Another life lost: 18-year-old TikTok star dies by suicide; was suffering from depression

After the tragic death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and ateenage TikTok star, an 18-year-old Delhi University girl, who too had a big fan following on the video platform TikTok died by suicide a day back.

While no suicide note has been recovered from the youngster's room, it has been speculated that the girl took the extreme step after the reported TikTok ban. Her body was discovered from her room by her cousin, which was then reported to the authorities.

Some sources close to the family have also suggested that the girl was suffering from depression from the past 2-3 months, which led her to take her life.

While we grieve for the young life lost, the trend of rising suicides is a big worry and brings back the focus onto mental health. While it is estimated that suicide takes 1 life every 40 seconds, it remains to be a largely preventable cause of death.

Although there is no one specific cause for rising suicide rates across the globe, experts say that a spike in bullying, isolation and the existing taboo circling around mental illness is contributing to the worrying cause, especially in young people. Considering the scary times we are living in and the grave effect the pandemic carries for our mental health, some even worry that COVID-19 might be fueling suicide rates.

A widescale study done in recent years found that our increasing dependency on social media is also cutting down on our interactions with one another. It is said that the millennial generation is one of the loneliest generations.

Be it a celebrity who loses his life or any person who dies by suicide, there is always an outpour of emotion and ill-fated comments ranging from "why commit suicide", " suicide is not an option" or "he or she could have given life another chance, life is still young".

What is also worrying is that suicides are the second most prominent cause of death among teenagers and youngsters aged between 12 and 24, globally.

Before we try and stop suicides, one must understand thatsuicide, even though a big loss is never a willing step. One must take efforts to allocate a bigger share of attention to mental health, talk to one another, provide emotional support and encourage good practices.

Suicide tags along with a lot of symptoms which many times go unnoticed because of lack of awareness. There are a lot of cues which can reveal what might be going on in a victim's mind and should never be ignored easy:

A person is said to be at the risk for developing suicidal thoughts or behaviour if any of these signs are spotted:

-Having a drug, alcohol or other substance abuse problem

-Undergoing a mental illness

-Prolonged stress

-Reclusive and agitative behaviour

-Victim of bullying

-A family history of suicide

-Access to lethal measures which can cause problems

-Withdrawal from society, excess sadness or negativity

-Experiencing problems in sleeping

-Recent trauma or undergoing a crisis

-Being exposed to someone else's suicide

-A sudden or big change in personality or appearance.

We have been hearing a lot about suicides in the weeks that have gone by. While none of them was related, experts say that there is a certain 'suicide contagion', i.e., exposure to seeing or hearing about someone dying by suicide can have a contagious effect on someone, who may see suicide as a 'glorious' way to end one's life or seek revenge. This is especially worrying in those in teenagers and young adults. Many also call it the 'copycat' effect. Studies collated over the years have also observed that internet searchers related to suicide spike up every time we hear about a prominent person dying. Most famously, it was one of the reasons which led to a lot of young people take their lives after playing the infamous 'Bluewhale' game.