‘Economic suicides’ shake Europe as financial crisis takes toll on mental health
The next morning, Perris took the hand of his ailing 90-year-old mother. They climbed to the roof of their apartment building and leapt to their death.
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In Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession, such suicides have sparked violent protests between police and those opposing austerity who have held the victims up as martyrs. In Italy, the death of entrepreneurs such as builder Giuseppe Campaniello, who set himself on fire outside a government tax office in Bologna on March 28 after his company collapsed, has triggered demonstrations by widows of businessmen who have committed suicide. And in Ireland, where citizens are jumping off quays in Dublin, Cork and Limerick in alarming numbers, the mobile telephone company Vodaphone volunteered to give up the stadium advertising space it bought at soccer and hurling games for a suicide prevention campaign.
So many people have been killing themselves and leaving behind notes citing financial hardship that European media outlets have a special name for them: “economic suicides.” Surveys are also showing increasing signs of mental stress: a jump in the use of anti-depressants and illicit drugs, a rise in depression and anxiety among workers worried about salary cuts or being laid off, and an increase in the use of sick leave due to psychological problems.
“People are more and more uncertain about their future, which is leading to a sharp rise in mental health problems,” said Maria Nyman, director of Mental Health Europe, a multinational coalition of mental health organizations and educational institutions based in Brussels.
In recent years, researchers in the United States and elsewhere have repeatedly identified a correlation between suicides and unemployment or other economic distress. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that suicides increased during periods of economic stress, including the Great Depression, the oil crisis of the 1970s and the double-dip recession of the 1980s. Other studies have estimated that individuals with employment difficulties are two to three times more likely to commit suicide than the population as whole.
As the financial crisis in Europe enters its third year, medical experts, public health groups and trade unions are warning that mental health problems are reaching a crisis point and that the situation is going to get worse as austerity enacted in the past few years takes effect.
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When people are driven to the wall economically and can't figure out a way forward without moving into the streets as homeless people many will take their lives both now and in the future. This says something about who they are.
I'm not sure about now because I'm 64 but 30 years ago when I faced the 1980 10% unemployment situation then in America, people were becoming Survivalists partly in response to the bad times then. Though I didn't buy weapons I did go out into the country and bought land for $8000 2 1/2 acres with savings and built an A-Frame for my family and i to live in in the beautiful wilderness at 4000 feet on the side of Mt. Shasta. But at different stages in life we make different choices. So, in a way I understand why the man in Greece walked to the top of his apartment building with his 90 year old mother and holding her hand jumped off. But for the grace of God there go all of us.
Because so much of Europe now is either cities or Suburbia there isn't a way like there might be in places like the United States or Canada or Alaska to simply go out into the wilderness as a way of surviving the present economic messes in Europe. So, the lack of wilderness worldwide is now one of the causes of economic suicides. Think about it! And as wilderness decreases you can expect these suicides to increase and get worse. So, maybe believing in God might save your life during these times whether God exists for you or not?
At least in the United States we have Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 Bankruptcies and potential for reorganization. Other places might not have useful laws like this and then the ONLY choice they might feel is jumping off a building with their 90 year old mother.
Because so much of Europe now is either cities or Suburbia there isn't a way like there might be in places like the United States or Canada or Alaska to simply go out into the wilderness as a way of surviving the present economic messes in Europe. So, the lack of wilderness worldwide is now one of the causes of economic suicides. Think about it! And as wilderness decreases you can expect these suicides to increase and get worse. So, maybe believing in God might save your life during these times whether God exists for you or not?
At least in the United States we have Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 Bankruptcies and potential for reorganization. Other places might not have useful laws like this and then the ONLY choice they might feel is jumping off a building with their 90 year old mother.