Whoever saw Heath Ledger in his 1999 debut movie 10 things I hate about you  could not but foresee only great things in store for the young man. But all of them were proved wrong when the 28 year old star was found dead in his New York apartment.

The exact cause of the death is not yet known but it is reported that the death might have been a result of a drug overdose as some sleeping pills were found near the body. Even before I had heard about the pills, for some reason, I wondered if Ledger’s death was a suicide.

And that made me wonder why people committed suicide, or why do they even think about it?

 Failure : 

Rakesh* was a happy go lucky boy and no one could have believed that he would take the extreme step of killing himself, until he went ahead and did it. Reason: he had failed in one of the subjects in his board exams.

Failure in an exam or a failure to achieve a desired objective is one of the most common reason that drives a person to suicide. But more than the actual failure it is the perception of the society that drives a person to suicide. Our society respects, even worships, success and looks at failure with great disdain. It is society’s contempt that a person fears and he chooses to die rather than live a life scorned.

 Fear of disgrace: 

Doctor Raghav * had been practicing medicine for over 25 years in the small town of Rampur*. One fine morning the newspapers reported his death from an overdose of sleeping pills. His reason: he had done something in his life that threatened to destroy his reputation in the present.

Often, on the road to success, scruples are kept aside and whatever it takes to achieve the goal is done, even if that “whatever” is not the right way. Later, when success is achieved, the acts appear as black marks that threaten to destroy the reputation of the person concerned. And the person chooses to die rather than be exposed to public humiliation.

 Inability to Deal with circumstances: 

The most tragic suicides are those of people like Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Vincent Van Gogh, etc. They were what can be called very successful people by the standards of our society. Many people over the years have envied them and have wanted to emulate them. And yet, the ones living the much desired lives chose to end them, rather than prolong the agony, that their lives had become for them.

The only reason for their suicides can be attributed to the fact that success brings along with it great responsibility. And these responsibilities if not shouldered well make life quite difficult. The people who have achieved success in a particular field have, over the years, spent so much time doing what they are good at that they are not prepared to deal with life in it’s totality. So, when they meet failure of any kind, they become highly frustrated as they are used to doing things exceptionally well and they fail to accept failure.

 The solution: 

The solution for the above problems rests with the society. The society needs to change its attitude towards success as well as failure. Neither Success, nor failure, mean that a life’s work has been done. There will always be more roads to travel, more hills to climb, more targets to achieve… until we meet our natural end.

If you know someone around you who you think might possibly be susceptible to committing suicide, be sure to go to him, and lend a patient ear to his problems. You might be his last hope.

(* Names of people and places have been changed to protect privacy)