Tag: suicide

  • India’s Shami opens up about having suicidal thoughts before comeback

    India’s Shami opens up about having suicidal thoughts before comeback

    India fast bowler Mohammed Shami has revealed how he thought of committing suicide while struggling with personal problems before making a spectacular comeback to the national side.

    Shami battled weight issues, injury and a legal quarrel with his estranged wife before a stellar performance at the World Cup last year re-established the 29-year-old as a key player.

    With cricket and sports halted in the coronavirus lockdown, Shami opened up about his own and his family’s fears to teammate Rohit Sharma during an exchange on Instagram.

    “I think if my family had not supported me back then I would have lost my cricket. I thought of committing suicide three times during that period due to severe stress,” said Shami.

    “I was not thinking about cricket at all. We were living on the 24th floor. They were scared I might jump from the balcony.”

    With Virat Kohli

    Shami’s contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was withheld in 2018 because of allegations of domestic violence, only to be reinstated later.

    The bowler also struggled with injury that saw him spend nearly a year on the sidelines, leading to weight gain. He said his family and friends helped him bounce back.

    “My two or three friends used to stay with me for 24 hours (during my days of depression). My parents asked me to focus on cricket to recover from that phase and not think about anything else,” he said.

    “I started training then and sweated it out a lot at an academy in Dehradun.

    “Then my family explained that every problem has a solution no matter how big the problem. My brother supported me a lot.”

    A lean and hungry Shami made a strong comeback in the Indian team at the 50-over World Cup. He took 14 wickets in four games including a match-winning hat-trick.

    Shami has claimed 180 wickets in 49 Tests and 144 scalps in 77 one-day internationals since making his debut for India in 2013.

    Last year Shami led the pace pack in the absence of yorker king Jasprit Bumrah and claimed 13 wickets during India’s 3-0 home Test sweep of South Africa.

    Skipper Virat Kohli heaped praise on the fast bowler, saying, “he is someone who can change the complexion of the match totally when you don’t see it coming”.

  • Reddit announces new tool to prevent suicide

    Reddit announces new tool to prevent suicide

    Almost 800,000 people commit suicide every year, which makes a fatality rate higher than wars, cancer or homicide, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

    In view of the aforementioned staggering figures, Reddit — an American social news aggregation website — has announced a new tool for suicide prevention by teaming up with Crisis Text Line — a global not-for-profit organisation providing free confidential crisis intervention.

    According to the details of the service that will be effective from March 10 this year, it will allow users to report those, who they believe are at risk, so that Reddit can provide them with prevention resources.

    The reported user will get a private message with suicide prevention resources and a recommendation to text ‘CHAT’ to 741741 — the number for the Crisis Text Line.

    Once the Reddit user has reached out to the text line, a trained crisis counselor will be available for support.

    This is not the first time a social media platform has offered to provide suicide prevention help. as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat also have pages listing global suicide prevention resources.

  • Boy sets himself on fire after father bars him from using TikTok

    Boy sets himself on fire after father bars him from using TikTok

    A teenage boy set himself on fire after his father advised and stopped him making TikTok videos. 

    As per reports, the boy from Arifwala near Pakpattan tried to commit suicide by setting himself on fire after his father constantly stopped him from recording Tiktok videos. The boy was shifted to a nearby hospital in critical condition.

    TikTok is a video-sharing social networking application that is used to create short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos.

    Last year in December, the teenager was accidentally shot dead while recording a video with his friends in Sialkot’s Kharota Syedan area.

    The 16-year-old boy, identified as Ammar Haider was using a pistol to record a TikTok video with his two other friends. Allegedly, the trigger of the pistol was accidentally pressed and the bullet hit Ammar’s stomach, which caused his death.

    TikTok has over 500 million active users worldwide. The app had already crossed 1 billion downloads last year.

  • [GRAPHIC VIDEO] Sindh youngster live streams suicide on Facebook

    [GRAPHIC VIDEO] Sindh youngster live streams suicide on Facebook

    A young man from northern Sindh’s Ghotki town has committed suicide while streaming it live on Facebook, a video doing rounds over the internet, revealed on Tuesday.

    In the six-minute stream, the youngster repeatedly announces that he was going to kill himself after his relationship did not work out. He then gives a message to his family and friends in Sindhi.

    “I can’t bring myself to do this,” he can be heard as saying while weeping and adding that he could not see a way out of his pain.

    “Friends, if I have made any mistakes, please forgive me” are his last words.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The deceased’s body was shifted to Mirpur Mathelo District Headquarters Hospital by the police.

    While Facebook is yet to take the video down, the case is the first of its kind in the country.

    FACEBOOK LIVE & VIOLENCE:

    The live video streaming feature on Facebook became publicly available in January 2016 and anyone with a Facebook account can access it at the top of their news feed, simply by selecting “Live Video” from the dropdown menu.

    A three-second countdown begins before the user can begin filming live, and anyone can watch if they have selected the audience as public and not just for connected friends. Facebook Live broadcasts can last up to four hours.

    To report a Facebook Live video as inappropriate, you can click the scroll down menu in the top right of the post and then click “Report Post” or “Report Photo” and follow the instructions.

    Earlier this year, the company was forced to scrub more than 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand mosque massacre, which was live-streamed by the shooter.

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had vowed in April 2018 that the company would work toward thwarting the spread of violent content; however, it has continued to struggle to monitor instances of bloodshed and self-harm.