I was just wondering what everyones opinion is on why NZ has such high suicide stats. I'm writing a book on the subject and I want as many teenagers as possible to contribute their thoughts and ideas, so if anyone would like to comment go ahead. I personally have no idea why the rate is so high here in NZ so I could really use some help on this one. ~Moro
we don't, we are comparabe to other countries. everyone i have talked to from other countries on this matter, says that they were told at school that their own country had the highest suicide rates in the world. funny thing is the teachers probbaly know nothing. i would be interested in the actual stats from a website. Doug
Apparently NZ stats are three times higher than Australias, and something like six times higher than Britains. ~Moro
here is the normal suicide rate (not for teens) and NZ is pretty average in it, and pretty comparable to aussie http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/ youth suicide ages 15-24 for 1991-1993 period (so very old) MalesFemalesM/F ratio (rounded) Greece 3.80.85 Portugal 4.32.02 Italy 5.71.64 Spain 7.12.23 Netherlands 9.13.82 Sweden 10.06.71 Japan 10.14.42 Israel 11.72.55 United Kingdom 12.22.35 Germany 12.73.44 Denmark 13.42.36 France 14.04.33 Bulgaria 15.45.63 Czech Rep. 16.44.34 Poland 16.62.57 Ukraine 17.25.33 Hungary 19.15.53 Austria 21.16.53 Ireland 21.52.011 United States 21.93.86 Belarus 24.25.25 Canada 24.76.04 Switzerland 25.04.85 Australia 27.35.65 Norway 28.25.25 Estonia 29.710.63 Finland 33.03.210 Latvia 35.09.34 Slovenia 37.08.44 New Zealand 39.96.26 Russian Fed. 41.77.95 Lithuania 44.96.77 recent figures shwo our suicide rate is very low, (while the international average is increasing) Doug
I don't think it's that much higher than other countries, but I don't know stats.. If anything, from what I've experienced, it seems like everyone is so judgemental and mean about it.. you've got to fit into a box or you don't fit in socially with most people. We have heaps of smaller towns, where it's pretty bad, the smaller the population the harder it is for teens I think. I just moved to welly and it's so much better, but I've never been highschooled here. Where I used to live people openly stared, and were quite rude, if you didn't dress or act a certain way. You had to either surf, play rugby, or be in a band if you were a guy; you had to dress a certain way if you were a girl, and that wasn't to be accepted, that was just so you didn't attract negative attention. Here I feel like I can actually express myself, but yeah it was pretty tough going for me at school for a while just because I didn't wear glassons clothes and helped out the downtrodden people.
OK then, I'll change the question. What made 1986 so different? Why did less teens kill themselves? ...people, just a reminder, take it seriously. I know it's easy to get caught up in stats and say "oh it's not really that bad here in NZ" but how can you say that when NINETY-SIX teenagers killed themselves in 2000? That's 96 teenagers gone because they felt like no one cared, or felt that they couldn't make it, or just felt lost and alone. This is serious. I want to change it. Any help is gratefully accepted. ~Moro
80% of all suicides in NZ are done by people over the age of 25 and there's almost no resources available to people who are over the age of 25 (ie not youth) who are feeling suicidal... is something being done about these people as well? There is talk of a much broader anti-suicide campaign being started and resources being created for people who are not just under 25... i think this is a much better idea then just focussing on young people.
Humans are one of the only species to kill there own kind and definitely the only species where individual members kill themselves. So what could possibly be the difference between humans, who might kill themselves, and animals that would never dare. For animals, no matter how hard the survival is, they will do their best to stay alive because they have a natural urge to do so. They will starve to death with dignity knowing that they had no choice in the matter, nature killed them. So why is it that humans might decide to take their own life in situations when starvation, being preyed on, or old age are non-existent. The will to carry on no matter what has been overtaken by the will to die. A human as an animal species could never make this choice. It is not the natural human that makes this choice, it is the ego inside this natural human that drives them to end their life. A friend experienced this first hand and told me about it. He used to hold some particular beliefs that where not reflected in the world around him. This was the cause of all his suffering, his egos resistance to the physical world. He held these beliefs for many years until he reached a point where he just couldn't cope. He was possibly very close to suicide. It was then that one of the greatest miracles happened to him. He was suffering so much that the intelligence of the true natural human took over.................. In one moment he went from suicidal suffering to the deep peace and intense joy of a forced enlightenment. His ego anilhilated itself! It was then he realised that all his years of suffering had been an illusion, an illusion of the ego. This method of reaching enlightenment is sometimes known as the way of the cross because your suffering (or cross) becomes the very thing that saves you, and frees you from the illusory world of the ego. The only way for suicidal people (and all humans who have not yet become enlightened) to live a pain-free life is to reach enlightenment and so be blessed with the deep realisation that all their pain was an illusion of the ego. It is the truth, not a belief. It saved my friends life, and if humans collectively become enlightened it will save the planet. This is what is known by Christians as the coming of Gods Kingdom....the absolute anilhilation of the collective human ego. I hope it is inevitable. I will be diong my best to realise this. PS - the anilhilation of you ego is not then end of you, it is the beginning of you. Seek enlightenment please, for you and all your friends and ultimately for all life. Enlightenment to all...then peace and love will naturally follow. I love you all, no exceptions.
good thread, important topic. in my own experience i felt closest to suicide when it seemed that nobody cared about me. learning that i was wrong was important. but another factor was that i'd been sheltered from the true nature of reality (sorry, that's a broad statement. to simplify: i was brought up to believe in a fairy tale world that didn't resemble the real world of greed, selfishness and suffering). so, experiencing a sudden transition from dreamland to reality was a painful. it also took a long time to get over the fact that i hadn't made these realizations a lot earlier in my life. despising my own naievity. but i now understand that it was the control of others, combined with my willingness to submit, that meant i was sheltered. so i have developed a very strong attitude against sheltering. i think it does less harm to a child to tell them the truth (yes, the truth is awful), than to perpetuate the myth of innocence. sooner or later they have to understand how the real world works. that was my experience. i have felt guilt because i didn't feel that my problems were special. but i have since come to understand my own nature and accept it. i am what i am, hating that is futile. being different is never easy, but we need people who are different. a homogenous society is a dead one. on the topic of religion, i don't mean to offend anyone, but i believe religion is a crutch that people use in order to escape from the unpleasant truth of reality. by finding religion, you effectively change the rules. by believing that there is some guiding light at the end of the tunnel, you will be safe from whatever horrors life has to offer. i don't have a problem with that, people are welcome to believe anything, especially if it empowers them. but i do have a problem with them thinking that they need to convert others into this way of thinking. the idea that 'because i think this way it must be true' is a human flaw. i have strong beliefs about the nature of reality, but i don't pretend that i'm correct. i acknowledge that i could be very wrong, yet i believe what i do because that is how it appears to me. the upside of a disbelief in god is that while there may be no omnipotent being looking down on me, i have got the people around me that i love. if they are all i've got (and i believe so) then it makes me love them so much more. there is another way to annihilate your ego (which is a damn good thing to do, btw) and that is with psychedelic drugs. although these substances have a bad public image, they have been used by ancient cultures sucessfully for thousands of years. the psychedelic experience provides a way to re-evaluate your own way of thinking, and to not simply be a passenger of your own fixed ideas about the world. it is enlightening. for this reason LSD changed my life profoundly for the better. BUT! anyone feeling suicidal should not experiment with these substances alone. have a guide. an experienced one. it can be terrifying, but destroying an entire belief system isn't easy. in the end you will realize that the only thing you have to fear is fear itself. peace all
