Suicide isn’t exactly an easy topic to talk about, even less so something to make light of so things might get heavy around here for a second. Let’s delve into how it has come to be that South Africa, according to the South African Federation for Mental Health, now ranks eighth in the world for its high suicide rate.

A couple of numbers coming your way first of all – a study done at the University of KwaZulu-Natal estimates that 7 582 South Africans will take their own lives this year, which works out at almost 21 people a day.

Another study, this time by Bloomberg, ranked South Africa as the second most stressed out country in the world. High stress levels have been linked with depression and anxiety, something that can often lead to substance and alcohol abuse. Over to the Mail and Guardian for some sobering statistics:

The most recent nationwide prevalence study for mental health was conducted from 2002 to 2004 and it found that South Africans have a 30% chance of suffering from a mental disorder in their lifetime, with depression being the most common.

[Professional Provident Society’s Dominique] Stott says she is “not surprised” that the country has such a high suicide rate. “We can see from the data that South Africans work too hard and don’t take enough time off”…

Stott says the “mounting claims” for depressive and stress-related conditions show that many South Africans “can’t cope”.

“A lot of people don’t even recognise they have a problem as stress becomes so normalised.”

She goes on to recommend that, where possible, people should seek professional assistance – either through medication or in-hospital psychiatric treatment.

That bit about taking more time off work? Will have to keep that one in mind…

[source:mg]