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Koreans and Suicides
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Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 12:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Middle school girls jumping off of buildings didn't do it out of religious beliefs.
They did it because life *beep* sucked and it wasn't fair.


I didn't mean that they were doing it because of reincarnation. I meant that when life sucks, people who believe in reincarnation may consider suicide a solution where other people might not.
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red dog



Joined: 31 Oct 2004

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess it depends what you believe about reincarnation ... some people believe suicide will cause them to be born into worse circumstances ... others think a human existence is a rare chance to become enlightened and suicide is a waste of that chance.
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periwinkle



Joined: 08 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 5:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder what the deal is with Finland and Hungary? I think if Koreans changed their attitudes toward psychotherapy and taking anti-depressants, there would be a lot less suicides. Is the government doing anything to try to curb the suicide problem? There needs to be some kind of campaign. BTW- are there guidance counselors in the schools here? Is there even a suicide hotline? The government needs to get with the program because the problem is getting out of hand. Really unfortunate.
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Hollywoodaction



Joined: 02 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Koreans and Suicides Reply with quote

Jake E. Lee wrote:
Last week a 30 year old Seoul National University Law School student was strangled and thrown out the window of her 10th floor apartment by her psychotic ex-boyfriend after she refused to get back together. He also jumped after her.
Last month a high school student succumbed to the extreme academic pressures and killed herself by jumping from the roof of a building.
Both were close friends of two of my students.
I read in Korea Times that Korea ranks number 4 (behind Finland, Hungary, and Japan) in suicides.
More than 200 people die every week from suicides in Korea.
That is a staggering statistic.
What is it with Koreans and suicides?
I'm inclined to believe that it's due to a lack of self-esteem brought on by parents who showed their children little or no affection during their formative years.
I was really saddened by the women's deaths.
Tragic.


Well, I'd be more inclined to say that it's because Koreans rarely seek psychological and psychiatric help or treatment, which would decrease the number of suicides as it would help them deal with depression. Ask Harpeau if you want a proper explanation. I'm not sure, but I think he's one of the few foreigners who provide psychological counselling in Korea.


Last edited by Hollywoodaction on Tue May 31, 2005 7:46 pm; edited 5 times in total
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peppermint



Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

periwinkle wrote:
I wonder what the deal is with Finland and Hungary? I think if Koreans changed their attitudes toward psychotherapy and taking anti-depressants, there would be a lot less suicides. Is the government doing anything to try to curb the suicide problem? There needs to be some kind of campaign. BTW- are there guidance counselors in the schools here? Is there even a suicide hotline? The government needs to get with the program because the problem is getting out of hand. Really unfortunate.


I think seasonal affective disorder might play a part in Finland. Long dark winters have been clinically proven to be depressing.
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Jensen



Joined: 30 Mar 2003
Location: hippie hell

PostPosted: Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would try to blame that dark part of the Korean soul where everything is hopeless and empty... something with genetic roots and cultural enhancement that brings on the creeping "han" and all that weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But I have to admit that the working-class people (and their kids) I live with in the western US seem quite willing to "snuff it" too. There are people in my family who have some bi-polar/manic/depressed patterns and from time to time they talk about killing themsleves. I find this both very distressing and tiring and really have no solutions and I don't see that anyone else does either. Several of my co-workers have killed themselves with guns, one told me a few weeks before he was going to do it but he said it like he was joking. Turned out he wasn't. I often wonder if there was something I could have done or said.

I don't know if this has any importance or not...but I think some of the advantages of suicide are introduced to children at a very young age in video games. When a level becomes difficult...or boring...and you want out, the easiest/quickest way is to die. As my teenage son says when I tell him to shut off the nintendo so we can eat supper together, "Just a sec Dad, I'm going to kill myself..."
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jajdude



Joined: 18 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 7:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wonder why Japan and Finland are so high? Don't know about Hungary.

Well, I know Japan is a bit strange.
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kermo



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

According to one Finnish friend of mine, the group that's most at-risk is men around retirement age. They work hard, they raise families, and when those goals stop becoming so pressing and they're left with a pension and an aging wife, they sort of throw in the towel.
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Rock



Joined: 25 Feb 2005

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I tried to cut my throat, bled my wrists a few times, jabbed them deep. Then I took a dozen pills-upon dozens-had my stomach pumped, felt a vacuum in my head. Eventually, I wanted to put a blade to my heart, say f@#ck it all.

It's not really stress. It's knowing your life is demeaned, something intellectualism is apt to do. It could also be the chemicals we're eating.
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jajdude



Joined: 18 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good heavens Rock!

==============================
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panthermodern



Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: Taxronto

PostPosted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I read in Korea Times that Korea ranks number 4 (behind Finland, Hungary, and Japan) in suicides.
More than 200 people die every week from suicides in Korea


The darkly humored would point out that Korean seek to best the Japanese at any cost ...
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mnovak



Joined: 22 Feb 2005

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The strange thing is that Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese and Korean
are all part of the Ural-Altaic family.
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junkmail



Joined: 08 Jan 2005

PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the fastest increasing rates of suicide in Korea is amongst the elderly. Increasingly there families don't support them but there's little other infrastructure to do so.
Credit card debt, high unemployment and a high divorce rate are also possible factors.
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Dan The Chainsawman



Joined: 05 May 2005

PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

With the viens rock, with the viens.
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livinginkorea



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Location: Korea, South of the border

PostPosted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

chest rockwell wrote:
madness! My middle-school students told me just the other day that teen suicide in Korea is massive because theres 2 much pressure on them to perform. I mean how many academies do they attend after theyve actually finished going to school? And school on Saturday? What the hell!


Not just for students but generally everybody here has so much pressure placed on them. Everybody has their place and they have to perform.

They have to marry who their parents agree with. Also they have to marry at a certain time as well in some cases. A lot of stress there.

Many of them go to room salons and the likes because of work. Must drive some wives crazy.

When the parents grow old then their children and their wives usually take care of them. A lot of the time the children can never grow up. Their parents control too much.
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