If you've watched the sitcom M*A*S*H, you are familiar with the theme song. It talks about failure, of desperation and a fatalist view of life. The chorus sings “...that suicide is painless; it brings on many changes; and I can take or leave it if I please.”
The singer isn’t being glib. The rest of the lyrics offer insight into why people commit suicide. The darkness that envelopes them and becomes all- consuming. The feeling that suicide will indeed be painless because it will end the unbearable suffering currently endured.
In the news right now is a Chinese factory that has become a city in itself. Three hundred thousand people live and work on the campus and most come from poor rural areas where there is little chance of finding work. This campus, housing all 300,000 workers, includes the mega factories they work in, restaurants, shops, hospitals and a fire station – is jam-packed into one square mile. Looking at pictures of this campus is suffocating. Building after building squashed together, a stony jungle with a moving mass of humanity crawling through the stone façade. It’s hard to see where the factories end and the homes (huge dormitories) begin. The word "career" is unknown to these people. They need to work so that they can eat – it’s as simple as that. And within this world, suicide is rampant.
What begins as relief for so many thousands of poor, young workers from rural China turns into a nightmarish existence. With reasonable pay and a guarantee of somewhere to live, it sounds like a good option for those coming from struggling farms and small towns and villages. But facing long hours on an assembly line with managers who have been accused of hurling abuse and unfair punishment has taken its toll. With nothing more to do that rise early, work all day and go home to a dorm, these people have been dehumanized. Trudging back and forth in almost robotic formation, the chance of leaving a life of poverty behind has quickly turned into a place for desperate workers to end their lives.
In 2010 so far, ten workers have committed suicide with more attempting it. The factory, called Foxconn, claims to not know why. However, the clients of this company – mainly electronic giants (including Dell and Sony) have launched investigations to find out what is going on in this enclave. The factory owners have guaranteed fair pay, good housing and dignified treatment of its staff of 300,000. However, Foxconn has issued an apology for this sudden onslaught of suicides and changed its policies regarding the physical and emotional needs of staff. A 24-hour-a-day hotline has been set up for anxious or depressed workers, a room has been created with mannequins in it that staff can punch to relieve stress and more counselors have been hired. Foxcomm stated that these new moves have saved 30 more people from committing suicide in one month alone. This is proof positive that something terrible was going on in this concrete and dehumanized world.
In our own western world, suicide is also a huge problem. Many of us have also found ourselves becoming slaves to our companies. Laptops and Blackberries are with us at work, at home and even in our cars. We too are becoming electronically wired, robotic beings with less family and leisure time and more focus on pleasing the boss. Sometime this leads to a promotion. Other times it leads to inevitable layoffs and company “restructuring” where loyalty means nothing at all. And all those hours dedicated to work means strained relationships at home. Having spent so much time ignored, partners are not always there to catch a stressed worker when she falls.
Work is certainly not the only reason a person ends their life. But in this day and age, where we spend more time with co-workers than we do our friends and family, our jobs are increasing our likelihood of anxiety and even depression. Many companies offer free hotlines and opportunities for counseling but many still do not – leaving workers vulnerable to the desperation that leads to suicide.
Suicide is never painless. It ends a person’s life who had much to offer the world but who couldn’t get past the overwhelming depression of their lives, and leaves their families with a legacy of questions, guilt and deep, deep regret.
If you are overwhelmed by the demands of your job, contact your company’s hotline or counseling centers for help. If you do not have these options, call 1-800-SUICIDE(1-800-784-2433) and www.suicide.org or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
To find a hotline in your state that can also recommend additional counseling and help, click here : http://suicidehotlines.com.
And always remember that you can call 911 for immediate help. No matter how bad or how overwhelming your life is, there is ALWAYS an alternative to suicide.