CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
background of the study
Suicide (Latin: Suicidium). It is the act of intentionally ending one's life. Suicide is a common phenomenon in the western world, but it is becoming a major public health problem, even in Nigeria. He is often engaged in despair. In the United States, about 80 suicides are committed per day, with more than 32,000 suicides per year and 1,500 unsuccessful suicide attempts per day. It is the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 18 to 65 in the United States. Suicide risk factors include, but are not limited to, family history of suicide, access to firearms, romantic breakdown, a history of negligence or abuse, and a history of intentional injury. A person can often manifest certain symptoms or behaviors before suicide occurs, regardless of age or origin, but some groups of people have a higher risk of suicide attempts. Suicides and suicide attempts often occur in people with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. Stressful life problems, such as financial difficulties or relationship problems, also play an important role in suicidal behavior. Suicide attempts are often motivated by the search for relief from guilt, shame, rejection, loneliness or loss. Suicide offers some people a way to escape misery in certain circumstances where life becomes unbearable. Some inmates of the infamous Nazi camps would have deliberately committed suicide by touching the electrified fences. In India, it was known that some indebted farmers had committed suicide to escape their unbearable debt.
The role of guidance and counselling (G/C) services among youths cannot be overemphasized. G/C services have always played a leading role in terms of child‘s development and improvement. For this reason, G/C services are sine qua non to child‘s development. Okobiah and Okorodudu (2006) highlighted that Guidance and Counselling is encompassed by activities of relevant services and also processes of helping persons within and outside the school, to achieve their full potentialities in their emotional, moral, social, academic and vocational developments. Esen (1998) says that guidance and counselling is aimed primarily at assisting the receiver to discover his own hidden strengths and ultimately grow in independence and ability to take his own decisions, make choices or adjustments unaided.
When all the above listed has been resolved, then G/C could effectively be utilized as coping strategy for inculcating the consciousness of peace, conflict resolution and national security among secondary school youths‘ in Anambra State. Thus, the present study tried to examine the relevance of utilizing effective G/C services as coping strategy for inculcating the consciousness of peace, conflict resolution and national security among secondary school youths‘ in Anambra State through effective utilization of guidance and