Suicide: Societal Taboo by Sara Niles

Society operates as a group, and as a result, stigmas and social taboos are generated when things happen that are out of the control of society: like suicide. During the days of religious control and dominance by the Catholic Church, everything that could not be explained or controlled was 'demonized' and usually burned at the stake. Today, society uses silence, which is usually a sign of discomfort when in a group of people and an embarrassing subject com

es up.

Fact: Suicide takes more lives in America than homicides, yet little is said about it. Perhaps if the blanket of societal denial was whisked away by the open discussion of the presence of suicide in the societal room, then suicide may begin to lose its hold on American culture.

I will go first: My daughter courted the idea of suicide for over half of her life. When my daughter was in her late teens, I found her perusing suicide websites that offered ‘encouragement’ to commit suicide and glorified the ugly act. I was shocked to find that there were many similar sites out there in the cyber sphere, with voyeurs full of bloodlust and predators lurking on the sidelines.

The negative thinking that fuels suicide, has usually taken root long before a suicide occurs, and lies dormant until something goes wrong in the person’s life, which will invariably happen in every life, and in one stupid, and impulsive instant, a life is gone forever.