Talking about it and discussing suicide can make the difference between life and death for a suicidal person.

Talking about suicide can be an opportunity for people to analyze their self-destructive intentions, but above all it can mean changing a possible catastrophic ending. Most of the time we are afraid to talk about it or we think that talking about suicide may motivate it, but the opposite is true. These moments can make the difference between life and death for a suicidal person, according to Dr. Mirlán de los Santos, psychiatrist and medical manager of the Hospital Metropolitano de Santiago (HOMS), who spoke to DL on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day.

What should be taken into account when a person is going through a situation in which the idea of suicide may be part of his or her picture?

The first thing is that a person always gives notice of his or her intentions, even if it is not verbal. Sometimes they write it down, other times they only let it be visualized, that goes against the myth that people have that the person who is going to commit suicide does not give notice. We can find it later in a notebook, in a voice note, in a greeting to someone or even, nowadays, young people are uploading it to the networks. The other element is that suicidal behavior is neither selfish nor courageous, it is linked to a high degree of suffering; in other words, behind the person who commits suicide there is neither cowardice nor courage, what there is is a high degree of suffering and suicide is seen as a door to find relief from that emotional pain with which the person is dealing.

The emotional suffering of the suicidal person is not voluntary, it is not enough to have willpower to overcome it, it requires professional and environmental care. He needs containment, that is extremely important because most of the time, when you talk to a person who has been in the depths of depression with suicidal ideation, what he rejects the most is the phrase ‘do your part’, ‘you have to make an effort’, ‘make an effort’. All this is information that we have as a myth, but at the same time what it does is to increase the suffering of those who have the situation.

How to help?

Let’s listen and we can make an improvement in the likelihood of suicide. The other element that we have to take into account is the following: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), at present, we have a record that says that every 40 seconds a person commits suicide. Over 800,000 people a year, about one million people commit suicide per year. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among 15-29 year olds.

Preventive measures

“Risk factors do not always lead to suicide, many people with risk factors do not commit suicide, but it is extremely important for those of us who address this issue to have these risk factors at the forefront in order to take preventive measures. There are very few countries that have suicide prevention programs, and I think we are in a definite debt to reduce it. According to the WHO, only 38 countries have a suicide prevention strategy. I understand that we are needing to increase that. Since 2014 the WHO has been proclaiming, through the work it has been presenting, the warning that suicide is a global situation and it is essential that health systems respond to a global health situation”, emphasizes the physician.

Risk Factors