Fatal silence: Why do so many fortysomething men kill themselves? BBC1 13th April 2030 hrs

[XSE25]

I know the feeling.
As you get older, you work things out and realise that nothing is going to change. We trust the stewardship of this country to uninspiring public servants whose last intent is to represent us. They are puppets of the state, tinkering at the edges, powerless to reform. They have no real responsibility to budget and manage properly, so their only concern is how much are they going to be able to borrow. Its like a kid with a rich uncle. Keep tugging at him and the money will keep coming. They don't have any agenda re the country. Only themselves.
The higher up you go, the more corrupt it becomes. The whole cabal is intrinsically linked, all helping each other and f..k the rest of you. A sort of grand masonic lodge. A whole section of our misguided nation think that they have our interests at heart. Wrong. If they did, they would address the key issues. But they don't. Why? Because they have their own agenda.
We've lost our identity and we've lost any strength we had. People now look inwardly rather than outwardly and are only concerned with themselves. The banking fiasco proved that corruption pays in this country and they are still being allowed to get away with it.
We do have the life sucked out of us in this country but its our own fault. As long as people keep supporting this aged, corrupt and bankrupt system, then it will continue.

I live in Australia - which many would consider (and is generally) a lovely place.
Millions of people (including myself) battle depression regardless of the environment around you.
Environment can be a contributor but rarely (if ever) the true cause of this illness.

 

[symyjym]

Life is like the highs and lows of a bouncing ball, but if it has slow puncture eventually that ball is unable to bounce back up again. People who have these thoughts refrain from talking to their families and friends about it because it would change a natural dynamic to one of pity, and because no one really wants to burden anyone with it, it is logical to mask it and keep it to oneself. I can understand the thought process and why sometimes it can seem like a rational option if all else fails.

A young person suicide, especially through bullying, makes something that is tragic even more tragic.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Good programme, especially when Simon Jacks was interviewing his mother about his fathers suicide.

But why so short? Half an hour was never going to be enough for a subject like this.

This completely. Even the main 9 o'clock BBC news devoted about 10 minutes of a 30 minute broadcast to the programme. What bright spark at the BBC decided such an important topic was only worthy of a half hour programme. Hard not to despair of their judgement sometimes.

 

[soistes]

This completely. Even the main 9 o'clock BBC news devoted about 10 minutes of a 30 minute broadcast to the programme. What bright spark at the BBC decided such an important topic was only worthy of a half hour programme. Hard not to despair of their judgement sometimes.

I think the downgrading of Panorama (BBC's flagship documentary programme) to half an hour, several years ago, simply reflects the sad trend away from serious documentaries on public service TV. It's a disgrace but it's not specific to this topic -- the assumption seems to be that in today's world the TV audience craves entertainment, reality and quiz shows and doesn't have the attention span for longer in-depth, factual pieces.

 

[Brian Fantana]

The fact that men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women (I think I heard that fact correctly) was quite shocking to me - I don't know why. I suppose it's the 'macho' culture of not wanting to admit that something's wrong. I suppose the same can be said of a lot of illnesses and diseases actually. It's got to be a positive step to have documentaries on mainstream channels on this sort of thing.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Depression is an absolutely dreadful illness to have or suffered. It literally paralyses you where you don't want to get out of bed let alone answer the phone. Quite often people take their lives because the utter misery they go through and there's no end to their suffering. They want to escape it. It's a constant battle with emotions and it's wears you out. What most people take for granted like dressing or brushing your teeth actually drains a depressive person. You grind to a complete halt.

Excellent post