Suicides are down during the pandemic but will they stay down?
Crisis = More suicides?
Suicide is often thought to be triggered by heightened states of mental trauma, whether that comes from isolation, anxiety, distressing events or otherwise, there is a lot of reason to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic would give rise to a higher number of suicides compared to normal.
Lockdowns, loss of jobs, death of friends and family can all contribute to a very distressing mental profile and thus it wouldn't be surprising if the suicide rates went up. But equally surprising is that the facts point towards less suicide deaths during this time. In-fact, I was one of the few people -seemingly against all odds- who believed suicides would go down during this time. Why did I think that?
What is the point of living?
This is the fundamental question which I believe determines people's motives for suicide. Most people who are driven to the point of suicide are not those who face general depression, or are unhappy because of unpleasant events. They are suicidal because they can't see the meaning to life.
Obviously, the pandemic is a particularly unpleasant event for anyone to go through, but it shares the same DNA as a war time crisis in the sense that it gives people an extra meaning to their lives, a purpose if you will. That is, to get through it. Not only that, but help others get through it too.
So with that in mind, the relationship between wartime "purpose" and pandemic purpose seems more strongly linked than before and indeed, statistically speaking, suicides do in-fact go down during war times.
Some does not imply all.
Now that's not to say that the general adversity the world is facing won't have serious impacts on mental well-being and it is definitely valid to argue that perhaps over a longer period of time, suicides might even pick up above and beyond the baseline as a result of the knock-on effects of the virus and lockdown.
Certainly, we all share a sense of unity when facing global adversity but a series of unfortunate events compounded by personal tendencies to be depressed can certainly lead to more severe mental health problems and perhaps a whole swath of people becoming depressed to the point that they want to take their lives.
We must not underestimate the effect of losing jobs, not being able to see friends or family, not being to go outside or living on the edge of poverty and what it can do to people's perception of "the meaning of life."
So while we might be seeing a decrease in the number of suicides, it remains unknown if this "trend" will continue in the longer term.
Decline of suicides in Japan: