Suicide offshoot of mental health problems, Kashmir medical experts say

By Nusrat Sidiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - Maria, 24, from Indian-administered Kashmir has been visiting the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences for four months to overcome her growing suicidal thoughts.

Her father, who has been accompanying her to the lone psychiatric hospital in Kashmir, told Anadolu Agency that due to his family’s deep financial insecurities and health issues, her daughter developed stress that ultimately brought her to the brink of suicide.

“Last year in November, she attempted to cut her wrists,” the distressed father said, citing her mother’s worrying health and financial crisis that brought her to the extreme.

It is pertinent to mention that for the last three years, the disputed Himalayan region has witnessed a downturn in the economy, loss of thousands of jobs and a shutdown of businesses affecting people at the ground level.

The ongoing turmoil in the region for decades is adding suffering to the lives of the residents.

On World Mental Health Day, Anadolu Agency spoke with experts regarding the rising phenomena of cases amid the growing economic crisis and decades-long turmoil.

- The trigger

Mental health experts in the Kashmir region said that due to underlying issues from economic, social, physical or volatile situation, the rising suicide cases in the region are pointing toward a scary situation.

“It is not just one issue that many people here are fighting against. There are family issues, social, economic, physical and others particularly distressing volatile situations that are building these turbulent emotions,” said Yasir Rather, a noted psychiatrist and professor at the Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences, Government Medical College, Srinagar.

He said the last three years have been very distressing amid the lockdown.

According to data compiled by the Indian Crime Records Bureau 5,943 suicides were recorded in the region from 1990 to 2019.

Under the Right to Information Act, a capital city-based law student, Badrul Duja, was told by regional police in February that from 2010 to 2020, Kashmir had 3,024 suicides, with 2020 leading the decade with 457.

"These statistics exactly point out what the situation is here," said clinical psychologist Nasir Geelani.

He has been seeing patients, particularly young boys and girls, who have depressing thoughts.

"Sometimes it becomes very difficult to counsel these patients because they have already developed a cognitive behavior imagining that nothing in their lives is left or going to be better," said Geelani.

- The Pattern

Experts said most suicides happen in the region by consumption of poisonous substances or drowning.

"Very few other methods are used to take the extreme step like self-strangulation or self-immolation or wrist-cutting," according to psychologist Isha Malik.

A teenage girl and a woman were hospitalized on June 27 after they tried to commit suicide by taking a poisonous substance in the Sopore area of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

In another incident on June 26, a 17-year-old died after jumping into the Jhelum River from Cement Kadal in the Noorbagh area of Srinagar.

"The availability of poisonous substances in homes, especially in rural areas for farming, is an easy option available for victims and also the water bodies nearby make it easy for them," said Malik.

- Copycat phenomena

As the region is witnessing a sharp increase in suicidal deaths, medical experts said it is greatly affecting those with underlying mental health problems.

"The moment a mentally ill person hears about the news of a suicide, it automatically gives him/her the push for doing the same. They somewhat copy it," said Rather.

He added that it becomes really important for the media to be conscious about how it relates news about suicide to the public when the vulnerability is very high.

A six-year study concluded in 2015 that was conducted by the Doctors Without Borders in 2015, an international medical charity group, said, “45% of the Kashmiri population is in distress.”

Experts said stress factors have increased as well since the study was conducted.

"There is a need to break this chain, if someone is suffering from any issue, he/she needs family support, treatment and most important the hope," experts said.