Dr. James George

Only with extreme grief could I recall the tragic end of my friend, Amit Kumar Bhattacharya, a research scholar in the department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, who committed suicide by consuming potassium cyanide on the New Year eve of 1997.

It was a cold winter evening when we all sat for dinner in the hostel mess, Amit came to the dining hall in full suit with an unusual smile on his face. None could have avoided watching him that evening since it was quite unusual for him to dress so neatly and then to put up such a broad smile on his face as if he had a sensational discovery. As usual he didn’t talk much but greeted us with New Year wishes, ate his full and left the hall calmly. We could never have imagined then that only a couple of hours later he would take his life. It was so shocking to see him dead after consuming the deadly poison. There was no known reason why he should take this extreme step. A note left by him read that he saw no meaning in life and hence no purpose in living.

Amit was a very brilliant young man with an excellent academic record, but was always in a world of his own. He preferred loneliness and spent spare times alone in his shabby room brooding over some wanton thoughts. The only son of wealthy parents, he left everyone in utter shock and despair. He had a medical history of undergoing treatment for depression. It was therefore depression that was his real killer and not the poison.

Every day morning, the newspaper greets us with such shocking news of people taking their lives. Kerala leads other states in the country in suicide rate, followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. It is reported that on an average three people commit suicide and one person in every fifteen minute attempts suicide in Kerala each day. It is surprising to note that more men than women commit suicide at a ratio of 7:3. Since depression is the major killer, we should know the cause and possible remedies so as to help people overcome the problem

What is Depression?

Depression is a disorder of the brain and body’s ability to biologically create and balance a normal range of thoughts, emotions and energy. Depression is a disorder that can ruin your life. Untreated, the damage may never stop. It can cause or lead to family strife, breakdown, domestic violence, and divorce, alienated children, spouse, mother, father, siblings, crime, violence, homicide, loss of employment, poverty and homelessness. It prevents you from enjoying and living your life to the fullest. You would be unable to express your true feelings because they are tainted with negativity. It blocks your sense of understanding and you fail to forgive yourself and those you love. You fail to appreciate and express gratitude towards those who help you. Depression lowers your self-esteem, self-worth, and the self-love. You miss out on all that the nature offers.  And of course, you miss a sense of humour.

It is not necessary that a patient of depression be aware of his/her problem and possibly there may not be any visible symptoms at all. The patient could seem normal and happy due to perhaps of adrenaline when around friends and family. Another case could be a person suddenly becomes relieved and happy because he/she has a plan to kill his/her self.

Another kind of patients who may not necessarily have depression bouts every day but could suddenly and without any warning to self or others could end life! He/she probably has many symptoms of clinical depression, which he/she attributes to stress or personality and/or are being suppressed and ignored. 

A self awareness test to check whether you have depression problem  

Ask yourself some of the questions given below... and then notice

1. What thoughts go through your head?

2. What emotions do you feel?

3. Do you want to live? Do you want to die?

4. How do you feel about life and living ?

5. How do you feel about your existence here on Earth?

6. Are you happy to be alive? Do you feel a joy for living?

7. Are you not-so-glad to be alive? Are you unhappy to be alive?

8. Do you wish you were not alive?

9. Do you ever have suicidal thoughts?

10. Do you want to commit suicide? Do you ever think about actually killing yourself? If not, do you have any of the following symptoms?

11. Moody, negative, complainy, pessimistic outlook

12. Overly sensitive, easily upset, argumentative

13. Low energy, fatigue, sleep more than usual, or can’t sleep

14. Eat more or eat less

15. Loss of interest in usual activities

16. Difficulty in working or concentrating

17. Sadness, sorrow, discouragement

18. Disillusion, hopelessness, despair.

If your answers aren’t good, it’s time to look for help and treatment obviously because a healthy normal person would enthusiastically want to live.

Why Do People Commit Suicide?

In response to extreme emotional pain and feelings due to various brain chemistry disorders, suicidal thoughts occur. Severe suicidal thoughts are an involuntary affliction, and they don’t just idle. Suicidal thoughts are very active and have tremendous emotional power. They push you, urge you and compel you towards suicide. Untreated depression therefore is a major cause of suicide. Although life circumstances can and do precipitate suicide, a person with a healthy brain chemistry is not even going to think of suicide.

Treatments for depression

Depression is a treatable illness. Most important of all is to change your brain chemistry to get better. One should not expect the problem to disappear on its own without any effort. It is absolutely essential to change, improve, or correct your brain chemistry in some way before it is too late. Some of the available treatments/options are given below.  

Singular or an integrated use of such treatments may produce the desired results.

Jesus Christ has the Solution!

Suicide is the act of killing oneself. If you are going to kill yourself then you better first think about what happens after you are dead. May be you want to hurt someone who didn’t care about you. Well if they don’t care when you are alive, why should they bother if you kill yourself? May be you want to have everyone feel sorry for you. That might work, but then you won’t be around to know about it, and sooner or later they will get over your death anyway. May be things have turned out too bad and that you think this is the only way out.

WRONG! For there is nothing that can’t be faced and taken care of if you are willing to face it.

Secondly, if you kill yourself, then what happens? What happens after you die? Do you believe that you just become part of the universe? If so then you truly have no hope. Or is there an after life? If so what does that mean?

The Bible says: (Hebrews 9:27) “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...” Once you are dead the only thing left is to wait to answer to God for the life you led while alive. If you kill yourself because you failed in the examination and could not face the world, or because you were caught in sexual immorality, or because people found out that you committed a theft or a murder, or you were caught with drugs, or you are an alcoholic who can’t stop, or a drug abuser, no matter whatever the problem is, you will face judgment for it.

It is essential to realize that killing yourself is no escape since when you die those sins and problems are permanently attached to you, and you can never ever get rid of them. All you can do is to wait until God judges you for them. However, while you are still alive you can get rid of them. You can take them off yourself and place them at the feet of Jesus Christ. He has already died for them. He already paid the penalty for your dirtiest sins. He has already faced judgment for your sins. All you have to do is ask Him to forgive you and take away your sins.

Laying your sins and burdens at Jesus’ feet won’t take away all the consequences of your sins. If you have committed a sinful act, you will certainly have to face the consequences and have to deal with that problem. Whatever your problem is you will still have to deal with it. The good news is you won’t have to deal with it on your own any longer. God will help you, He will give you strength. He will never leave you alone again. You will also be able to find other Christians who will help you carry your burden.

Many people look at believers and feel that there are no way ‘those’ people can understand what I am going through. Again this is not true. Believers are people who have laid sins at the feet of Jesus. Most churches are full of “forgiven” sinners and there could be people who thought about or even attempted suicide, people who thought their lives were worthless, people who at one time thought they were too bad a sinner for God to love and forgive.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life is the key issue. If you believe that God sent his Son to die for your sins and then you ask Him to come into your heart and take control, He will and He will give you eternal life. You will be surprised to see how much your life changes. Your problems won’t seem so large anymore or so hard to face. The choice is yours. Eternal life through Jesus Christ and face the problems of this life with His help, or eternal separation from God in Hell because you won’t face the problems of this life and would rather hurry your journey to judgment.

What if a Christian commits suicide?

Can a Christian commit suicide? Yes, there are some instances. There is no truth in the ‘Once Saved Always Saved,’ philosophy. I believe that no one can snatch you away from God nor can you lose your salvation, but I also believe that you don’t lose your free will on accepting Christ as your Saviour. Therefore, if you voluntarily choose to turn away from God after your salvation, I believe you would be lost (2 Pet, 2:20-22). So back to the question of what happens if a Christian kills himself/herself? Take a look at this verse and decide for yourself. Remember that Paul is speaking to Christians! Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). I want to make it very clear that committing suicide is a sin against God and any one who does it; his/her fate is sealed unto judgment. However, if a person has a chemical imbalance or other disease which limits their mental faculties then that is not the same thing as choosing to commit suicide with a clear mind. Prayer is a powerful medicine to save such people with disoriented mental faculties. We read about an insane and evil possessed man who kept assaulting himself in Mark 5. When Jesus met him, he was healed instantaneously at His command. Such miracles do happen still. All we need is a strong Christian motive to find such cases and rehabilitate them before they take the extreme step. Christian care, counseling and proper medication along with fervent prayers certainly help cure such mentally deranged social outcasts to a great extent. But any one whose mental faculty is normal and does this dastardly act of self killing, then such person will be held accountable to God.

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