BREAK THE SILENCE
Life, even at the most primitive level, seeks to replenish and rejuvenate itself and survive. In devastating circumstances and overwhelming conditions, the human spirit fights intrinsically to survive and stay alive. The stories of the people who have survived from domestic violence, rape, family abuse, fatal accidents, and even in severe medical conditions can attest of how strong the human spirit is even when antagonized by catastrophes of life. The instincts of fight especially for life, however, has been permeated by a monster that injects in an antidote of the fight of survival. This antidote makes an individual want to die, and in fact, creates suicidal attempts. Suicide in Kenya has been rising day in day out, with minimal cases hitting the social media. In fact, according to the elephant, a blog page, Kenya, has been ranked 114 out of 175 countries with high cases of suicide. Echoed by WHO, there are at least 6.5 suicides per 100,000 people which could be higher due to the criminalization of suicide attempts in Kenya and thereby resulting in more unreported cases.
In many situations, when an individual completes suicide, loved ones, family friends, colleagues at the workplace are left behind trying to make sense of what may appear to be the meaningless act. In a projective outlook, six people are affected and often traumatized by the loss. Translating to multiples of people in the country living a psychologically gloomy state of living. The impact to the significant others greatly creates ripples of shocks that run deep in their souls and lasts for years, especially for the codependents. They get stuck while oscillating in the stages of loss because there is no complete closure or satisfactory answers to the whys. This brings us to two approaches of concern, preventing situations that provoke suicidal ideations and attempts, and managing the grief of the loved ones left behind.
Suicide can be traced back to very basic negative emotions like frustrations, boredom, anger, sadness and so on. The emotions translate to mood disorders, a presentation of a constellation of flat mood for a period not shorter than two weeks. The mood disorders set in depression a condition that combines negative emotions, disoriented feelings of self, and the environmental reception of the fragmented self. If the
The relentless spirit of an eye of potato to sprout even in a dark room with only one glimpse of a small sunlight spot feels so encouraging. A metaphor that can be used to infer to the energy ought to be imparted whenever life impounds us with pressure.