Suicide (Rates) between Males and Females
What’s the Difference and Why it Matters
Today is the 10th of October, which is also the annual World Mental Health Day. This year, the World Health Organisation has called for a focus on suicide prevention — something that I believe should be a focus on any day, any year, and really, anytime.
It came as a surprise to me. When we think ‘suicide’ or ‘mental health’, the next word that is activated in our head is probably ‘depression’, and most of us are inclined to believe that females face that problem way more than men.
But this isn’t what this chart is saying. As of now, the suicide rate for males is higher than females in almost every country. While I have heard previously that males tend to attempt suicide more conclusively, I was not expecting the numbers to be this skewed.
I posted this chart on Reddit, hoping to share this discovery, and I got a few comments that I went on to explore.
One of the users was a Lithuanian who shared about alcoholism in his family and his country, a problem which he felt contributed to the high suicide rates among males in Lithuania. Indeed, alcoholism is closely related to mental health disorders, and the tricky part is that it could coexist with, contribute to, or result from other mental health disorders. This complicates the issue for clinicians who struggle to come up with a concrete diagnosis, and even more so for the alcohol users themselves who experience the effects of drinking on top of, or in the form of, symptoms such as elevated anxiety, irritability and sadness.
As we can see from this graph obtained from the Our World in Data website, the countries that appear to have very high rates of male suicide (in fig1) also show a high prevalence of alcohol use disorders (fig2). These countries are namely Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus. We also observe that the prevalence for alcohol use disorders are generally higher in males than females as well.
What makes things even more interesting, however, is this third chart here. We can see that these few countries mentioned above — Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus — do not appear to have a significantly higher alcohol consumption per capita, and yet, their alcohol use disorder rates cluster at the top, drastically above the rest of the world.
Why is this the case? According to a study done on 6 European countries (by BMC Family Practice), one of which was Latvia, a main issue is that the majority of alcohol users simply did not think that their drinking and the related consequences was a problem at all. Another common reason was the shame and stigma associated with therapy, especially among the men. Of course, this does not answer our question, which was narrowly scoped to the few countries that showed a drastic difference. But, it does lead us to the next few concerns, one of it voiced by another Reddit user.
This user mentioned that men tended to be less likely to have social support systems, and as sad as it may be, this is likely true. According to WHO, there is a gender bias in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. “Doctors are more likely to diagnose depression in women compared with men, even when they have similar scores on standardised measures of depression or present with identical symptoms.” What this tells us is that even if an equal number of males and females displaying the same symptoms show up at a therapist’s door, chances are that the number of diagnoses for males would still be lower. What does this say about the statistics we get? That women are more prone to MDD (major depressive disorder) than men — are they really? Or is this about the gender bias…
… and the fact that men and women simply display MDD (as well as some other disorders) differently? Men and women are different biologically, that is true, but they are also very much different in their societal roles, which may be an equally strong, if not stronger reason for the contrast in the way they typically display symptoms of disorders. Women are known to “ruminate” more than men, and that sort of rumination is easily recognised (and accepted) as a sign of distress and possibly a need for help. But things aren’t so clear-cut for men, who are often told to “man up”, who are reminded that “real men don’t cry”, and who are made to believe that they cannot and should not be feeling this way — as if this expectation even makes sense.
Can we change our perspective on this and the way we treat others (and this issue) overnight? Probably not, because a lot of beliefs we have, and our expectations, are just so ingrained in our community, our society, our lives. They are complex and different around the world in different cultures and countries. BUT, what is similar is the chart we saw in fig1 — that male suicide rates are higher than females almost everywhere. And yet, for some reason or other, they have been so under-discussed, even when it is getting increasingly important to talk about it.
So can we start doing something about it? Can we start looking out for one another — especially our male counterparts — and dig a little deeper when we ask them about their difficulties? Can we stop brushing them off before even hearing about it? Can we pay more attention to anyone’s and everyone’s feelings, so that they would pay more attention to themselves? Can we stop assuming that some people are ‘not the type’ to be facing a mental health issue, or ‘should not be feeling that way’?
Can we be a little kinder, a little more observant, and a little less judgmental?
Can we make this place a safer space?
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I know this hasn’t been the most informative of posts, but I hope it got us thinking a little more about the things we’ve been comfortable not knowing. As sad as this sounds, we might have perpetuated some of these harmful beliefs. But on the brighter side, that means we have the power to change things around.
Today is the 10th of October, which is also the annual World Mental Health Day.
It is 2019, the suicide figures are rising, and it’s time we started realising that no one is definitely spared from suffering, anyone could be dealing with a potentially dire problem, and everyone —I mean everyone — deserves to be supported.
