Over the last couple of years I have introduced two new subjects into the Mental Health blogs. One is the phenomenon of suicide, an increasing problem in the Western world, particularly among young males. Even children are not immune. The other topic is teenagers and pornography.
I know I’ve hit a nerve when I start to get less than polite responses to these topics. I have to wonder why these issues are so upsetting to some members of the public that they feel the need to deal with it by denigrating what I write.
Perhaps I have the benefit, as a psychologist, of seeing both sides of the story. I see that people are angry and upset when a person has taken their life. I also see the intense pain that a person goes through as they struggle to stay alive day after day, feeling the way they do, coping with seemingly answerless situations. I cannot, and will not, condemn a person for taking their own life.
I would like, however, to try to explain to people that people do not commit suicide “for something to do” as one reader commented. They do not commit suicide because they are “weak.” These are just two of many myths surrounding suicide. While I feel enormous sorrow for the bereaved, I also feel enormous sorrow for the deceased. Perhaps we all need to walk a mile in another’s shoes, as the saying goes, to really understand the true end-of-the-road emptiness that leads to suicide.
As for teenagers and pornography, well, humans are humans. Looking for curiosity’s sake is not quite on the same scale as taking a life. Again, I have tried to present articles on how to deal rationally and effectively with this situation, in a way that leaves both parents and their children with an intact sense of mutual respect.
I will continue to write articles on both these topics, in the same vein, in varying venues. Acknowledging that the problem exists and looking at the best way to deal with it is the way to lower the alarming rate of suicide, especially among the young.
As a counseling psychologist I’m not ethically permitted to turn a blind eye to the existence of these issues.
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