Depression Strikes: About 100,000 Chinese Teenagers Die by Suicide Every Year

Statistics from The Economist show that China's youth suicide rate is already the highest in the world. Every year about 100,000 Chinese teenagers die by suicide; every minute two people commit suicide and six more attempt it. Suicide has become the second leading cause of death among Chinese adolescents, second only to accidental injury. Since China implemented the one-child policy, annual births have ranged between 18 and 25 million, yet the annual number of teenagers taking their own lives has reached as high as 100,000, which is deeply distressing.

According to a report by People's Daily on September 11, the National Health Commission recently issued the Work Plan on Exploring Special Services for Depression Prevention and Treatment. The plan requires all senior high schools and institutions of higher education to include depression screening in students' routine health examinations; all health check-up centers must add emotional state assessment to their examination packages; and screening for perinatal depression must be incorporated into routine prenatal check-ups and postpartum visits.

More than 20 years ago, when I was in college, students with mental health problems were scolded by teachers as morally corrupt. That is how backward our country was in the field of mental health back then. More than 20 years later, depression has become common among Chinese teenagers, and the youth suicide rate keeps climbing.

The fast pace of social development has brought crushing pressure from study, work and life, leaving more and more people overwhelmed. After the COVID-19 outbreak this year, even more people slipped into depression; grassroots social workers spend much of their time handling residents' "post-pandemic syndrome." We have learned a great deal of knowledge and skills, but we were never taught how to fight depression and anxiety.

Along with social development, China's disease spectrum has changed dramatically. Depression has been listed as one of the major epidemics and imposes a heavy medical burden. The next decade will be the peak period for depression in China; it is estimated that by 2030 the medical burden caused by depression will rank first among all diseases.

Not only ordinary people suffer from depression, but even many professional doctors do. Depression imposes not only a heavy economic burden on the family but also puts other family members under intense mental strain, because caring for and accompanying a depressed patient is exhausting.

When we see a red light on the road, we stop, because we know stopping at a red light is safer. Yet sadly, when humankind faces major social problems on its path of development, few people are willing to stop. China's alarmingly high youth suicide rate is linked to the country's model of social development.

Social surveys show that Chinese people are under intense mental repression, and China's social system and education model stifle individual personality. To change the depressive state of Chinese residents, remedies must be found in social mechanisms; social responsibility should be sustained by social institutions, not by personal virtue.

Few people can rise above their environment and remain independent. We cannot expect every member of society to be psychologically strong enough to escape environmental influence, nor can we turn a blind eye to social problems. Depression screening is important, but even more important is reducing the incidence of depression at the root. We must create more relaxed conditions for young people to grow up, and provide a social environment with a higher happiness index for all citizens.

At the end of his novel White Horse Neighs in the Western Wind, Louis Cha has Li Wenxiu say: "Those things were all very, very good, but I simply did not like them." Whatever social blueprint or life ideal we construct, we should ask whether it is what people genuinely like. Our next generation expressing their dislike by throwing away their lives is the greatest negation and irony of the blueprint we drew for them and of all we have done for them.