Depression, mood disorders, extreme anxiety and .. suicide.

Ignoring human well-being and setting people’s depression as less important issues to look after might have very dramatic impacts on countries sustainability. And that is why, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being come as third goal of the Sustainable Development Goals. Psychological struggles of people from different countries make negative impacts on people, however, in Russia, one half of the population is affected by their depression and sometimes escaping from their realities to suicide!

Statistical reports showed that Russian male have the highest suicide mortality rates globally. Also, Russian male suicide rates exceed those of Russian females by almost 5.8 times!

Where, as shown below, over the last 20 years Russia has male suicide mortality rate of 70.6 per 100,000 male population on average, while for females it is 12.88 per 100,000 female population on average.

These heartbreakingly high ratios are urgent stimulates to go beyond the data to investigate about possible reasons that lead males to suicide.

In general, many factors and causes could be reasons behind the suicide, and as Dr. Alexandre Fleischmann says “Suicide is a complex phenomenon “. However, there must be a key reason that leads Russian men, in specific, to commit suicide more than anywhere else.

After a deeper investigation, results showed that alcohol consumption among males in Russia could be an important cause for suicide. Alcohol plays a role in lowering persons’ inhibitions , leading them to act suicidal thoughts. In addition, alcohol consumption deepens the negative emotions, increasing the chance for people to get into depression, anger, and eventually, suicide.

As show in the figure below, Russia has the highest rate of alcohol consumption among its male population globally.

Finally, our mental health and well-being is not a secondary issue to take care of. Therefore, effective strategies and raising awareness are needed to treat depression, maintain people’s psychological health, and to prevent suicide.