The death of chartered accountant, Ms. Folake Abiola has set the blogosphere on fire. Why would a professional of that high repute kill herself? Was she too lonely? Does she not go to church? Does life not mean anything to her? So many questions, little answers.
For starters, Folake is said to be the ‘churcheous’ type. She was said to have dedicated her body to Christ and never messed around like other ladies of her age. At 47 and with an employment at Glo, one of Nigeria’s leading telecommunication firms, she was having a fulfilled life. So, what would make such a successful person do such a ‘stupid thing’ as take her life?
I want us to look at the reality of suicide. It is a major cause of death in the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). How serious is this matter? 1 in 100 deaths, says WHO in 2019. In other words, suicide kills more people than cancer. It takes more people than AIDS. Other figures claim that there is one (1) death by suicide every 40 secs. For a cause as serious as this, you would expect the same amount of frenetic effort to reduce it but No. The result is that the statistics are getting worse.
How serious is this matter? One (1) in 100 deaths, says WHO in 2019. In other words, suicide kills more people than cancer. It takes more people than AIDS. Other figures claim that there is one (1) death by suicide every 40 secs.
There are more scary stats. According to the global health monitor, “Every year 703,000 people take their own life and there are many more people who attempt suicide.” Attempted suicide cases is one major factor that leads to the termination of life by suicide. So if more people have attempted it, the tendency is that the following year, more suicide cases may be experienced. For instance between 2010 and 2018, suicide rates rose steadily by over 20% annually.
It does not end there. “Suicide occurs throughout the lifespan and was the fourth leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds globally in 2019.” Two points to note here:
– there’s no age bracket that is not affected by suicide
– teenagers without much worries also terminate their lives, meaning that there’s more to suicide than poverty or hardship or stress.
Flowing from the above, WHO says “Suicide does not just occur in high-income countries, but is a global phenomenon in all regions of the world.” According to it, “over 77% of global suicides occurred in low- and middle-income countries in 2019.” So we are dealing with a problem that is not restricted to the global poor but even rich people also kill themselves. Therefore Folake’s alleged suicide needs to be viewed as evidence that our society is not immune to suicides.
We should, as a result, learn all we can about this major health concern. I will draw from her case to illustrate my points, and hopefully, get everyone to start asking the questions: how does suicide affect me? Am I susceptible to suicide? What can I do in the event that some one around me is suicidal and how can I know if someone is suicidal?
PROFESSIONALS AND SUICIDE
One puzzle in the suicide conundrum is that the professionals that are considered best suited to help people with suicidal ideation (thoughts) are amongst it’s worst victims. Doctors and Pastors are thought to be the most suited for bringing comfort to those in distress. Coincidentally, they also are amongst the highest sufferers of this phenomenon. How? Can a doctor actually commit suicide? The statistics will shock you.
- DOCTORS:
In the USA, doctors are one of the top professionals who commit suicide.
Wikipedia reports that suicide in the United States of America “an estimated 300 to 400 doctors die by suicide each year, a rate of 28 to 40 per 100,000 or more than double that of the general population.” In other words, more doctors kill themselves than any other professional group. Shocking? Wait for more.
more doctors kill themselves than any other professional group…The suicide mortality rate is about the same among male and female doctors, and (is) significantly higher than the general population
“The suicide mortality rate is about the same among male and female doctors, and significantly higher than the general population,” the Wikipedia reports. Like Folake, it states, “Female physicians are at higher risk of attempting suicide than men, showing rates over 250% higher among women and about 70% higher among men versus the general population.”
This is Kate Harding recollecting the death of her husband by suicide: “I have been a widow for 11 weeks. It seems surreal to be writing that sentence and yet it is true. I was there; I know. Richard killed himself at home while I was walking the dog with my daughter, while my son was lying metres away in his bedroom. As a consultant anaesthetist and intensivist (a specialist in the care of critically ill patients), Richard knew exactly what to do. He was 47.” Her husband was an anaesthetic doctor.
The case of suicide amongst doctors is not new. Pamela Wimble reported that as early as 1902, a female doctor, Dr Jeannie Charlotte MacLeod, had killed herself in her office. She noted that the population of doctors killing themselves was very high and concluded that: “Many doctors have lost a colleague to suicide. Some have lost up to eight during their career — with no opportunity to grieve.”
Four years after Dr. Jeannie MacLeod killed herself, a Russian report states that in that same period, about 10% of all doctors in that country killed themselves. Wondering what professionals would be succumbing to suicide? That’s a topic for another day.
- PASTORS
The case of pastors is pathetic. Most pastors are invested with higher and supernatural expectations by their followers. However, they are men too. In America and in part of Africa, pastors have been reported to have taken their lives.
Faith and mental health are a subject of serious concern. Some pastors have been known to kill themselves and their whole congregation with the promise of taking them to heaven. Wherever and whenever this happens, mental health should be suspected. Jesus Christ spoke about coming to take His own but mental delusional thoughts that can lead to homicide and suicide starts with people in religious offices equating or suggesting that they had become the Christ.
Faith and mental health are a subject of serious concern. Some pastors have been known to kill themselves and their whole congregation with the promise of taking them to heaven. Wherever and whenever this happens, mental health should be suspected
In this article we are concentrating on those who took their own lives. And Darren Patrick comes to mind. He was described as pastoring a megachurch. Police investigated his death and ruled the gunshot that killed him suicide.
Patrick died May 7 in Pacific, Missouri, near St. Louis. He had a church with weekly attendance of upwards of 1,000s of congregants. That means that a large number of Americans were relying on the judgement of a man who was battling with mental health challenge that impaired his sense of right and wrong. Some pastors have bigger congregations. Do you see what I am talking about? So if Folake found herself in this kind of environment, what kind of counsel will she get from this Pastor?
Before Patrick shot himself in 2019, two other pastors had also killed themselves. They are Jarrid Wilson, a 30-year-old pastor at megachurch Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and 30-year-old Andrew Stoecklein, a pastor at Indian Hills Church in Chino, in August 2018. They both preached about depression and mental health.
Saddleback Church senior pastor Rick Warren suffered depression but it was his son who killed himself in 2013 after suffering depression for a long time.
Rick Warren is not the only religious home to experience suicide. An online report has this to say: “On July 31, Bonsall resident Paige Hilken, 28, took her own life while undergoing treatment at a mental health clinic in Arizona. She died just four months after giving birth to her fifth child with husband Christopher Hilken, a teaching pastor and young adult minister for North Coast Church in Vista.” The widowed pastor spoke on the general attitude of the church against mental health illness.
According to him he realized that the Church needed to acknowledge mental health challenges. That led him to release all information about how his wife battled her condition for years. That he hoped will help to break the problem of stigmatization and shaming of people with mental health challenges.
Even in Africa, we have had reported cases of suicide amongst the clergy. On September 16, 2016 a Christ Embassy Church Pastor committed suicide in Limpopo, South Africa. He was said to have mistakenly sent a picture of his manhood to a Church Members Whatsapp Group. When he discovered his mistake, he committed suicide.
Another pastor from Zimbabwe Pastor Richard Nhika also killed himself over infidelity.
Evangelist Nwabueze Franklin Kelechi a Nigerian pastor, was reported to have committed suicide in Malaysia. He died when he allegedly jumped from a skyscraper and plunged to his death. He was of the Charismatic Renewal Ministries.
In Kenya, Pastor Elijah Misiko stabbed himself and his wife on the pulpit. They both died before they got to the hospital.
In all of these, these leaders have been battling secretly over some mental health challenge. As with the doctors cited above, they represent the serious challenge that mental health poses to society. Therefore, those who say things shameful about people like Folake need to think again.
Asoya Relationship Musings - ARM 