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  3. Flirting with Suicide The death of an Australian

Flirting with Suicide The death of an Australian

游客2023-07-29  30
问题                            Flirting with Suicide
    The death of an Australian boy’s dream
    The life of David Woods was the stuff of an Australian boy’s dream. He played professional rugby league football in a country that treats athletes as idols. At the age of 29, he had a loving family, a girlfriend, a 3-month-old baby, plenty of money, everything to live for. And, for unfathomable(高深莫测的)reasons, nothing to live for. On New Year’s Day, Woods ran a hose from the exhaust pipe to the window of his Mitsubishi sedan and asphyxiated(使窒息)himself. His family still has no idea why. One day he called his mother to announce that he had signed a new contract with his team, Gold Coast, recalls his elder brother, Tony. "Twenty hours later," says Tony, "he gassed himself to death."
    The death of David Woods came as a wake-up call to Australia, which is often touted as the ideal place to bring up kids. But the sun, the beaches and the sporting culture are the cheery backdrop to a disturbing trend: young Australian men are now killing themselves at the rate of one a day -- triple the rate of 30 years ago. Though most Australians aren’t particularly suicidal, their boys are. In 1990 suicide surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death among males aged 15 to 24. Funloving Australia is now far worse off than Asian nations known for strict discipline. The yearly suicide rate for young Australian males is 2 times higher than in Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore. It’s a "picture of despair, despondency and aimlessness," says Adam Graycar, director of Australia’s Institute of Criminology.
    A hard struggle for Australian youth
    Why boys? A nation of wideopen spaces and rugged individualism, Australia still lionizes(把…捧为名人)the film star Gary Cooper model of masculinity: the strong, silent type who never complains, who always gets the job done. In recent years schools and social institutions have concentrated on creating new opportunities and more equality for girls — while leaving troubled boys with the classic admonition(告戒) of the Australian father: pall yourself together. It’s past time to take a much closer look at the lives of young men, some researchers argue. "People think, ’My kids aren’t doing drugs, my kids are at home, my kids are safe’ ," says psychiatrist John Tiller of Melbourne University, who studied 148 suicides and 206 attempts in the state of Victoria. "They are wrong."
    The Haywards, a comfortably well-off family in Wyong, north of Sydney, figured they were dealing with the normal melodramas(传奇剧)of troubled teenhood. Their son Mark had put up a poster of rock star Kurt Cobain, a 1.994 suicide victim, along with a Cobain quote: "l hate myself and I want to die." "From the age of 12, Mark had his ups and downs — mood swings, depression and low self-esteem," says his father, Stuart, a tax accountant. The Haywards sent Mark to various counselors, none of whom warned that he had suicidal tendencies. By last year Mark was 19, fighting bouts of unemployment and a drug problem. He tried church, struggling to "do the right thing," says his father. Last September Mark dropped out of a detoxification(戒毒)program, and apologized to his parents. "I have let you down again," he said. A few days later, his mother found Mark’s body in bushland near their home.
    In retrospect, Mark Hayward’s struggles were far from uncommon. The number of suicides tends to keep pace with the unemployment rate, which for Australians between 15 and 19 has risen from 19 percent in 1978, the first year data were collected, to 28 percent last year. Suicide is especially high among the most marginal: young Aboriginal(澳大利亚土著的)men, isolated by poverty, alcoholism and racism. As in other developed countries, Australian families have grown less cohesive (聚合在一起的) in recent years, putting young men out into the world at an earlier age. Those who kill themselves often "think it will make it easier for the parents by not being there," says Liz Brunsdon, whose 21-year-old son, Dean, hanged himself three years ago. In fact, she says, Dean’s death "threw our family apart because each of us suffered so much that we couldn’t help each other."
    The deeper mystery is why the universal anguish of growing up should have such particularly devastating effects in Australia. One answer is that the country allows easier access to guns than most other developed Asian nations. (One exception is neighboring New Zealand, where guns are as easy to find, and the suicide rate among young people is even worse.) Australian boys tend to end their lives violently by shooting or hanging. Girls, by contrast, often take an overdose of drugs, and are more often rescued.
    Increasing concerns
    Educators now hope to teach adults to recognize youths troubled by suicidal depression and alienation. That is no easy task in a society that generally avoids introspection(内省). "Good services do exist in Australia," says child psychologist Marie 13ashir, but "the Australian philosophy is: pull your socks up. Get out and play more sport. ’
    To get Australia’s attention, psychiatrist Tiller wants the government to sponsor a shock advertising campaign, similar to one that portrays the pain and guilt felt by survivors of people killed in drunkendriving accidents. The ads should make people aware of the threat, and urge them to get help for young men at risk, says Tiller: "We need to teach boys to express themselves. We need to pick them up at 5 years old to prevent a problem in 15 years. ’
    The rising death toll has just begun to force suicide onto the nation’s political agenda. Suicide now takes more lives than murder or AIDs. Brendan Nelson, a physician and backbencher in Parliament, recently called for the creation of a National Office for Young People to report to the prime minister on youth concerns. Slowly, Australians are overcoming the old fear of talking openly about a problem that has long been considered taboo. "We have one young person every day ending his life and possibly another four who are not reported as suicides but are killing themselves," says Clyde Begg of the Australian Community Research Organization. "Now, if we don’t talk about that, we are derelict(不负责任的)in our duty."
    Be brave to speak it out
    Tony Woods is talking now, but he wasn’t always. The brother of the football player who gassed himself to death, Woods says he tried to take his own life at the age of 17 by slashing his wrists with a carving knife after breaking up with a girlfriend. Woods has made it his mission to warn other boys that they may find themselves on the same dangerous path taken by his brother, David. Among other things, he plans to bring professional football players into schools to urge boys to seek counseling for their personal problems. "Boys can’t communicate what they feel," says Woods. "They are socialized to be hard, tough, independent men who don’t show their feelings. We need to tell them: ’You are worthwhile. Seek help’. "It is the kind of simple advice, Tony Woods now believes, that his brother never heard. [br] Tony Woods is talking now and considers it ______ to prevent other young Australians from taking the same dangerous path taken by his brother.
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答案 his mission
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