Suicide; Why Do People Choose It?

A young boy of about 17 years had a minor disagreement with his parents and the following morning his lifeless body was found dangling from a cord tied to the ceiling fan in his room. A suicide note was neatly tucked under his pillow and read in part “I decided to end it all and have peace since you never believe in me and would not allow me have peace…”

But what is suicide?
Suicide is the act of killing oneself, or the act of taking one’s own life. Terrible! Isn’t it? But what could make a teenager contemplate it at such a tender and promising age? Several factors actually contribute to one using suicide as a way of solving one’s problem or as a way of trying to escape from them. Some of these contributory factors include:

1.Rejection: Some people, having suffered from rejection either from parents or from friends see suicide as a way of ending it all. Most people who use this method of trying to escape from the problem of rejection are people who are from broken homes, whose parents went their own ways leaving them in the care of either their grand parents or their aunts/uncles. They eventually feel completely rejected by their parents and decide to end their lives.

2.Shame: This is one of the greatest reasons for suicide. Having been involved in an act that is so shameful e.g. stealing, adultery, etc some people decide to end their lives since they cannot stand the shame such act has brought. Others could be as a result of some shameful health problem such as epilepsy, or even sexual failure/impotence.

3.Failure: Failure in marriage, academics, business, dating, landing a job, etc could make one conclude he can never succeed in life and instead of living a life devoid of success the best option they conclude, is to take their life.

4.Hard drugs: drugs are capable of causing a distortion in the individual’s reasoning process, making him do what ordinarily he would never contemplate. An individual who is under the influence of drug is capable of doing any unreasonable and unthinkable thing including suicide. Suicide is contemplated when provoked while under the influence of the drug, or as a result of frustration due to failure or inability to obtain the drug at a particular time.

5.Terminal disease: Living in pain due to a terminal disease could be so traumatizing, and fed up with their emotional, psychological or mental pain, some decide to suffer no more by taking the option of suicide as a way of stopping further pains. Some of the terminal conditions that can make one think of suicide include Liver cirrhosis, aplastic anaemia, cancer of the bowel, cancer of the lungs, leukemia, sickle cell disease, HIV/AIDS, etc.

6.Psychiatric illness: Suicide is very common in people suffering from one form of psychiatric illness or the other. Notable among such psychiatric illnesses are Depression, Schizophrenia, etc

7.Loss of fortune: Loss of estate, business, dear one, personal property, etc can also make one think of ending one’s life due to frustration or loss of hope of ever regaining what has been lost.

8.Poverty: Poverty/Penury is one thing nobody ever wishes to experience – one is unable to afford three quality meals daily, unable to properly clothe oneself and one’s family, unable to pay children’s school fees, can’t afford decent accommodation, and sometimes one is victimized or oppressed. Passing through harrowing experiences for a long time could make one think of a way of ending everything.

9.Discrimination: Discrimination of whatever type could bring emotional and psychological stress which could eventually culminate in suicide.

However, it should be noted that suicide does not actually solve a problem; it is rather the cowardly way of trying to escape from it. The best way to solve a problem is to face it squarely and deal with it. The word of God makes it clear that murderers shall go to hell fire (Matt.5:21-22, Exodus 20:13, Deut.5:17). Suicide is murdering oneself and when one takes that option he invariably takes the option to go to hell fire. Avoid it for it does you no good.

Criminal Record; What Is It?

Every second a crime is being committed somewhere in the world and every second too somebody gets convicted for one form of crime or the other. The rate or frequency with which this occurs varies from country to country. Some countries are relatively calm and quiet while some others are volatile and prone to crimes.

Criminal record therefore, is the record of a person’s criminal history. This record may be of crimes committed recently or in the distant past. It does not matter whether the records are old or new, what is important is that there is a record kept in the database or archive of the state or country which can be referred to should there be any need. Meaning that the criminal history of an individual can easily be researched at any time it is needed by individuals, institutions, state or the nation.

Why keep criminal records?
Keeping a criminal record enables the state to understand or keep a track record of past criminal behaviours of individuals, whether they have at any time in the past be convicted of any crime, and also to be able to predict their tendency to commit more crimes in the future. This also enables the state or judiciary to determine or differentiate a habitual criminal from one who has just committed a crime for the first time, and know how to plead on their behalf when arraigned before the court of law.
Furthermore, keeping a criminal record ensures that criminals are not appointed into sensitive public positions such as the office of the finance minister, Accountant General, minister of defence, or other positions that require trust and probity. Employers also use this record to recruit men of proven character for their companies; they are saved the pain of employing people with questionable character and those that cannot be trusted with confidential records/files or public funds.

Criminal record also helps to prevent ex-convicts from contesting elections and be voted into public offices. In several countries ex-convicts are not allowed to contest in an election; so having criminal records will enable the state or political parties to filter out those who have dented records.
It also helps reduce the rate of crime. When people know that whatever crime they commit would dent their image and prevent them from enjoying certain privileges they will do everything humanly possible to abstain from crimes. This invariably brings to the barest minimum the rate at which crimes are being committed.

Sources of criminal records
Criminal records can be gotten from the following sources: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), the federal bureau of prisons, family watch, court records, police records, Nationwide Criminal Records website, Public record Finder, Integra scan, Criminal Records search engines, Neighbourhood Watch (criminal searches), free public information, etc.

Though some states’ laws require you inform the person involved before carrying out a background check on him, some others make it easier by passing laws that allow access to sources of information concerning individuals’ criminal records. The laws of the state or country must be respected when you want to run a criminal record check on an individual.

It should be noted that not all crimes committed by an individual and entered into records are capable of preventing such persons from seeking public positions or being employed by reputable companies (e.g. misdemeanour). However, the following crimes can make it very difficult or impossible to seek positions of public trust – Sex offenses (e.g. Rape), theft, burglary, murder, fraud/embezzlement, serious traffic crimes, armed robbery, impersonation, forgery, tax evasion/tax dodge, assassination, arson, drug trafficking, gun running, hijack, kidnapping, carjacking, treason, assault and battery, etc

When next you are tempted to commit a crime remember there’s criminal record and that yielding to such temptation may dent your reputation for life. Run away from crimes and enjoy life and freedom to the fullest.

How To Succeed In Your Career

Success is sweet and everyone wants to succeed in his/her chosen career; but success does not just come on a platter of gold, it has to be worked out. Getting to your desired goal or destination in life depends on how you map out your journey and how well you stay focused to see that your goals are achieved.

Success, they say, has many parents but failure is an orphan. Therefore, no one wants to be a failure and live in isolation or be intentionally segregated by friends and family. Having made up your mind to succeed there are steps you must take to achieve your desired goals irrespective of the area of life you choose to follow. There are no areas that are entirely bad; what is needed on your part is the determination or the zeal to be the best of what you want to be. The following steps should be judiciously followed if you are to make it in your Endeavours.

1.Acknowledge your weakness: The first step to success is to acknowledge your areas of weakness and your areas of strength. In other words, you should know the areas where you are not good and you are aware that toeing such path would lead you to failure. Also know your areas of comparative advantage. What edge do you have over your peers, friends or competitors? Where are you doing better, maybe in your academics, crafts, or talents? Find out things you do easily and very well without struggling.

2.Determine to succeed: Determination is one of the greatest ingredients to success. You may have an area of comparative advantage, or you may not even know where you have an edge but determination to make it in whatever sphere you have chosen can propel you toward success. If you have all the other ingredients but lack determination, any slight distraction or challenge can make you loose your steam and drop out.


3.Stay focused: Once you have made up your mind on the direction you want to go, you must maintain your focus and never drift from one plan to another. If you allow people to persuade you to leave your chosen career you may never make it and sometimes you end up in a place where you will never be happy because you are convinced that you are in the wrong place. Once you make up your mind resist all influences – peer pressure, or parental indoctrination and move ahead in your line of conviction.

4.Make research: Find out if there are prospects in your chosen area e.g. if you decide to work in a particular company and develop your career there, what prospects have you to develop your career further? What are the possibilities of rising in your position in the next few years? Would your impact ever be felt? Do you have the possibility of making any input as far as the decision making process is concerned? If there are no such possibilities look for a place where you can advance to a higher level in the future. Also find out if the kind of profession you wish to go into has any societal value or recognition. Don’t just study any course for the purpose of acquiring a university degree, but think of what impact you can create in the society with your degree. Think of taking professional courses such as Engineering, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Accountancy, ICT, etc. The other areas you could also think of are theater arts, music, fine arts, sports, etc. While you do your research find out areas you can easily establish on your own with little resources should there be no job or loans from banks. You should develop a career that makes you less dependent on people, government or companies before you can make a headway in life.

5.Associate with successful people: Make friends with people who have succeeded in the same profession you wish to go into or similar professions. Find out what they did right to come out with such great success. Even associate with those who have made it in business or managerial positions. Success does not come in isolation; it comes most times by influence. When you tap from their knowledge you add it to your resources and you come up with something tangible and worthwhile.


6.Take action: When you have gathered all necessary information the next thing you should do is take action. Information without action is useless; it is like a piece of computer with the latest software but is never powered for people to make use of. It is your action that co-ordinates all the information for a purposeful achievement. Make up your mind and take a bold step toward bringing your dreams to reality. Unless you move into action your dreams remain within you and would never materialize for the world to see.

7.Take stock: Having taken action and you have moved in the direction you dreamed of, take time to take stock. Find out if you are achieving your dreams. Find out if you are at the place you hoped to be at a particular time in life. Check your results; find out areas where you need to improve; check what principles had worked for you and the ones that never worked.


8.Repeat your success: When you determine the principles that gave you positive results repeat them over and over again. Discard the useless ones and build more on the ones that would keep bringing positive results for you. You discover that each time you set targets using the same working methods you will always achieve your desired goals and dreams.

Drug Abuse And Drug Dependence: The Differences

Drug use has certain terms which have been mistaken by so many people to mean the same thing. The truth of it is that they are not the same and there are features that set them completely apart. These features when fully understood enable us to distinguish between the terms.

Drug Abuse: This is the inappropriate use of a drug, other than the legitimate medical purpose especially the psychoactive ones. Simply put, it is the use of drugs without a doctor’s prescription. So many drugs can easily be abused because of easy access to them, especially ‘over the counter’ drugs. For example, when one walks into a patent medicine store demanding for tab paracetamol or an antibiotic capsule, tablet, injection, syrup or pessary without a written prescription from the physician and without full knowledge of the dosage, side effects, contraindications, drug interactions, indications, etc of the drug he is requesting for, he is practising drug abuse. Even though he understands the dosage but as far as these drugs are not prescribed by a medical doctor he is abusing them. Drugs that are commonly abused include pain killers, anti-pyretics, anti-inflammatory, topical drugs, eye drops, suppositories, aerosols, etc.

Drug Dependence: it is a state of periodic or persistent intoxication, detrimental to the individual, to society or both. Drug dependence is characterized by the following:
1.A strong desire, drive, need or compulsion to continue the use of the drug.
2.Physical and emotional dependence on the drug.
3.The development of tolerance and as such the tendency to increase the dosage in order to produce a desired effect.
4.There is withdrawal syndrome when the drug is stopped.

These afore-mentioned characteristics differentiate drug dependence from drug abuse as in drug abuse there is no strong desire, drive or compulsion to continue the drug; the drugs are only taken for the purpose of curing an ailment though may sometimes be wrongly applied.

Some of the drugs of dependence include Narcotics, opiates such as morphine, heroin; amphetamines, cannabis sativa (Marihuana, hashish), cocaine, volatile substances such as premium motor spirit (petrol), tube parching fluids, etc. These drugs have the capacity to alter the individuals’ psychosocial pattern of life and make them detrimental to themselves as well as to the society at large. They affect negatively the individual’s thought process and make them commit crimes they would naturally not commit – Rape, robbery, murder, suicide, etc.