Suicide epidemic continues to haunt Lithuania

  • 2005-05-25
  • By Milda Seputyte
VILNIUS - Arguably the most famous video footage of Lithuania's independence movement is a scene depicting Vytautas Landsbergis standing before a half-million people, asking them if they wanted to be free. A loud response roars over the throng, and Landsbergis continues: "But it will be hard. Will you persevere?" Again a "yes" booms through the crowd.
Seventeen years later, the facts show that independence has been more taxing than Lithuanians originally thought.

The dramatic transition from a totalitarian system to an open society and market economy proved to be too big a challenge for many. The direst consequence: An average of 30 Lithuanians commit suicide per week. With a population of only 3.4 million, this is staggeringly high.

For several years now, Lithuania has had one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Approximately 1,600 people per year take their lives, which boils down to 44.1 people per 100,000 residents. The numbers in rural areas are even more dramatic 's 111 people per 100,000 residents. In comparison, the worldwide average suicide rates are 15 (overall) and 20 (rural) in Europe per 100,000 people.

Historically, this wasn't always the case. In inter-war Lithuania the suicide rate was very low. Clearly, the current epidemic is a result of the past two decades.

It is difficult to say why Poles, for instance, who live in a similar socio-economic environment and have a similar history, have suicide rates three times lower than Lithuanians. Normally a strong religious affiliation can deter those pondering suicide. But Lithuania, a predominantly Catholic country, is a notable exception. The notion that economic hardship is to blame holds little water, since countries that are even more economically deprived have lower suicide rates.

Armenia, for instance, has one of the lowest suicide rates in the world 's 1.3 cases per 100,000 's and some 47 percent of its population lives below the poverty level.

Finally, there is the theory implying that society, with all its ills and post-communist tribulations, is the underlying cause for the country's high suicide-rate, and here the statistics bear themselves out. After the inception of radical market reforms in the first years of independence, the suicide rates (per 100,000) increased from 26.5 in 1991 to 46.4 in 1996, a 74 percent rise.

Psychologists cite a so-called post-totalitarian syndrome, and it includes symptoms such as helplessness, a lack of tolerance for "different" people and a strong need to be pampered.

"It was like a good prison, where one was protected from many things. One of the 'advantages' was the fact that one did not have to think, to be responsible, or to make decisions," says Dainius Puras, a mental health expert and associated professor at Vilnius University.

"Once the prison doors were opened, it appeared that most were unprepared to live in freedom and longed for their former 'shelter.' Most people feel insecure as they do not have survival skills, coping skills or enough resilience to adapt to the new system," he says.

Independent Lithuania, in other words, is still in search of its new identity. What was once considered the "West of the East" now has become the "East of the West," which makes it difficult to get used to the new role. Moreover, the 50 years of "imprisonment" changed the nation's mentality, and people now have to learn essential skills such as individual initiative and competitiveness, long eradicated from their minds.

Indeed, the sense of being a "loser" is one of the main factors behind why people kill themselves. Fifty-year-old males, who were fully indoctrinated in the Soviet mindset, seem to have the most difficulties adapting to the new system. Little wonder, then, that their age group has the highest suicide rate in absolute terms.

Dim light for the new generation

In the beginning of April, a 17-year-old girl stood on the lower section of a river bridge in downtown Vilnius, looking down. When passers-by realized her intentions, they called a rescue crew. On that occasion, on-lookers witnessed a happy ending as rescue workers talked the girl out of her suicidal despondency.

But some 70 similar cases a year, when children raise a hand against themselves, end tragically. Over the past 10 years, the suicide rate among adolescents has increased 55.8 percent. Yet medical experts claim that the percentage of children with mental diseases such as schizophrenia is low. In other words, the destructive behavior among young adults is likely related to society's changing values.

As psychologists explain, the deeper the crisis of values in the adult world, the more "toxic" children's environment will be.

"The main values have gone awry 's a job has become more valuable than the family. Tolerance is no longer a value, and being 'different' or having a different opinion is wrong," says Robertas Povilaitis, the director of Children's Line, a psychological telephone line.

"Children don't find comfort in their families, and their problems switch to aggression," he stresses, adding that rising aggressiveness within Lithuania's children is becoming a big concern.

A World Health Organization survey on bully behavior at schools, conducted in 2002, showed that Lithuania has the highest rates in the field 's two thirds of Lithuanian children are either victims of bullying or are the abusers themselves. Harassment has become a rule in modern Lithuania, and those who do not terrorize others are now in the minority.

But society has yet to perceive the situation as a problem. For many, children picking on one another and being overly harsh does not constitute an aberration, Povilaitis explains.

"Unfortunately, government institutions still don't realize the epidemic of bullying. This is because several ministries, responsible for the implementation of a program against child abuse that has a budget of 3.2 million litas [almost 1 million euros], have dispersed only 10,000 [litas]," Povilaitis says.

Also, despite the clear need of a help line, the Children's Line receives a pittance from the state budget, even though the hot-line received some 50,000 telephone calls last year - a dramatic rise from 3,000 in 1998.

According to Children's Line, more funds are essential since some 1 million phone calls were never followed up due to the organization's limited resources.

Nevertheless, the government does allocate 250,000 litas per year to support the help-line, which, according to organizers, is just about enough to finance incoming calls. All other finances for maintaining the three Children's Line offices across the country have to be found elsewhere, from international funds or foreign embassies. As a result, each year the help line suffers from a financial crisis in the first quarter, when employment agreements have to be suspended and workers continue toiling on an altruistic basis.

What can be done?

Specialists involved in the "Lithuanian epidemic" realize that positive results can't be achieved within a short period. Some say it might take at least 20 years to change the situation qualitatively. The tragedy is that politicians are not interested in long-term preventive programs; they focus only on what can be done within the couple of years while they are at the helm.

"The treatment process seems to be a long one, and it might take a long time to recover from one of the most dangerous experiments in the history of mankind," said Puras.

Doctors claim that Lithuania has average European rates in terms of mental illnesses, so depression is a small risk factor compared to the pandemic sense of being a "loser" in society.

Theoretically, everybody seems to know what needs to be done. The problem is prioritizing.

"It's a matter of making priorities 's the investment should go into effective community-based preventive programs, socialization of children and adolescents, running crisis intervention programs 's every possible antidote against the allergic social environment," says Puras. "The government, though, takes an easier path: It prefers to finance medical treatment rather than cleaning the polluted social environment and impaired quality of life."

The health system resembles more of a drug prescription office that doesn't meet the needs of the patients. "I think that this is one of the most serious mistakes in our national health policy 's to have such a narrow and old fashioned public health strategy," says Puras.