Loss of consciousness and suicide

  • 2016

Think of a family from 50 or maybe 100 years ago. The social and economic conditions allowed one of the parents usually the man to go to work while he stayed at home. This gave the possibility to the parent that remained in the home to take care of the children, provided the accompaniment and the required guidance. The father who went to work had a stable schedule, which allowed him to arrive home early, be on weekends to enjoy his family and also impart a little of his wisdom; This happened at least in many homes but not all. The way of life of the past years allowed children to grow up with some stability, with values ​​and precepts on how to live life; and although their parents suffered personal crises, seeing these two figures near their surroundings gave them a space of security and trust.

At present the demands of the medium have changed, we all live on the run, as a song by David Summers says: "I have lived little, I have tired a lot" . Our current society requires us to work more, study more, live less. The need to obtain everything that the media demands of us leads both parents to work in order to support a family, but also generates an increase in the divorce rate. Work and study schedules have been extended, distances to get home from work or vice versa have increased, etc., leaving little time to devote to children. This is how the children of these new generations are cared for by their grandparents, others for babysitters and those with less luck should go to gardens where a single person must take care of another 10 children in the same conditions.

This new lifestyle has made children live a greater amount of experiences of abandonment and orphanhood from an early age. Having to say goodbye to their parents when the sun has not yet risen and often fall asleep before they arrive from work has raised children without self-confidence and confidence. This does not mean that children from before had developed these characteristics, because there are countless experiences that can lead us to feel abandoned, even as adults, but the current conditions have increased those experiences. This accumulation of situations of abandonment leads our brain to think that there are only two types of people: the strong and the victims.

The strong and the victims

Within the strong we find two types of attitudes

  • Those who ignore us: In this case, parents who, due to their different responsibilities and occupations, do not have time to take care of their children. But as I said before, this can also be felt by an adult, who feels that his partner, his friends, his family, the government, etc., leaves him
  • Those who take advantage of the weak: These are all those people who have a power over us, to hurt us, to manipulate us. Bullying is today one of the issues that generates more concern in the educational field, without this being the only place where it is presented. Then these children grow up with the idea that they can never defend themselves against an aggressor. Within this group we also find parents who demand too much from their children, who mistreat them by filling them with fear, being victims harassed by their own parents and without a suitable father or mother figure to follow. Adults are the big ones, those who have the power to mistreat them

Children who begin to see the world in this way are growing up with the idea that they are victims, feel excluded and rejected, exiled, do not have a firm territory on which they can grow and that is how the idea often appears That life has no meaning. And if life has no meaning, why do I live? What is the use of living in a world where even the people who should protect me mistreat me? What is the point of living? It is this thought that is the consequence of our current way of life that has led to the exponential growth of suicide in adolescents and young people, which has become an emergency within public health. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), there are more than 800, 000 suicides a year and it is the second leading cause of death at ages 15 to 29. Suicide is a way of escaping this feeling of emptiness, of not finding meaning, but it is not the only one, others try to escape the use of drugs that disconnect them from reality or any another type of activity that makes them forget that there is that emptiness. In adults we find the compulsion for shopping, work, sex, etc., also seeking to fill that void with material things.

Some teenagers group. Seeing that they share their sense of orphanhood with others they set up gangs, as a way to rebel against society, against the forts that attacked them, they abandoned them, so they commit crimes as a form of rebellion. Their truth is subjective, since it is based on their orphan experience, belonging to a group with which they fight against all those who made them suffer is their way of compensating for the damage they committed against them .

How to get out of that feeling of orphanhood?

The first step out is to realize that not only do I feel abandoned, that not only have I had orphaned experiences. Both my peers and my parents have experienced this same sense. The desire to get more money, more property, more prestige and more success is just one way to hide that emptiness that we all carry inside, that lack of someone to take care of us and guide us, to tell us what the true meaning of life is. . The current society has focused so much on the external that it has neglected the internal, causing us to lose that connection with ourselves and without being able to help or help others. Recognizing that there are others like us, with the same pain and suffering leads us to the sense of solidarity towards orphans . It is then that we see that both others and ourselves are mortal, we are vulnerable and that we must support each other in this process that will allow us to get out of that feeling of abandonment and emptiness.

The lack of a guide that tells us the right path leads us to behaviors in which we do what others do, we buy what others buy, we behave according to what others expect but this only generates a greater void, because it is another, the life of the other or the demands of the other who are determining the direction of my existence. To overcome this I must take control of my own life, be the driver who decides which path to take; As long as I am a co-pilot, there will be another or others who make the decision for me, and I may not be satisfied with what those others do with my life. What I do today affects my tomorrow. If I allow others to do things I will not know where life takes me and I will have to face "whatever comes", I will continue to be a victim of circumstances. To change this you must assume who you really are, find your inner power and know how to take advantage of it . But assuming your own life has a price and that what happens is no longer the fault of others but mine, and that is scary. When you make the decision to assume your life you should know that each decision is your responsibility from the smallest to the largest and the consequences of that decision will be too. Assume that each one of the things you have done in your life has taken you inexorably to the place where you are.

I accept the circumstances as a mortal being, we are finite in this existential plane, I cannot avoid what happens but the way to see it and face it. There are millions of things that can take us away, but only one that we will keep our whole lives, and it is the right to choose the attitude we are going to take towards life . When we lose faith and trust it is because our faith was placed in something external, perhaps in a person, a thing, a situation. But if we discover the true meaning of our life, that self-transcendence that exists within us, the ability to see things with renewed eyes, knowing that the way I observe the world makes it change, make it a better place. or worse than it is, therein lies the difference between feeling victims without meaning or becoming creators of our existence, with a mission and a possibility of transcending beyond the limits of human experience.

Author: JP Ben-Avid

Editor hermandadblanca.org

REFERENCES

Pearson, Carol (2006). Waking up the inner heroes. Mirach Editorial.

WHO. (2016). Facts and figures about suicide: infographics. Retrieved on October 22, 2016 from http://www.who.int/mental_health/suicide-prevention/infographic/es/

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