Suicide in Sri Lanka

It’s a widely-held belief that Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world: The
World Health Organization (WHO) actually ranks Sri Lanka’s suicide rate as the highest.
Numbers compiled annually by the Sri Lanka Police’s Division of Statistics show that the suicide
rate has actually fallen by 70 percent since the mid-1990s.
Sri Lanka’s suicide deaths stood at an all-time high in 1995, according to police records, with a
rate of 57 per 100,000 people.
They started rising in the 1960s and 1970s and academics and health advocates at the time
pointed to the introduction of highly hazardous pesticides as the culprit.
That’s because attempting suicide by pesticide poisoning, which was very available in largely
agricultural Sri Lanka, was more likely to result in fatality.
The Registrar of Pesticides initially banned the toxic chemicals parathion and methyl parathion
in 1984. The move quickly slowed the exponential growth of suicide deaths, police records
show.
That initial ban was followed by bans of five more highly toxic pesticides in 1995 and another in
1998. Three more pesticides, dimethoate, fenthion, and paraquat, were banned between 2008 and
2011.

Seeking help
People going through psychological distress often feel completely alone. But mental
health advocates urge people to pick up the phone and ask for help. One of the most
visible help-lines in Sri Lanka is Sumithrayo. The organization was founded over 40
years ago and offers free over the phone, face-to-face, and online counselling.
The main objective of this is to help them to cope with those feelings. After they’re
comfortable they talk about what the victim can do to help themselves and empower
them to cope with their situations.”

Some people turn to suicide because they are struggling with mental illness. Symptoms of
depression and warning signs of suicide can include “changes in sleep or appetite, lack of interest
in daily activities, fluctuations in mood, substance abuse, talking about killing themselves and
giving away possessions.
Attempting to suicide is not always a sign of mental illness, that is a misconception. But the most
people in their life time may have thought about suicide – that does not mean they have a mental
illness.