UDON THANI – Police officers from Huai Luang Police Station, Udon Thani Province, received a report of a person found hanged in a house in Ban Huai Charoen, Nong Hai Subdistrict, shortly before noon on May 8. They went to investigate along with a doctor on duty from Udon Thani Hospital and rescue workers.
The deceased was the homeowner, Mrs. Denjai, 58 years old. Her daughter, who had just learned the news, ran crying to see her mother’s body. The German husband and twin sons stood by, looking grief-stricken.
Mrs. Gulab Srisuwan, 60, the deceased’s older sister, provided information that her sister had previously been married to a Thai man and had one daughter. Later, she married a German husband for 17-18 years and had twin boys, now 14 years old.
Initially, they loved each other, built three houses, and constructed a greenhouse to sell orchids. However, three years ago, she caught her husband secretly having a mistress in another province, which changed their family life.
Mrs. Denjai stopped working in the orchid nursery and suffered from depression, while her husband would go back and forth between the two houses. He would stay at home with the twin children for no more than a month, and most recently, he had been home for two weeks.
Mrs. Gulab said that two days ago, her sister complained to her that she no longer wanted to see her husband’s face. When she heard her husband complaining about paying her to buy medicine to treat her depression, which cost 5,000-6,000 baht per month, her sister felt even more neglected and said she no longer wanted to live. She could only console her sister, telling her to think of her children. She had never thought that her sister would actually commit suicide.
“When I arrived at my sister’s house after learning the news, I saw my German brother-in-law and my nephews trying to perform CPR on my sister, but it was too late,” said Mrs. Gulab.
Ms. Matika, 37, the deceased’s daughter, said that her mother had been suffering from depression for a long time, ever since her married life encountered problems. She had just told her mother that she was building a house that was nearly finished and would take her mother to live with her. Now, she wants to tell her mother’s spirit that she doesn’t have to worry about anything, and that she will take care of her younger siblings herself.
Based on this information, the police recorded the case with the assumption that the deceased suffered from depression. After the authorities have completed the autopsy, they will hand over the body to the relatives for the funeral rites.
According to data from the Thai Depression Knowledge Center, Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health, in February 2023, on average, only 28 out of 100 patients with depression receive treatment.
It was found that females have a higher rate of depression than males, but males have a higher rate of successful suicide. People with depression have a 20 times higher rate of successful suicide compared to the general population, and 70% of patients with depression die prematurely.
In 2021, 1.5 million Thais aged 15 and above, or 2.2% of the total Thai population of 69 million, suffered from depression. Every hour, 6 patients with depression attempt suicide, amounting to more than 53,000 people throughout the year, with around 4,000 deaths.
According to the data on successful suicide rates from fiscal years 2019-2023, the trend has increased from 7.26 to 7.94 per 100,000 population. The working-age group, aged 20-59 years, had the highest number of suicides, but the elderly group, aged 60 and above, had the highest successful suicide rate at 10.39 per 100,000 population.
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