A permanent solution to a temporary problem

I attended my first 7 day NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) training session back in 2001. It was, in lots of ways, an eye opening event. I was reminded of part of that NLP course yesterday when watching financial reporter Max Keiser's latest broadcast. His guest was discussing how the victimless crime carried out by the banks (essentially financial theft on a grand scale) really does have victims.

The financial collapse of the last 5 years has put some people under enormous stress. Coping strategies vary for those under stress, but sometimes that feeling of being stressed is so intense and overwhelming that only suicide seems to offer a way out.

According to a BMJ report, in the 2008 - 2010 period there were almost 1000 additional suicides in the UK as a result of the financial collapse. Full report here: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5142.

In the USA, recent news stories tell how suicide now outstrips car crashes as the cause of death. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2207089/56-million-suicide-prevention-programme-launched-study-reveals-Americans-lives-die-car-crashes.html)

A suicide prevention operation backed with $56 Million is now being put in place.

Suicide is not just about the economics it is often driven by the fractures in relationships caused by the way we live. But to come back to my point about the NLP course; Richard Bandler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bandler) one of the NLP co-founders said this

"suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem".

That quote has stuck with me over the years. It is true that most problems are temporary. Eventually one can adjust to a new situation. But again and again we see news stories about apparently successful people who take their own life rather than accept that their situation must change. It seems that the loss of face is even more frightening than the the loss of their own life.

Yet, history is full of example of people who failed, who fell from grace and yet came back later stronger, wiser and more capable than ever. Isolation, physical or emotional and broken or damaged relationships can stop the person contemplating suicide from getting the help they need.

Losing a job or home is terrible, losing status conferred by money can be debilitating but it should never be a reason to lose your life. Talk to someone today.