Suicide - Swept under the Carpet

national | miscellaneous | feature Friday September 12, 2003 13:28 by David

Because he (My Father) died suddenly it was necessarily for a post mortem to be carried out. I learned that there were 9 autopsies on 9 other suicides in the mid west region over the previous 2 days. The day after My father died, while the body was being removed from the family home, I heard an ambulance respond to an emergency. It passed my house and I remember one man say to me, "it's terrible, some other family might have to deal with a tragedy". The next day i learned that the ambulance had been called in response to another suicide, a neighbour had killed herself. The neighbour, also mentally ill from bi-polar disorder killed herself while her husband was at my fathers funeral.

My point is that these deaths were ignored by the public at large. Every tragic car accident is reported on the news, people realise how dangerous cars can be, there are measures being taken, lots of money being spent to try to reduce these car accidents. However, when a person takes his or her own life there is a hushed silence, whispers behind closed curtains, Very often the family will not disclose the cause of death, instead preferring to ascribe a more "acceptable" departure to their troubled loved one.

In 2001 448 people officially took their own lives, there were 366 road deaths over that same period (some of those accidents were likely to have been suicides)
These official figures are without doubt much lower than the true scope of the problem

On August 18 2003 Adrian Rynne, My father, took his own life. For over a decade he had suffered from Bi-Polar disorder a disease much mis-understood and much ignored and during a brief period of lucididy between his highs and lows he decided that he no longer wanted to live the life of a heavily medicated shadow so he took a cocktail of the 15 prescription mind altering drugs that were assigned to him so that he would no longer be a burdon on society or his family.

Because he died suddenly it was necessarily for a post mortem to be carried out. I learned that there were 9 autopsies on 9 other suicides in the mid west region over the previous 2 days. The day after My father died while, the body was being removed from the family home, I heard an ambulance respond to an emergency. It passed my house and I remember one man say to me, "it's terrible, some other family might have to deal with a tragedy". The next day i learned that the ambulance had been called in response to another suicide, a neighbour had killed herself. The neighbour, also mentally ill from bi-polar disorder killed herself while her husband was at my fathers funeral.

My point is that these deaths were ignored by the public at large. Every tragic car accident is reported on the news, people realise how dangerous cars can be, there are measures being taken, lots of money being spent to try to reduce these car accidents. However, when a person takes his or her own life there is a hushed silence, whispers behind closed curtains, Very often the family will not disclose the cause fo death, instead preferring to ascribe a more "acceptable" departure to their troubled loved one.
Why is there not slot on the national news, "there were 4 people killed on Irish roads...... And 6 People took their own lives" Why isn't there funding for organisations who do so much work to combat depression? (Aware for example) Why are the mental health services so horribly inadequate? In Ireland there is no middle ground. there is all or nothing, either treatment at all or psychiatric incarceration. The only "help" offered is in the form of psychiatirc drugs that deal only with the nuisance factor of a disturbed individual with very little focus on the person who is suffering. The only help available to my father was a 4 hour drive away, a short meeting where he would be fitted out for a new suite of drugs on trial and error. The doctor tried his very best but he could not provide what was really needed. The state looking for economies of scale is failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Suicides are not restricted to people suffering mental illness. We no longer live in a society, living in dormatory towns commute to work, drive home, watch imaginary people on a flourescant box. Our social interaction is being condenced to convenient packages that will not interfere with our economic productivity. The pressure to achieve is now stronger than ever disaffected youth are more disaffected than ever, the support from a community is disappearing into oblivion. Do you know your next door neighbour? If you do you're in the minority. People have never felt so alone and they don't feel life is worth living so they decide to stop living.

There will be no outcry as long as there is consensus to ignore suicides in this country. Until the blissfully unaware person on the street can see that it's not a small problem, that it's a tragedy that affects thousands of people every day.