Suicide is the main cause of death among young adults in China, the state media said on Monday in a report that highlights the growing pressures to succeed in love, work and education in one of the world's fastest changing societies.
Increasing stress, loneliness and a lack of medical support for depression are thought to have contributed to an annual suicide toll that is estimated at 250,000 people a year.
The China Daily reported on Monday that an additional 2.5 million to 3.5 million make unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves each year. Referring a recent survey by the health ministry, the paper said that suicide was the fifth most common cause of death after lung cancer, traffic accidents, heart disease and other illnesses.
But it is most prevalent among young urban intellectuals and rural women. Exam stress, career worries and relationship problems are named as the main reasons why suicide has become the main killer of people aged between 20 and 35.
Newspapers are filled with stories of bright and wealthy college students who kill themselves because they fear that they cannot fulfill their families' aspirations. Among the most recent tragedies was the death of a student at Guangzhou University who jumped off a campus building last week.
"I'm very sorry I can not live up to your expectations," wrote the student in a farewell note.
In the first six months of the year, 14 students killed themselves in Beijing, compared with 19 in the whole of last year.
According to the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, China has 22 suicides for every 100,000 people, about 50 percent higher than the global average.
Some of those who suffer get little public sympathy, notably the 1,000-plus communist cadres who kill themselves every year after being exposed in anti-corruption campaigns. Others are ignored, particularly rural women whose suicide rate -- about 30 in every 100,000 people -- is among the highest in the world.
But political, academic and media attention has focused on depression among young urban intellectuals who are at the forefront of China's economic boom.
More than 60 percent of people surveyed in a recent two-year study of 15,431 depression sufferers were in their 20s or 30s, the China Daily said.
"Society is full of pressure and competition, so young people, lacking experience in dealing with difficulties, tend to get depressed," Liu Hong, a Beijing psychiatrist, told the paper.
Last September, the State Council issued its first mental-health policy document, aimed at targeting resources at high-risk groups and making it easier for people to receive treatment.
Since the first national suicide prevention center was established in Beijing two years ago, it has been flooded with more than 220,000 calls. But only one in 10 of those seeking support has been able to get through first time.
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