Suicide is the act of deliberately taking one’s own life. Suicidal behavior is any action that could lead to a person’s death.

Suicide, the first cause of unnatural death in Spain

Suicide is the first cause of unnatural death in Spain . There are twice as many suicides as deaths from traffic accidents. In Spain there are 10 deaths by suicide every day. However, the rate is low in comparison with other European Union countries. Almost 4,000 people died in 2014 for this reason within the Spanish borders. 20% more incidence with respect to the data recorded in 2007 .

There are societies where it is more acceptable, such as in Japan, and others where it is less. In the countries of the South, with a strong cultural component that drinks from the Catholic religion, suicide is frowned upon.

Why does someone decide to end their own life?

Often, these people are trying to get away from a life situation that seems impossible for them to handle . In the suicide attempt they are looking for relief. They often feel ashamed, guilty or a burden on others. They feel victimized, and have feelings of rejection, loss, or loneliness. Suicide attempts often reflect cries for help.

Possible symptoms include difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly, self-destructive behavior (cutting your body, drinking too much alcohol), withdrawing from friends or not wanting to go out and/or changing eating or sleeping habits.

The psychological profile of the person who attempts suicide

These people often do not seek help because they believe nothing will help them, because they do not want to tell anyone that they have problems, because they think that seeking help is a sign of weakness.In other cases, they do not seek help because they do not know where to go for someone to come and help them. It should be taken into account that a person who is thinking of committing suicide has a personal and family history behind him/her, as well as a certain psychological predisposition . Suicide is not an isolated event, there is no single cause. It is something multifactorial.

There are triggers, but it’s clear that you don’t make the decision “just” because your boyfriend/girlfriend has left you or because you’ve lost your job. If that were the case, we wouldn’t all have tried to kill ourselves at some point. Suicide attempts can be motivated by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors . There is no profile of the person who tries to take his or her own life, and therefore it is not easy to predict suicidal behaviour.

Recidivism, one of the risk factors

One third of the people who have attempted suicide will try again within one year . 10% of the people who threaten or attempt suicide eventually take their own lives. It is not an act of selfishness or cowardice, it is the outcome of a process.

According to experts, when someone executes the decision to commit suicide (i.e., second before the action is taken), a “short-circuit” reaction occurs in the person, who could be said to suffer “transitory mental derangement” where “the survival instinct fails.

Suicide and associated mental disorders (comorbidity)

The person who decides to commit suicide does not have to show any mental disorder. However, it is true that 90% of suicide attempts are usually based on some mental disorder or some incurable condition.

1. Depression

The most common mental disorder in suicide cases is undoubtedly depression. Depression is a powerful predictor of suicide attempts and completed suicides . However, research shows that between 13% and 40% of people who commit suicide do not meet the diagnostic criteria for Major Depression Disorder.

There is evidence that the risk of suicide can sometimes increase as depression goes away. This may be because people with severe depression begin to experience improvement and a return of energy. During this period of time, called the “window period,” the patient is still depressed but has enough energy to make a suicide attempt. However, this does not mean that a deeply depressed person is out of danger.

2. Drug addiction, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder…

About 10% have other diagnoses such as substance use disorder (for example, alcoholism), schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, or bipolar disorder. Patients with borderline personality disorder, for example, either with or without depression, are twice as likely to attempt suicide as patients diagnosed with depression alone.

3. Suicides from ‘subclinical’ causes

Between 5% and 10% of people do not have any identifiable mental disorder . We assume that they probably suffer from “subclinical symptoms”, that is, they present some symptoms of one or more mental disorders but do not fully meet the diagnostic criteria.

Beyond Psychopathology: “Rational Suicides”

It has been found, however, that an undetermined number of people commit what experts have called “rational suicide” . In these cases, suicide is a decision prepared to end one’s life, often due to an incurable illness.

As final data, in l most of the cases of women with suicidal behaviors, the search to end one’s life is usually due to an affective theme . In contrast, those who die by suicide are more likely to be men, mainly older and with some mental or medical pathology. This is reflected in the statistics.

In general, men commit suicide three times more than women , but it is also known that women try to commit suicide three times more than men because they report higher levels of stress and anxiety. By this, we do not mean that they just want to get attention. This is not true. They want to kill themselves, but they don’t succeed.

The most widely used methods and systems for committing suicide

The method chosen to try to take your own life predicts the “success” of later attempts. Among the most used methods is firstly hanging (used by half of the suicides in Spain and mostly men).

The second most used method is the vacuum jump chosen by a large number of women. The third option is poisoning by substance use. The “favourite” month for suicides is June.

Suicide in the World

Suicide is an individual action, but there are countries where it is more culturally accepted than in others. For different reasons, such as economic, social and cultural ones, there are countries where the suicide rate is much higher than in others . You can check this on the following map.

A taboo subject

Suicide is still a taboo subject in our country , and in many others. It represents a failure as a system, both political, social, health, legal and even cultural. And yet we still have little data and information about it. Why does it happen? What can we do? Can it be avoided? These are some of the questions we are still trying to answer.