Lonliness and Suicide

In Men & Trauma’s last blog post we covered a topic that’s been prevalent among the team for some time now: are we in a global state of cortisol poisoning?
 
As illustrated in the piece, our team has come to identify the Covid experience as sharing the two primary factors that can lead to an experience being traumatic: feeling hopeless or
helpless, and a perceived threat to one’s life. Obviously there are exceptions to this depending on the individual experience, but for this press release we would like to pivot from that topic into other themes that have been prevalent throughout our investigations.
 
Findings from numerous media articles focused on mental health paints a picture of a loneliness epidemic, which has resulted in many people struggling with their mental health.
Though Covid may not be solely to blame for this, it’s reasonable to deduce that it has largely contributed to those that are experiencing loneliness problems due to the controls that were enacted, and the subsequent model that those controls have now pushed the world into.
 
In an article published by Stuff in February 2023, the findings of Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report were explored. In this piece, it states that almost a quarter of young Kiwis
are suffering from anxiety, fatigue and depression. These areas of concern are further accentuated in another article published by Stuff in October 2023, where official figures
released by the office of the Chief Coroner highlight an increase in suicide rates, with Maori continuing to be disproportionately high among the stats.
 
This is a problem.
 
Sure, many of us want to just ‘get on with things’ now that it feels as if Covid is over but, as we’ve suggested, if you were to view it as a traumatic experience in much the same way you
 
would someone who has been abused, it’s clear that there is a lot of work to go for us to heal as both a nation and a globe.
 
What’s also concerning with these issues is that it’s occurring alongside a societal model that may be exacerbating things;
 
If you were to view the current commerce landscape from a satellite view, it’s fairly evident that many of the small engagements that contributed to a sense of community connection have now been replaced by a great volume of less connected measures: self-checkouts, online purchasing, self-service ticket purchasing, food deliveries, the rise of social media, remote working and the digitization of all art mediums. Slowly but surely we are rooting out every banal interaction that up until the last 10 - 20 years were firmly webbed around community placement.
 
And to be clear, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - technology evolves, and we should be exploring techniques to combat loneliness outside of our day to day tasks, but it feels like this sprawl of greater efficiencies may be another thread in what’s creating a mass of extreme disconnect. It is difficult to pinpoint what may be the leading cause of such a problem given the complexities of the current world, but the evidence sighted here should be a strong enough suggestion that this is a problem we need to focus on getting fixed.
 
Many of those doing the work at Men & Trauma have often cited that something they consider to be of great value in the group is how it’s connected them to others, while also giving them an opportunity to be vulnerable among those that have had similar experiences or feel the same way. We’ve come to observe that there’s a sense of togetherness and community spirit that is generated from such a model, and each of us has expressed a type of relief and gratitude towards the group as a result.
 
If you’re reading this and you’re feeling lonely, don’t be afraid to reach out to those who care for you - they just may be feeling the same way. If at all possible, don’t be afraid to reach out to a local community, express your vulnerability and through virtue of that expression, connect with those you don’t know who may be feeling the same. If we were to put aside the material elements of our lives, the capitalist distractions and allurement of everyday distractions, it feels reasonable to state that honest connection is a desire we all share, and through that shared desire we can alleviate the weight of loneliness that so many feel themselves buckling under.
 
And should you feel that you need additional support outside these options, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Men & Trauma - we’re here to help.
 
Be kind to yourself,
 
The Men & Trauma team.