I couldn't believe my eyes while reading about Abhijeet Mukherjee, a graduate from the Meghnad Saha College of Engineering and Technology and working at Infosys Technology Mysore, who ended his life by hanging himself.
Mukherjee, who was already under pressure for obtaining low grade in internal examination, reportedly called his parents after re-appearing in the last paper and told them that during examination he got nervous and in spite of knowing the answers he couldn't deliver the results.
Later he committed suicide, because he couldn't bear it any more and succumbed to the fear of failure!
I wonder, how can people take such extreme steps and what are the compelling factors leading to such drastic action. And also, what can we do to avoid the occurrence of such incidents in our own circle at least.
Well, Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, told us, "stress is the reaction of the body to any stimulus or interference that disturbs mental or physical health...stress is created by what we think and how we respond emotionally rather than what has happened to us. So, the deciding factors appear to be our quality of response to a stress situation.
Why different people react differently to identical stress situation ?
Throwing some light on this issue, Ellen Brooks, MD, Virtua psychiatrist, said "People who have a personal or family history of psychiatric problems as well as those who fought in a war or experienced a traumatic event are more likely to be psychologically affected by stress,"
Does it mean that our response to stress, to a great extent, is determined by our family history or some traumatic experience in the past ?
May be, but this adaptive response triggers a situation called 'fight or flight', preparing the body either to face what it senses as a challenge, or to flee from it. Unfortunately this fleeing reaction, in some cases, leads to the extreme step of committing suicide.
What are the solutions?
I suggest, the moment you come to know about any of your beloved person going through stressful situation, first action should be to keep a watch on him until S/he comes out of the trauma.
If that person is staying with you, don't leave him alone and get help from a professional counselor as soon as possible.
If that person is staying in a different place, get in touch with his friends or neighbors around and ask them to do the same thing -- until you reach there to handle the situation.
Often we read about students committing suicide for the fear of failure, but I am sure, if we study those cases , a similar background of "unique stress reaction" would emerge and in my opinion all such extreme steps can be handled if we keep our eyes and ears open.
My suggestions to those, who may be currently going through a stressful life:
Share your feelings with family members, relatives and friends. This doesn't degrade you in their eyes rather make them happy that you felt it worth sharing your pains and sorrows with them. Trust me, most of them will extend their help to you because -- the trait of helping others is in-built in normal humans.
Never forget that you have the capacity to fight back and overcome the fear of failure. So, don't give up!
Note: Republished from old archive, with minor changes
Mukherjee, who was already under pressure for obtaining low grade in internal examination, reportedly called his parents after re-appearing in the last paper and told them that during examination he got nervous and in spite of knowing the answers he couldn't deliver the results.
Later he committed suicide, because he couldn't bear it any more and succumbed to the fear of failure!
I wonder, how can people take such extreme steps and what are the compelling factors leading to such drastic action. And also, what can we do to avoid the occurrence of such incidents in our own circle at least.
Well, Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, told us, "stress is the reaction of the body to any stimulus or interference that disturbs mental or physical health...stress is created by what we think and how we respond emotionally rather than what has happened to us. So, the deciding factors appear to be our quality of response to a stress situation.
Why different people react differently to identical stress situation ?
Throwing some light on this issue, Ellen Brooks, MD, Virtua psychiatrist, said "People who have a personal or family history of psychiatric problems as well as those who fought in a war or experienced a traumatic event are more likely to be psychologically affected by stress,"
Does it mean that our response to stress, to a great extent, is determined by our family history or some traumatic experience in the past ?
May be, but this adaptive response triggers a situation called 'fight or flight', preparing the body either to face what it senses as a challenge, or to flee from it. Unfortunately this fleeing reaction, in some cases, leads to the extreme step of committing suicide.
What are the solutions?
I suggest, the moment you come to know about any of your beloved person going through stressful situation, first action should be to keep a watch on him until S/he comes out of the trauma.
If that person is staying with you, don't leave him alone and get help from a professional counselor as soon as possible.
If that person is staying in a different place, get in touch with his friends or neighbors around and ask them to do the same thing -- until you reach there to handle the situation.
Often we read about students committing suicide for the fear of failure, but I am sure, if we study those cases , a similar background of "unique stress reaction" would emerge and in my opinion all such extreme steps can be handled if we keep our eyes and ears open.
My suggestions to those, who may be currently going through a stressful life:
Share your feelings with family members, relatives and friends. This doesn't degrade you in their eyes rather make them happy that you felt it worth sharing your pains and sorrows with them. Trust me, most of them will extend their help to you because -- the trait of helping others is in-built in normal humans.
Never forget that you have the capacity to fight back and overcome the fear of failure. So, don't give up!
Note: Republished from old archive, with minor changes
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