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KOLKATA: Depression is setting in early among children in metros like Kolkata where they increasingly find themselves in stressful situations, warn psychiatrists. Reading about a suicide could also lead a depressed youngster to take his or her own life , a phenomenon which is termed ‘contagion effect’ in psychiatry , they pointed out.

The suicide of a Class X girl — who had slashed her wrist inside the school toilet — last week might have encouraged the Class X girl student of another south Kolkata school who made a failed attempt to replicate the fatal act on Tuesday, psychiatrists felt. “Coming to know about a suicide or reading about it in graphic detail could be dangerous for those who are on the verge. It gives them a feeling that they can do it, too. So, I won’t be surprised if this girl was indeed encouraged by the last week’s incident,” said psychiatrist J Ram.

Ever since the youngster’s suicide last week, Ram has received at least six calls from parents of a girls’ school seeking to bring forward appointments with him. “It has triggered a panic among parents who are worried about their children trying to take their own lives. In fact, two youngsters who had come to me for treatment confessed that they had been contemplating suicide and felt motivated after reading about last week’s suicide,” added Ram.

Main reasons among the depression triggers were failure to cope with academic pressure, fear of not being able to live up to parents’ expectations, isolation in nuclear families, addiction to gadgets and relationship issues, pointed out psychiatrists. And greater exposure through social media was to be partially blamed for psychological disorders, they added.

Psychiatrist Siladitya Ray believed that depression was “alarmingly on the rise, especially amongst the urban affluent individuals”. “Such incidents are tell-tale signs of a serious underlying social pathology which has been triggered by mindless consumerism and obsessive materialism . Suicidal inclinations are very common these days all over the world, primarily because there is a growing sense of loneliness and existential despair. In such a state, a depressed individual finds oneself without any meaningful roots, which leaves him shattered and alienated,” explained Ray.

