Sunday, June 23, 2024

Suicide Ideation amongst Nigerian Youths

By Daramola O. T, on June 23, 2024

I was recently in a conversation with a friend and we gor to discussing how uninforned a lot of parents were about drug abuse. We concluded the discussion by agreeing that most parents actually enable abuse at entry level unknowingly and would often only realise it when it was almost beyond redemption.
This gotnmw wondering about chuldren who were actually strong enough tondefy drug but were still under pressure and it occured to me that some of these ones might actually see suicide as an option.
Now, we all know Suicide is never an option, it ends nothingbut your dreams and prospects.
In Nigeria, a study reported a prevalence rate of 20% for suicide ideation and 12% of self-harm among young people. Risky behaviors such as suicidal ideation and self-harm enhance students vulnerability to poor physical and mental outcomes.
So like the abusebof drugs, what can we do about suicidal ideation aming youths, do we just wait till another suicide rocks our world and we all make a candle light post on our social media. Or do we really think it is neglible and not worthy ofnour attention. Or better still, are we assuming that everyone would pick up the phone to cry for help just before a suicide.
I think we should develop more solutions to avoid the ideation in the minds of victims.
Let us begin to normalise discussing failures, challengers and not just success and achievements. Let us stop the labeling of individuals by their underachievement and instead begin to development pathways for under achievers to achieve their goals as well.
Creating alternative routes to excellence when traditional routes fail would go a long way in improving the mental health of our young population before we have a crisis in out hands.
#menitoscares #sdgs