According to a recent study published in the Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, there have been 289 suicide cases among teenagers in Pakistan within the last two years alone. This data, based on published newspaper accounts, is enough to shake our collective conscience as it underlines the fact that many of our youth are dying in silence — and dying because of society’s silence. If you add to it the numbers that are not publicly reported, the actual scale of the problem becomes that much more critical.
Most alarming, though, is the fact that these suicides are caused by family struggles, parental issues and relationship crises. In far too many households, a child’s agony is written off as ‘drama’ or ‘immaturity’. Cultural norms, like expecting children to silently accept all manners of emotional anguish, only serve to worsen the issue.
Teachers and parents should realise that depression, suicidal tendencies and stress are issues that afflict the life of teenagers as much as they affect adults.
Adolescents are under a great deal of academic pressure, ill at ease in social situations, and are suffering from identity crisis. Dismissing the tell-tale signs, or labelling them as personality weaknesses is hurtful and dangerous. Mental health education should start from homes, schools and communities.
Children must have room to talk, be heard, and feel safe — regardless of how well or how poorly they are doing in their academics, or life at large. We must establish trusted relationships and not merely focus on disciplining the young.
It is not enough to lament these tragedies once they have been committed. We need to act now — through compassion, teaching and dialogue — before we exchange more of our future for silence.
MUHAMMAD NABEEL ABID BHATTI
LAHORE
