“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” ―Phil Donahue
When you observe eminent personalities including Abraham Lincoln, William James, Sigmund Freud, Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie-Pitt, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Brooke Shields, Emma Thompson, J.K. Rowling, Princess Diana, and Mark Twain; they have succeeded despite mental illness and depression.
Globally people are stressed due to demanding workplace pressures, cutthroat competition, and VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). Research shows that the rate of suicides is increasing at an alarming rate due to the rapid growth in technology. People compare and compete with others. Those who compete and succeed enjoy name and fame. In contrast, those who compare and fail, they get into depression and anxiety.
Suicide is a threat to public health. There are many causes of suicides. Here are some of them. Old people commit suicide when there is nobody to take care of them. When people suffer from chronic diseases, they commit suicide to overcome pain and suffering. When people encounter repeated failures, they commit suicide. But the fact is the suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem.
How to Overcome Depression and Avert Suicidal Thoughts?
Depression is a mental illness that is against your strong emotions and thoughts. Most illness in this world is self-created. Hence, it is easy to overcome it if you push your boundaries in a positive direction. It is essential to rewire your brain, mind, psyche, and spirit to handle challenges. Here are some tools to overcome your depression and avert suicidal thoughts.
- Love yourself. Unless you love yourself, you cannot love others.
- View the world with optimism.
- Take up one idea as your lifetime goal and engage in it consistently and relentlessly. You get up every day with some purpose and enjoy doing it rather than wasting your time on negative aspects.
- Avoid setting unrealistic goals and objectives. Avoid expecting from others. Avoid comparing and competing with others. Instead, compete with yourself and raise your bar constantly.
- Look at the positive aspects of life, not the negative aspects. Look at the rising sun, not the setting sun.
- Learn lessons from failures. To fail is not bad but not to learn lessons from failures is bad.
- Socialize with others. If you have the habit of sitting with your computer system regularly, go to the gym or walk or talk to people to communicate your ideas and insights. Enjoy the humor and crack jokes.
- Build a strong team of a network to support them and seek their support.
- Avoid multitasking.
- Listen to melodious music to lift your moods. View motivational videos.
- Do yoga, breathing exercises, or meditation regularly.
- Slow down to speed up. Allow yourself to reflect on your thoughts. Enjoy solitude. Ensure that your head rules your heart, not your heart rules your head.
- Practice self-hypnotism.
- Avoid alcohol and drug when you have suicidal thoughts as they aggravate further.
- Do breathing exercises. Inhale and exhale deeply to check suicidal thoughts.
- Follow neglected hobbies that you wanted to pursue in the past to engage yourself meaningfully. Remember that age is just a number. You can pursue your hobbies at any age and stage of your life.
- Travel to unwind yourself because traveling teaches tolerance; enhances empathy; and broadens your mind.
- Recall your past achievements.
- Remember that everything happens for a reason and all that happens for good.
- Minimize virtual connections and maximize physical connections. Use technology judiciously and harness it to achieve happiness, peace, and prosperity.
- Connect with your family and friends. Spend some time regularly with them. Nothing is more important than your family and friends including wealth.
- Go to bed at a consistent time to enjoy a sound sleep. If you don’t get sleep for 30 minutes, get up, and do something productive. In this way, you can avoid negative thoughts and depression.
- Expose to adequate sunlight every day.
- Have an attitude of gratitude and express your gratitude regularly. Behind the success of every person, there is someone who laid the ladder for success. Hence, expressing gratitude reflects your personality and encourages others to contribute more.
- Build bridges, not barriers.
- Consult a therapist/psychiatrist, if you get suicidal thoughts frequently.
- Take a short course on psychosocial therapy under the guidance of experts.
Feeling suicidal indicates that you have more pain and you cannot overcome the pain. To relieve the pain, open up with trusted friends, and share your inner feelings, emotions, and ideas. Hold your mind with positive thoughts for a few seconds to get out of your suicidal thoughts. Think of the people who loved you. Cherish those memories. Understand the power of visualization technique. Visualize yourself as a successful person and on top of the world.
Avoid ruminating on unpleasant events and experiences. Explore ideas to address issues. It is rightly said that below-average individuals talk about individuals, average individuals talk about issues and above-average individuals talk about ideas. Hence, emphasize ideas to address issues.
Everyone feels depressed at some point of time in life. Hence, don’t worry excessively about it. If it goes extreme, fight back. Don’t become hopeless and helpless. Take appropriate measures to overcome. As prevention is better than cure, avoiding depression is better than experiencing it. Remember, there is no wealth without health and there is no health without mental health. So, focus on your mental health care.
Be Part of the Solution, Not the Problem
Be part of the solution, not the problem. When encountered with frequent failures, explore the issues objectively to identify the reasons for failures to ensure that you don’t repeat them. Life is full of lessons in learning. At times, problems come in battalions. Learn to cope up with them. Remember that when going gets tough, tough gets going. As there is a key to every lock, there is a solution to every problem. It is often the last key in the bunch that will open the lock. Hence, be patient and persistent to open the lock. Similarly, engage your mind effectively to explore multiple solutions to overcome your problems. God gifted us life and the onus lies with us to live fully to make it memorable and great. We must leave our legacy to the next generation. Hence, engage productively to accomplish your goals to provide meaning to your life.
Rise from the Mud Like a Lotus
The line between sanity and insanity is very thin. Depression is not a disease. It is a mental illness preventing positive thoughts in the human mind due to severe pain and suffering. Everyone is born for a reason. and is alive for a reason. If they understand it most suicides in the world can be averted. Every successful person undergoes pain and suffering. It is a fact that diamond is created under pressure from the dirty coal; lotus comes from the mud and butterfly comes from the caterpillar through pain and suffering. It is obvious that nothing comes easy and nothing great was ever achieved without pain and suffering and struggles and sacrifices. Every challenge converts you into a better human being and leader. Life is like a rising lotus from the mud. Enjoy the process to provide meaning to your life.
The Coward Sneaks to Death while the Brave Live on to Make a Difference
No one has the right to depress you. You alone are responsible for your depression. Remember that depression is a common illness globally. It exists among all individuals at some point in time in their lives. The intensity varies. When it goes extreme, explore the issues and individuals responsible for it and take immediate remedial measures. Ensure that depression doesn’t go unbridled and unmanageable.
The world has become highly complex. The children should be inculcated with confidence to enable them to be independent and competent. They should be taught how to handle the challenges in life right from childhood to enable them to be confident to overcome challenges. Instead of sharing their wealth with children, parents must provide character and education to their children. They must teach their children to face challenges head-on to come out with flying colors.
Look at things positively. Possess a positive, right, and strong attitude to overcome depression and avert suicidal thoughts. Empathize with others rather than regret the unpleasant events. Avoid blaming and scapegoating others. Look at the problems on a clean slate. Depression is a state of mind and everybody can overcome easily if they accept and realize that they are under depression and take remedial measures immediately. People assume that their problems are much bigger than others. But in reality, people don’t realize that others have similar problems probably much bigger than them.
Life is Great!
Remember that the past cannot be changed and the future cannot be predicted. Hence, learn to live in the present to avoid depression. You have a right to live in this world. You don’t have a right to take your life from this world. Life is a gift from God. To commit suicide is a sin. No religion encourages suicide. You were born with some purpose and you have to work hard to accomplish it to provide meaning to your life. Don’t get excited with successes and dejected with failures. Be level headed to enjoy peaks and valleys in your life. Life is great!
Comments