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The episodes of students taking their lives which surface on social media are mostly of depressed students who were either failed in securing good grades or obtaining passing marks in schools and it’s dreadful.
We come across such cases every second day which is heartbreaking, millennials attempt to end their lives after receiving their exam results or however, the majority of such cases go unreported due to police inaction. According to data provided by the World Health Organization Close to 800,000 people take their own lives every year; which is one person every 40 seconds.
Recently, we stumbled upon a case of a young man named Atif Arain who reportedly drew his last breath at Ibn-e-Sina hostel Jamshoro Liaquat University Of Medical & Health Sciences.
Atif was a third-year MBBS student and his body was found after the door of his room was knocked open about 2 pm the day after he ended his life. The body was later shifted to Liaquat University Hospital by the parents for postmortem. Theories also suggest that Atif might have been murdered in cold blood.
The probable cause is still unknown but we can’t rule out anxiety and depression, which is a constant psychological trauma for medical students. This is the second case of a student in the city Jamshoro. In January 2016, a student of Sindh University was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her hostel room!
It’s about time that issues like these are taken into consideration and students are not burdened with the stress of exams.
Teachers and parents need to keep an eye and maybe look out for symptoms like these:
- Disturbed sleep patterns
- Anxiety, agitation
- Pulling away from friends and family
- Past attempts
- Extremely self-hating thoughts
- Feeling like they don’t belong
- Hopelessness
- Rage and irritability
- Feeling trapped
- Feeling that they are a burden to others
- Loss of interest in favorite activities—“ nothing matters”
- Giving up on themselves
- Risk-taking behavior
- Suicidal thoughts, plans, actions
- Sudden mood changes for the better.
Moreover, if not education, young people end up taking their lives over love. Not too long ago, a man and a woman did the same in Badhu village after their families refused their proposals for marriage, a local media outlet reported.
This now has turned into an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed. The students must have faith that they’re not alone and there are people who will be there to hear them, we must talk about depression and anxiety, better counseling and therapy needs to be a part of the education system!
