-violent protest. In China, some groups practice suicide for similar reasons; rituals of suicide like seppuku, were practiced in Japan.