Flirt with Suicide The life of David Woods
was the stuff of an Australian boy’s dream. He played professional rugby league
football in a country that treats athletes as idols. At 29, he had a loving
family, a girlfriend, a 3-month-old baby, plenty of money, everything to live
for. And for inexplicable reasons, nothing to live for. On New Year’s Eve, Woods
called his mother to announce that he had signed a new contract with his team,
Golden Coast, recalls his elder brother, Tony. The next morning,, he ran a hose
from the exhaust pipe to the window of his Mitsubishi sedan (轿车) and gasses
himself. His family still has no idea why. The death of David
Woods came as a wake-up call to Australia, which is often voted as the ideal
place to bring up kids. But the sun, the beaches and the sporting culture are
the cheery backdrop to a disturbing trend: Young Australian men are now killing
themselves at the rate of one a day — triple the rate of 30 years ago. Though
most Australians aren’t particularly suicidal, their boys are. In 1990 suicide
surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death among males aged 15 to 24.
Fun-loving Australia is now far worse off than Asian nations known for strict
discipline. The yearly suicide rate for young Australian males is 2.5 times
higher than in Japan, Hong Kong, or Singapore. Possible Causes for
Suicide Why boys A nation of wide-open spaces and rugged
individualism, Australia still idolizes the film star Gary Cooper model of
masculinity: the strong, silent type who never complains, who always gets the
job done. In recent years schools and social institutions have concentrated on
creating new opportunities for equality for girls — while leaving troubled boys
with the classic command of the Australian father: pull yourself together. It’s
past time to take a much closer look at the lives of young men, some researchers
argue. "People think, ’My kids aren’t doing drags, my kids are safe at home’,"
says psychiatrist John Tiller of Melbourne University, who studied 148 suicides
and 206 attempts in the state of Victoria. "They are wrong." The
Haywards, a comfortably well-off family in Wyong, north of Sydney, figured they
were dealing with the normal problems of troubled teenhood. Their son Mark had
put up a poster of rock star Kurt Cobain, a 1994 suicide victim, along with a
Cobain quote: "I hate myself and I want to die." "From the age of 12, Mark had
his ups and downs — mood swings, depression and low self-esteem," says his
father. The Haywards sent Mark to various counselors, none of whom warned that
he had suicidal tendencies. By last year Mark was 19, fighting bouts (回合) of
unemployment and a drug problem. He tried church, struggling to do the right
thing. Last September he dropped out a detoxification (戒毒) program, and
apologized to his parents. "I’ve let you down again." A few days later, his
mother found Mark’s body in bush-land near their home. In
retrospect, Mark Hayward’s struggles were far from uncommon. The number of
suicides tends to keep pace with the unemployment rate, which for Australians
between 15 and 19 has risen from 19 percent in 1978, the first year data were
collected, to 28 percent last year. Suicide is especially high among the most
marginal: young Aboriginal (土著的) men, isolated by poverty, alcoholism and
racism. As in other developed countries, Australian families have grown less
cohesive in recent years, putting young men out into the world at an earlier
age. Those who kill themselves often think "it’ll make it easier for the parents
by not being there". The deeper mystery is why the universal
anguish of growing up should have such particularly devastating effects in
Australia. One answer is that the country allows easier access to guns than most
other developed Asian countries. (One exception is neighboring New Zealand,
where guns are as easy to find, and the suicide rate among young people is
worse.) Australian boys tend to end their lives violently — by shooting or
hanging. Girls, by contrast, often take an overdose of drugs, and are more often
rescued. Efforts to Tackle Suicide Problem
Educators now hope to teach adults to recognize youths troubled by
suicidal depression. That is no easy task in a society that generally avoids
introspection (反省). "Good services do exist in Australia," says child
psychiatrist Marie Bashir, but "the Australian philosophy is: pull your socks
up. Get out and play some sports." To get Australia’s attention,
psychiatrist Tiller wants the government to sponsor a shock advertising
campaign, similar to one that portrays the pain and guilt felt by survivors in
drunk-driving accidents. The ads should make people aware of the threat, and
urge them to get help for young people at risk. The rising death
toll has just begun to force suicide onto the nation’s political agenda. Suicide
now takes more lives than murder or AIDS. Brendan Nelson, a physician and
backbencher in Parliament, recently called for the creation of a National Office
for Young People to report to the prime minister on youth concerns. Slowly,
Australians are overcoming the old fear of talking openly about a problem that
has long been considered taboo. "We have one young person every day ending his
life and possibly another four who are not reported as suicides but are killing
themselves," says Clyde Begg of the Australian Community Research Organization.
"Now, if we don’t talk about that, we are neglecting our duties."
Tony Woods is talking now, but he wasn’t always. The brother of the
football player who gassed himself to death, Woods says he tried to take his own
life at the age of 17 by slashing his wrists with a carving knife after breaking
up with a girlfriend. Woods has made it his own mission to warn other boys that
they may find themselves on the same dangerous path taken by his brother, David.
Among other things, he plans to bring professional football players into schools
to urge boys to seek counseling for their personal problems. "Boys can’t
communicate what they feel," says Woods. "They are socialized to be hard, tough,
independent men who don’t show their feelings. We need to tell them: You’re
worthwhile. Seek help... We need to teach boys to express themselves. We need to
pick them up at 5 years old to prevent a problem in 15 years." It is the kind of
simple advice, Tony Woods now believes, that his brother never heard.
(1,086 words) ______ will be one of the political initiatives taken to tackle the suicide problem in Australia.