Isa Shakhmarli, chairman of Azerbaijan Free LGBT, a Baku-based gay rights advocacy group, was found dead on Wednesday after leaving a suicide note, Tengri News reports:
In an emotional farewell note, Shakhmarli asked friends to let his mother know he loved her and said that he had left the door to his flat open. "I am leaving. Forgive me for everything. This country and this world are not for me," Shakhmarli wrote in a message to friends on the social networking site Facebook. "You are all guilty for my death. This world cannot handle my true colours. Goodbye," the message said.
A video posted onto an Internet news site showed medics at the scene trying, and failing to resuscitate
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| Gay Rights Activist Isa Shakhmarli commits suicide |
Vugar Adigozalov, a close friend and former colleague of Shakhmarli at the gay rights organisation, told AFP that his family had difficulty accepting his sexuality.
Shakhmarli was 20.
Much like actor Lee Thompson and rapper Freddy E, who both committed suicide last year--the tragic ending to their lives is sad and in all cases unexpected.
So many people of color, people of non-European descent believe that suicide is a "white person's issue," but research is proving this out of date theory to be wrong. Suicide rates in the black community are on the rise, especially among young black men. Due to our religious upbringing blacks are taught to rely on God, pray, and everything will be okay. We are made to believe that those who seek professional help are weak, but that notion could not be further from the truth.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among African American males between the ages of 15 and 24, behind homicide and accidents. Also, suicide death rates of black men are also five times that of black women.
Here are some facts about mental health and African-Americans:
- Poverty level affects mental health status. African-Americans living below the poverty level, as compared to those over twice the poverty level, are four times more likely to report psychological distress.
- African-Americans are 30 percent more likely to report having serious psychological distress than whites.
- Whites are more than twice as likely to receive antidepressant prescription treatments as Blacks.
- However, the suicide rate for African-Americans is generally lower than that of the white population.
- A report from the U.S. Surgeon General found that from 1980 to 1995, the suicide rate among African-Americans ages 10 to 14 increased 233 percent, as compared to 120 percent of whites.
Some researchers believe that environmental stressors play a factor. In a 2008 article about this issue, The Root.com reported:
Young black males live in some of the most-difficult circumstances in our society; the data show that black men go to jail, drop out of school and are victims of crime at rates far higher than their white counterparts. Moreover, young black males are more likely to live in more challenging family environments. Sixty-eight percent of all black households are single-parent households — pointing to an absence of male role models for young boys.
The combination of family stress, violence in their communities and the discrimination they face is taking a toll. Some mental health specialists argue that the rates may even be higher. Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that "death-by-cop" incidents should be counted as suicides. He believes that some despondent young men intentionally break the law so someone else will kill them.According to WebMD, here are some warning signs that someone is contemplating on committing suicide:
- Always talking or thinking about death
- Clinical depression — deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble sleeping and eating — that gets worse
- Having a "death wish," tempting fate by taking risks that could lead to death such as driving fast or running red lights
- Losing interest in things one used to care about
- Making comments about being hopeless, helpless or worthless
- Putting affairs in order, tying up loose ends, changing a will
- Saying things like "it would be better if I wasn't here" or "I want out"
- Sudden, unexpected switch from being very sad to being very calm or appearing to be happy
- Talking about suicide or killing one's self
- Visiting or calling people to say goodbye
[TOWELROAD]