[image description: photo of Big Bang member Daesung]

Video from Healing Camp with Daesung and G Dragon, first half of show, english subtitles

In 2011, Daesung of Big Bang was involved in a car accident which resulted in another person’s death.  In interviews, he’s been quoted saying that he contemplated suicide in the aftermath (1, 2).

Due to the heavy stigmas against suicide and mental illness (which I will outline in this article), it is very brave of Daesung to come forward with these statements.  I hope that his honesty in the situation helps others to realize that there is no shame in feeling helpless or in seeking help.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

Here are some facts:

• Among OECD countries, Korea has the highest suicide rate (10x that of Greece, which has the lowest rate) (1)
• In contrast to most other OECD countries, women are much more likely to commit suicide than men in Korea (1)
• Between 1995 and 2009, suicide rates among men rose from 17 to 39 per 100,000 people. (1)
• Korean women have the highest suicide rates of any other women in the OECD, at 20 per 100,000(1)
• Between 2006 and 2010, the number of South Koreans being treated for depression rose by 17%.  The number of people being treated for bipolar disorder rose by 29%.  Those in low socioeconomic groups were most likely to be affected. (1)
• Suicide is the second-most common cause of death in South Korean teenagers (2)
• 202 South Korean college students took their own lives in 2009, a 47% increase from the previous year (2)
• More than 40 South Koreans take their own lives every day (3)
• In 2010, 146 students between the ages of 6 and 18 took their own lives (4)
• In 2010, approximately 71% of teenage deaths were attributed to suicide (4)
• Experts estimate that these numbers only account for 10% of attempted suicides (4)
• Suicide is the leading cause of death among those in their 20’s and 30’s, and the fourth leading cause of death overall (following cancer, stroke, and heart disease) (5)
• In the month following actress Choi Jin-sil’s death, suicide rates in South Korea increased by 70%, resulting in 700 more deaths during that time than would be expected. (5)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

According to this article:

Kang-ee Hong, a child psychologist, says that over the past 40 years, South Korean parents have abandoned traditional values in favour of one single goal.

“From the beginning of childhood, the importance of money and achievement are emphasised by their parents, so they feel that unless you are successful in school grades and a good job, good prestigious college, you’re not successful, and the parents behave as if ‘you’re not my child’,” Dr Hong said.

Even young children typically work from early morning until late at night, and often at weekends too, to get into the best university they can and eventually secure a well-paying job. The pressure is intense, and the routine relentless - for years on end.

Dr Hong says that, for parents, the pressure to push their children even harder has led to them overcoming the stigma of going to a psychiatrist. But, he says, they often come for the wrong reasons.

They come to me to help their child work harder, he says, “to have better grades by being treated for ADHD (Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder) - because the school performance is so important”.

However, to account for suicides among people of all ages, one must take other cultural factors into account:

The OECD report attributes the rise to “weakening social integration and erosion of the traditional family support base for the elderly,” as well as a fast-changing economy over much of the period. Lee Min-soo, professor of psychiatry at Korea University College of Medicine, supports this view. The high rate of suicide is the result of “social changes that the country’s fast economic development brought and a culture that did not adapt to them.”

As recently as the 1960s, South Korean society was steeped in rural traditions and Confucian family values, with three generations often living under the same roof. Gross domestic product per capita was on a par with the poorest countries in Asia or Africa. In the decades since, South Korea has embarked on a process of political and commercial freedom and high-tech industrialization that has made it one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But at the same time as this “economic miracle” has swept the country to greater riches, many traditional social structures have broken down, with smaller families, rising house prices, the end of lifelong employment, fierce competition for the best jobs and rising alcoholism. The government reports the divorce rate almost tripled between 1989 and 2009, and the size of an average Korean household dwindled rapidly from the multigenerational homes of earlier years to less than three people per household now. “It is the price we pay for such unsustainable fast economic development,” says Dr. Lee.

The suicide problem has also been linked with the Korean concept of “han,” a kind of stoicism also tied to feelings of anger and impotence that arise when facing a situation that can’t be changed. Han, deeply embedded in Korean society, has been linked to depression. “When a situation is bad and they can’t show their cool selves, Koreans tend to get frustrated, give up and take drastic choices,” says Hwang Sang-min, a professor of psychology at Yonsei University.

These cultural traits may be exacerbated by the stigma that many South Koreans attach to mental illness, says Kang Do-hyun, who teaches psychiatry at Seoul National University Hospital. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Health, suicide ranks fourth among causes of death for Koreans overall—after cancer, heart disease and stroke—and is the most common cause of death among those in their 20s and 30s (in the U.S., traffic accidents are the biggest killer for this age group.)

Yet South Korea’s overall health-care spending lags behind that of other OECD countries (only Turkey and Mexico spend less as a proportion of gross domestic product, according to the OECD.) South Korea generally falls behind in mental-health treatment, lying near the bottom of the OECD’s rankings in the number of psychiatrists per capita.

This article urges us to remember that elevated suicide rates are historically not unique to Korea, pointing to several factors (such as the economic crisis and rapid industrialization) that lead to increases in suicides regardless of the culture in which they occur.  This article underscores this point, while also blaming South Korea’s taboo on suicide and mental illness:

Still, it remains a taboo here to admit to feeling overwhelmed by stress. The word “psychiatry” has such a negative connotation that many leading hospitals have created departments of “neuro-psychiatry,” in the hope that people perceive care as medical treatment and not as a public admission of character failure.

Before he hanged himself last month, Choi Jin-young had been struggling with serious depression, his friends told reporters. But they said he refused to consider psychiatric treatment.

“This is the dark aspect of our rapid development,” said Ha Kyooseob, a psychiatrist at Seoul National University College of Medicine and head of the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention. “We are unwilling to seek help for depression. We are very afraid of being seen as crazy.”

Denial extends to relatives of suicide victims. Recent attempts by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and suicide prevention groups to interview the families of those who kill themselves have produced little cooperation.

“When we go to the families and ask questions about why it happened, they say to us, 'Do not kill him twice,’ ” Ha said. “We have tried to interview hundreds of families, but we have only been allowed to talk to a few of them. If one is dead from suicide, everything is a secret.”

This article talks about South Korean celebrity suicides, specifically the 2009 suicide of actress Ja Yeon-Jang, which she allegedly blames on sexual exploitation perpetuated against her by 31 different people in the industry.  It came out later that three other female members of Ja’s agency (including previously-mentioned Choi Jin-shil) committed suicide while under contract with that agency.  This article gives a brief overview of recent cases of abuse of Korean celebrities.  This is very relevent, as it was previously illustrated that celebrity suicides lead to an overall increase in suicide in the general populace.

Recently, Russian Roulette by SPICA was banned by MBC for containing lyrics that potentially promoted suicide.  While the ban seemed silly to some, in light of the suicide statistics in South Korea, I can see why networks would be sensitive to the issue in an effort to avoid adding to the problem.