Hyderabad: The recent World Health Organisation report on mental health across the world has created an urgent need for a reality check among parents, teenagers, experts and the government, and called for all these groups to address the alarming situation immediately. India topped the list with the highest number of suicides in the world according to the recent WHO report on mental health called “Preventing Suicides-A global Imperative”, which was released in September, 2014.

A total of 36 lakh girls and 34 lakh boys in the age group of 15-29 died in India in 2012 and a total of 2,58,075 people, including 99,977 females and 1,58,098 males of all age groups committed suicide. China follows India, with 1,20,730 suicides in 2012. The cause for the highest number of deaths in the age group of 15-29 was suicide, which is definitely a disturbing trend, said psychiatrists.

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Peer pressure, impact of social media, broken families lead to these deaths. They said that in Hyderabad too, there are frequent cases of attempt to suicides.

Purnima Nagaraja, consultant psychiatrist, Dhriti Centre for Psychological Wellness said, “The suicide rate has gone up in India by nine per cent and many kids get disconnected with the world. With hardly any emotional anchors to lean on, with educational institutions putting too much pressure, children have no outlet to vent their feelings. Immense criticism at school and home, make them resort to suicide as they cannot deal with the pressure. Many are addicted to social media and connect with people with similar problems and get more depressed.”

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One such case study was of a 16-year-old teenager who tried to hang himself because he wasn’t feeling good and wanted to go to the God. His parents used to fight a lot and never bothered to listen to his pleas, leading to his attempt to kill himself.