On Aug. 14, 23-year-old model Hsu Tzi-ting (
On April 6, award-winning novelist Yuan Che-sheng (袁哲生) hanged himself in the woods in Hsichih. He left behind 10 novels and a note for his wife.
These cases involve figures known to the public, but they're hardly unique.
Every day, nine people in Tai-wan choose to end their lives. More than 3,000 Taiwanese kill themselves every year. Each death forcibly derails the lives of parents and children, partners and siblings, hurtling them into unfamiliar and sometimes perilous territory.
Suicide is usually talked about in hushed tones, if it's talked about at all. Despite being veiled in secrecy and surrounded by stigma, suicide is so common in our society that media do not even bother to cover the tragic events unless it happens to prominent public figures.
According to statistics from the Department of Health, the suicide rate has doubled over the past decade, rising to 0.14 percent. Last year alone, 3,195 people took their lives and even more wound up in the emergency room following a suicide attempt.
Accompanying the high prevalence are deep-rooted misconceptions. Suicide is often characterized as a response to a single event or set of circumstances, such as unemployment, a failed relationship, social seclusion and so forth. However, unlike these popular conceptions, suicide is a much more complex phenomenon and its cause varies from person to person.
"The factors that contribute to any particular suicide are diverse and complex, mental and physical alike," said Hu Wi-herng (
Clinical experience and medical surveys yield only a rough sketch of the circumstances in each case -- but statistics indicate most people who have tried suicide suffer from a psychiatric illness. The department's statistics show that 87 percent of those who have taken their own lives had a record of depression.
"People take their lives not over an isolated incident, but usually during a significant psychiatric illness," Hu said.
Although mental illnesses are treatable, sufferers face obstacles to help every step of the way. Additionally the shame and stigma of psychiatric diseases keeps many people from seeking psychiatric help.
"My patients have confessed that, many times, they flinched from walking into my diagnosis room," Hu recalled.
People who have attempted suicide are often blamed for bringing public embarrassment to their families, or for simply being too weak to climb out of their mental dungeon. Not many give deep thought as to why the specter of suicide haunts and lingers over the depressed.
"It is the stigma that hurts the patients and suicide survivors," said Hwang Jenn-tai (
Hwang recalled how the parents of a university student silently refused his help in an emergency room where their daughter lay wordless in bed an hour after jumping from her dorm. They didn't want to acknowledge her act as a suicide attempt.
"While the act of desperation leads to thousands of fatalities each year, people must realize that a staggering 87 percent of suicide cases suffer from depression," the health department's director-general, Chen Chien-jen (
The rising rates focus on the country's youth. Suicide is now the second leading cause of teenage deaths, trailing only accidents.
The department has launched a prevention campaign in schools and local health centers, calling for nationwide action to battle suicide. "Suicide is a huge but largely preventable public health problem," Chen said.
The department has submitted to the Executive Yuan a proposal for an international suicide prevention center and aims to reduce the suicide rate by 20 percent by 2009.
"The most effective way to prevent suicide among loved ones is to learn how to recognize the signs of someone at risk, take those signs seriously, and know how to respond to them," Chen said.
There are danger signs to predict a potential suicide. Between 20 and 50 percent of people who have killed themselves had previously attempted to take their own lives, according to the department's records. Also, people who have a family history of suicide, depression, and other mental illnesses are at higher risk for suicide.
"The emotional crises that usually precede suicide are most often recognizable and treatable," Hu said. "A phone call made or a helping hand could save lives."
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and