Besides heart attack, suicide rate on rise in J&K

In two weeks nearly 15 suicide cases in Jammu: Report

Jammu: Besides the alarming rise in heart attacks among the young people, the suicide tendency across Jammu and Kashmir is showing a surge with over a dozen cases were reported in Jammu division in 12 days in the ensuing year.

Reports said that in the past two weeks nearly 15 suicide cases have come up in the Jammu division only while the Kashmir valley also witnessed a surge in cases.

Experts said that every year over 75 lakh people across the globe commit studies with India’s share at 17 per cent.

Mental health experts in Jammu and Kashmir told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), that suicide cases have increased in both Kashmir and Jammu division as compared to past figures.

Valley’s renowned mental health expert Dr Arshid told KNO that media has a very important role to play and motivate people to approach the medical experts for treatments rather than portraying the scary stories forcing people to take extreme steps which that become a tool for many others.

“We know of hundreds of people who come for treatment after developing suicide tendencies but after the treatment, most of them live happily. Anybody having such thoughts such should seek help immediately since it’s a momentary thing,” Dr Arshid said.

Sharing his experience of a 15-year-old patient, Dr Arshid said the patient was suffering from serious depression but after the treatment is living a normal happy life.

“Life is very precious don’t waste it, seek treatment, ” he said.

Dr Rakesh Bamal, a well known mental health expert who is also a Physiatrist at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu said that suicide is the second-largest cause of death among people across the globe and it’s believed that it will surpass and become first in the next 10 years (2030) across the globe.

He said that the suicide cases among students are showing a surge as there is an increase in stress level in them.

“There are many reasons behind suicide including mental health, depression, disorder even those who are indulged in drugs have a high suicide tendency rate besides physical illness in an individual,” he said. “Many factors also include social reasons as well as financial loss, love affair, exam failure, and others.”

Suggesting people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, Bamal said that people must take good care of mental health as the post-Covid scenario may have been a reason for more suicide cases.

“All such things can be eliminated by a healthy lifestyle with high nutrition and timely required actions by consuming sufficient food well on time,” he said.

“People just need to do physical and mental exercises regularly and be more social and fulfil hobbies on a priority basis,” he said. “It’s not wrong to share about your mental health and depression with someone. It is rather a good step to seek help well on time”, he said.

“We need to interact with the person getting socially isolated and not to believe the old societal myths. Some are undergoing all such symptoms and people around them fail to understand even when the affected ones make attempts to express,” Bamal said.

Bamal said that family members need to be vigilant and try to understand the change in their members.

“People need to do relaxation activities and when required they must approach the medical professionals for the consultation immediately without any delay,” he said—(KNO)