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Backpage: The stubborn recession has been taking a toll on Israelis in more than purely economic ways.
Ina Friedman
In the first four months of this year, 10 people took their lives due to severe economic difficulties. Four of them were flower growers, a particularly hard-hit occupation (see Judy Maltz, page 42). In April alone, four Israelis -- including two teenagers -- killed themselves out of guilt or despair over their families� dire economic straits.
Prof. Vered Slonim-Nevo, chairman of the Department of Social Work at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and of the Be�er Sova Society -- which runs a restaurant for the needy -- believes that at the heart of such desperation is the perceived isolation of those who are newly plunged into economic hardship. And she suggests a creative means for citizens stricken by the recession to help pull themselves out of the pit.
The Jerusalem Report: The recession has been going on for over two years. Why have the suicides picked up lately?
Vered Slonim-Nevo: These are people who have not been living in a state of chronic poverty. They�re middle-class citizens who were always able to pay their bills and give their children a good education but suddenly found themselves in a financial tailspin, either because they lost their jobs, or their businesses began failing, or the rising cost-of-living simply outpaced them.
At first they could use their savings to keep up mortgage payments and the like. But when these were depleted, they began falling into debt, with the banks and their creditors on their backs. In situations like this, people don�t know who to turn to, and they sink into a state of hopelessness.
Yet Israel has certainly known very hard times in the past. Does the resort to suicide signal that something has changed in the national character?
What�s changed is not the national character but the span of the social gaps in Israeli society. In the past, almost everyone here was in the same boat, economically speaking. They lived modestly in small apartments or houses -- without luxury goods or vacations abroad -- and made ends meet on their salaries. Today, the social gap has widened drastically. And when a man sees his neighbor making 10 times his salary, while he�s forced to count pennies, the contrast only aggravates his sense of stress.
Psychologically speaking, is there a difference between people who have become unemployed for objective economic reasons and the self-employed who blame themselves for their failed businesses?
The natural tendency, even among those who have been fired from jobs through no fault of their own, is to blame themselves. And that can lead to depression and suicide, which is violence against oneself, rather than directing one�s feelings outward -- at employers or the government -- out of a deep sense of failure.
Is the security situation exacerbating such psychological distress?
If the whole nation is in a funk, that can have an exacerbating influence. But the real problem is an individual�s sense of spiraling downward. And people usually feel ashamed to talk about this. They pretend that everything�s going along fine, so others are usually not aware that they�re in great turmoil.
That�s why it�s so important to talk openly about the recession and the hardship it inflicts -- first of all, so people understand that unemployment or financial setbacks are not their fault and there�s no shame in them, but also to share their plight honestly with their relatives, friends and especially their children, who can be a great source of emotional support. A teenager who committed suicide last month [15-year-old Lior Almaliah, a national judo champion] thought he was a "burden" on his mother, when he was actually the light of her life.
If the recession lingers, will the sense of depression and radical action become contagious?
We sometimes see suicide becoming a trend, especially among teenagers. But what�s more likely to happen is a worsening of social problems like violence in the family, substance abuse and crime, along with a rise in the incidence of depression and physical illnesses. (We know that chronic stress has direct effects on one�s health.)
Unfortunately, there�s also going to be a cutback in social services now. Who can people turn to?
Even after the budgetary cutbacks, people can turn to community social and welfare facilities or their HMOs for psychological counseling. But I believe the most important thing is to create grass-roots support and self-help groups, the kinds of services that go beyond addressing needs on an individual basis. Because no Israeli is facing this problem in isolation, however much it may seem that way to depressed individuals.
Initiatives like this certainly won�t come from the government.
They should, but the system is already overburdened. Yet people can do this on their own. Imagine a group of unemployed people who not only meet regularly, with their families, as a support group, but also do their purchases together, as a kind of cooperative, in order to save money -- or develop a self-help network based on bartering their services, from babysitting to professional advice. They could even enter into joint economic ventures, like establishing a company to clean offices.
If people do that alone, they may feel humiliated. But if they do it together, as family and friends, the work has a very different feel to it. The point is to come out of one�s isolated corner, rise above one�s shame, and remove the stigma that way.
May 19, 2003
Israel
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