It appears that in Japan, which has greater restrictions on theraputic drugs than the US, the suicide rate is much higher.

According to the article, the number of suicides in the US and Japan is roughly the same each year, but the population of the US is around 275 million whereas the population of Japan is closer to 126 million.

(That means a higher rate per capita in Japan than in the US.)

Is this what LRH meant when he said dispose of them quietly, and without sorrow?

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/japan010904_suicide.html Quiet Desperation Japan Suffers High Rate of Suicides, But Restricts Therapeutic Drugs TOKYO, Sept. 4 - Mostly it's the men who do it, quietly and almost always alone. And being Japanese, they don't allow themselves to talk about it. They'd rather die.

Last year, more than 31,957 people killed themselves in Japan, one of the most affluent and advanced societies in the world.

They didn't die of plague, or starvation or natural catastrophe; they died because they just couldn't stand to live any longer, and following the stern rules of their culture they didn't ask for help.

The figures for 2000 reflect a slight decrease of 1,091 from the previous year but still, an average of almost 100 people kill themselves every day. There are higher rates in other countries, but none with such a high level of economic and industrial development.

The United States has about the same number of suicides as Japan annually, but Japan has a total population of 126 million compared to the United States' 275 million.

Almost three-quarters (71 percent) of the suicides last year were Japanese men.

This doesn't surprise Dr. Tia Powell, an American psychiatrist trained at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, who now lives and works in Tokyo. She told ABCNEWS.com that in her experience in Japan, suicide is almost always the result of depression, which may or may not be linked to outside events, like losing a job.

Ironically, with new advances in medicine, depression is now relatively treatable.

Fighting Tradition But there is a tricky aspect to getting a depressed person in Japan the help that he or she needs. In Japan, mental illness is still commonly defined not in terms of "chemical imbalance" or "illness" ?

but in the much more shameful terms of "weakness."

And for Japan's men, admitting such a "weakness" is generally unthinkable. Rather than ask for help, they hang themselves, or jump in front of trains ? this century's lonely versions of ritual suicide.

Japanese women who want to die sometimes choose death by drowning, or they overdose on medication.

Looking for Lifelines Another factor is Japan's health system and its prevention of the sale of anti-depressants, which for years have been routinely prescribed in the West.

Prozac, which is widely used throughout the world, has not been approved for use in Japan. Neither has the popular Zoloft. Paxil was only recently allowed.

Japan's health system provides low-cost treatment to all, but local clinics used by most people are staffed by doctors lacking training in, or unwilling to diagnose, depression.

Clinical psychologists are not allowed to examine patients independently of of general practitioners.

"Mental-health problems have not been considered as important as physical problems, so the status given to psychology professionals has accordingly been low," Yoshitaka Otsuka of Japan's Certification Board for Clinical Psychologists recently told Newsweek magazine.

Powell says the Japanese government could do a lot more to educate the public about depression and these new and available treatments. She believes the old days of doctors telling troubled and miserable Japanese patients that they should just go home and "forget" about their problems are, if not completely over, at least coming to an end.

There are several telephone "life lines" now available to help the desperate.

And Powell says something new, and considered locally as almost revolutionary, is now gaining ground; Japanese companies offering counseling at work, for employees who want help.

This simple step may not sound like much to Americans, who see no stigma in seeking professional help if they feel they need it.

But in Japan, where "face" is everything and "losing face" is shameful, getting help is a major undertaking only a handful of Japanese are pursuing.

From: Dave Bird <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Restrictions on theraputic drugs yields higher suicide rates
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 02:55:23 +0100
Organization: Smelling--nose Dogs for the Anosmic
Message-ID: <5qP8faALetl7Ewp4@xemu.demon.co.uk>
In article<b5e0ee5.0109040744.a5e77f6@posting.google.com>, Not 4UToKnow <throwaway222000@yahoo.com> writes:

>It appears that in Japan, which has greater restrictions on theraputic
>drugs than the US, the suicide rate is much higher.
>According to the article, the number of suicides in the US and Japan
>is roughly the same each year, but the population of the US is around
>275 million whereas the population of Japan is closer to 126 million.
>(That means a higher rate per capita in Japan than in the US.)
That makes the suicide rate in Japan is double that of America.

>
>Is this what LRH meant when he said dispose of them quietly, and
>without sorrow?
There are of course a number of factors which produce a higher rate of suicide. It is always worth looking side-by-side at the murder rate: murder is lethal violence turned outside at others, suicide turned inwards against self. Murder/suicide is generally a condition of young adulthood. Where there are fairly usual gender roles, women tend to turn aggression inwards and males outwards.

You should look for.....

(1) A cruel society which doesn't care for all its members, usually measured by the difference in income between rich and poor.

America is very high in cruelty/inequality compared to most of Europe, and high in lethal violence: but much more murder than suicide.

(2) A crushing, infantile, conformist society --- Japan. Some key observations. There seems to be a great obsession with expressions of violence, films etc can be much more violent even than America.

What you see is suicide not murder among males as well as females:

the rate is about twice as high because the males who would commit murder elsewhere commit suicide here. Actually MORE males, because it's a life not fit for a dog which many males can's stand.

Crudely speaking, to the extent western societies subordinate and teach them to turn aggression inwards, Japan crushes EVERYONE of both genders into extreme subordination turning aggression inwards.

It is a society which is both cruel AND anti-individual.

(3) Further expressions of cruelty AND not valuing the individual are a lack of help, "nobody to turn to -- you have to pull yourself together or die." Many take the "or die" who might have been helped.

This is expressed also in the lack of adequate medication for depression: the weak don't deserve help, let them die. Also cultural attitude to suicide may be a factor... There is some traditional approval for suicide as honourable [probably also from anti-individual attitudes], where in western countries it is seen as being a loser.
(4) There is another factor you will see strongly in some country comparisons. Quite simply as we get north past the temperate zone with short winter days, there are more suicides like-for-like but not more murders. This is because short day length can itself induce depression in a large part of the population which, if untreated, can lead to suicides.

>
>http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/japan010904_suicide.html
>
>Quiet Desperation
>Japan Suffers High Rate of Suicides,
>But Restricts Therapeutic Drugs
>
>TOKYO, Sept. 4 - Mostly it's the men who do it, quietly and almost
>always alone. And being Japanese, they don't allow themselves to talk
>about it. They'd rather die.
>
>Last year, more than 31,957 people killed themselves in Japan, one of
>the most affluent and advanced societies in the world.
>
>They didn't die of plague, or starvation or natural catastrophe; they
>died because they just couldn't stand to live any longer, and
>following the stern rules of their culture they didn't ask for help.
>
>The figures for 2000 reflect a slight decrease of 1,091 from the
>previous year but still, an average of almost 100 people kill
>themselves every day. There are higher rates in other countries, but
>none with such a high level of economic and industrial development.
>
>The United States has about the same number of suicides as Japan
>annually, but Japan has a total population of 126 million compared to
>the United States' 275 million.
>
>Almost three-quarters (71 percent) of the suicides last year were
>Japanese men.
>
>This doesn't surprise Dr. Tia Powell, an American psychiatrist trained
>at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, who now lives and works in Tokyo. She
>told ABCNEWS.com that in her experience in Japan, suicide is almost
>always the result of depression, which may or may not be linked to
>outside events, like losing a job.
Depression is triggered by chemical conditions in the brain which arise because the person has either (a) been under more stress, i.e. pressures they can't relieve or escape, than they can take;

or (b) been subject to a physical wound or illness driving a very high immune response.

>
>Ironically, with new advances in medicine, depression is now
>relatively treatable.
>
>Fighting Tradition
>
>But there is a tricky aspect to getting a depressed person in Japan
>the help that he or she needs. In Japan, mental illness is still
>commonly defined not in terms of "chemical imbalance" or "illness" ?
>but in the much more shameful terms of "weakness."
>
>And for Japan's men, admitting such a "weakness" is generally
>unthinkable. Rather than ask for help, they hang themselves, or jump
>in front of trains ? this century's lonely versions of ritual suicide.
>
>Japanese women who want to die sometimes choose death by drowning, or
>they overdose on medication.
>
>Looking for Lifelines
>
>Another factor is Japan's health system and its prevention of the sale
>of anti-depressants, which for years have been routinely prescribed in
>the West.
>
>Prozac, which is widely used throughout the world, has not been
>approved for use in Japan. Neither has the popular Zoloft. Paxil was
>only recently allowed.
>
>Japan's health system provides low-cost treatment to all, but local
>clinics used by most people are staffed by doctors lacking training
>in, or unwilling to diagnose, depression.
>
>Clinical psychologists are not allowed to examine patients
>independently of of general practitioners.
>
>"Mental-health problems have not been considered as important as
>physical problems, so the status given to psychology professionals has
>accordingly been low," Yoshitaka Otsuka of Japan's Certification Board
>for Clinical Psychologists recently told Newsweek magazine.
>
>Powell says the Japanese government could do a lot more to educate the
>public about depression and these new and available treatments. She
>believes the old days of doctors telling troubled and miserable
>Japanese patients that they should just go home and "forget" about
>their problems are, if not completely over, at least coming to an end.
>
>There are several telephone "life lines" now available to help the
>desperate.
>
>And Powell says something new, and considered locally as almost
>revolutionary, is now gaining ground; Japanese companies offering
>counseling at work, for employees who want help.
>
>This simple step may not sound like much to Americans, who see no
>stigma in seeking professional help if they feel they need it.
>
>But in Japan, where "face" is everything and "losing face" is
>shameful, getting help is a major undertaking only a handful of
>Japanese are pursuing.


__ __ -- Regards, \\'___//' the MAD COW does Prozac:

XEMoo.Moo.Moo .;'\_/ \`'\_/__ (cow by P.Kistner <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk> \___ (x)\ /(x)} <upgk@sunyit.edu>) _______________________________/ :--' ____________________________ http://www.xemu.demon.co.uk/ \_ `__\ --[I'm going for slaughter soon,] \___(o'o) [but, y'know, I can't complain] :--:-+

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