LE018 Treasuring and Valuing Life
Treasuring Life
Lin Lin (pseudonym) was overwhelmed with emotional turmoil and she tried committing
suicide at home by burning charcoal in 2001. Unable to endure suffocation by the
charcoal smoke, she saved her own life by the charcoal pot. However, the toppling over
incident led to a raging fire that destroyed her home as well as that of her neighbours.
Lin Lin was 17 when she gave in to her suicidal impulse. She felt depressed, the agony
greatly exacerbated. When her life was endangered, she prompted to rescue herself.
These recent episodes of youth suicides have triggered public concern. Some students
chose giving up their life after failing academic tests and others did likewise when their
attempts to cheat in school examinations were uncovered. Public reactions to these
incidents have ranged from sympathy to the criticisms about the weaknesses of youth
these days and their inability to overcome defeats in life.
Yet, those who made such allegations were probably prejudiced. In fact, the ratio of
youth suicide is no higher than that of adult’s. So one cannot say that young people are
particularly weak or vulnerable. The Central Health Education Unit, Health Department
has pointed out that the problem of youth suicide can be traced to personal and family
problems, combined with the lack of a support network, pressure of everyday life or longterm exposure to mental or health problems.
Adult similarly encounter these problems and how they handle them varies from
individual to individual too. The common experience of suicidal adult and youth is that
they all require concern and support from others to help them get over their problems.
The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, a suicide prevention group, pointed out in her
annual report that it received 7,500 phone calls in seeking help 2001, of which 870 were
from desperate callers aged 19 and below. They constituted 11.5% of the total number of
callers. This ratio shows that youth with suicidal intentions account for only about 10%
of the total number of suicidal callers. Nevertheless, their problems of emotional distress
and suicidal tendencies cannot be overlooked.
(Hong Kong Newspaper 2002/10)
Topic:
Life Event:
Themes:
Values/Attitudes:
Education Areas:
Rewrite-012
Treasuring Life
Treasuring and Valuing Life
Personal Development and Healthy Living
Perseverance
Life Education