Yesterday marked World Suicide Prevention Day which is probably just another day that goes unnoticed in most places. Up here, suicide is very serious and a very real problem. The suicide rate up here is 11 times higher than the rest of the country. I spend a lot of time in the college and there is an unusual (to me) amount of posters on the subject throughout the halls.
Most people think it’s due to the living conditions up here, which do play a part. However a bigger part of it is the culture. I had a conversation with someone for the GN a month ago and apparently 90% of women up here have been sexually abused in their lifetimes. People put such an emphases on their relationships with each other and sex becomes a tool to control people. Add to that the isolation and lack of support services outside of your family, which is likely where the problem is coming from, people see suicide as the only escape. In communities that are only a few hundred people large, who do you turn to. There is obviously a lack of support, and likely a lack of willingness to trust the support, especially when it means going against your family.
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