Don’t be afraid to talk about suicide in your family

Do not be silent

José García Riera, doctor psychiatrist minor child, full professor of Paidopsychiatry at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of Rosario (UNR), with more than 40 years of experience, was categorical: “What is hidden cannot be prevented.”

Although he admitted that in recent years more has been talked about this issue is “essential” that at the public and political level “it ceases to be something bypassed”. As the WHO says “Suicide is the silent pandemic”the professional thinks.

For psychiatrist Lucas Raspall, lecturer and writer, “The first point is to start talking because in this veil, in the difficulty of dealing with an obviously difficult subject, it is that difficulties arise for those who cross this cloud, this moment, and who has no one willing to listen to them or to listen to them “.

“The key to prevention is attentive listening. And the other, to banish myths. The first is that which indicates that talking about suicide can sow the idea in a person”, underlined the doctor, adding: “No one who talks about suicide is going to install the idea in someone who hasn’t had it before. For this reason, if one opens, allows, listens, if he asks, he tells this other that he understands his pain, that he understands what is happening to him. “

Specialists, meanwhile, have detailed that there are risk factors and warning signs.

What signs to watch out for

García Riera referred to an alert program that, as a professional and academic professor, works with his medical students. He also pointed out that the UNR adheres to September 10 as World Suicide Prevention Day where it is promoted “Create hope through action”.

The alert levels to which García Riera referred are classified with the colors yellow, orange and red (he specified that these are indicators synthesized to organize certain alert levels) in boys, adolescents and young people.

Yellow: they start to evoke the idea of ​​suicide through certain information; they have a bad parental image (little parental presence, little dialogue, distance); a high level of activity but poor academic performance; for young people the lack of professional integration is a fact to be considered; consumption of raw alcohol; personal neglect (clothing, daily care); increased irritability; increased anxiety; alterations in feeding rate; changes in cultural tastes and strong adherence to certain urban tribes.

“When we are in front of these signs, we have to start investigating”said the doctor.

Orange: antisocial behavior; deprivation (suspension) of the emotional; impulse self-control deficit; a conflicting family environment with negative attitudes; cyclothymic trait with tendency to depression; alcohol and other drug use _ because they will modify an already sensitive and vulnerable neurochemistry and the chemistry of the brain can intensify towards certain behaviors with greater risk_.

Red: depressive symptoms such as apathy, inhibition, anhedonia (loss of interest in pleasant things and in any other activity in life, demotivation); greater intensity of psychotic symptoms such as persecution and hallucinations.

During puberty and adolescence, an infantile depressive reaction to the loss of a parent may be observed, for example. It is also important to be mindful of boys and girls who have been sexually abused.

Also consider a family history of suicide.

How to act?

Fear is crippling and denial is never a good counselor. If we notice that a son, nephew, brother, partner, father, mother, is going through a complex moment where the idea of ​​suicide appears clearly or secretly, but we realize it, it is time to speak up and ask for help.

If the person refuses a consultation with a psychiatrist, the family or close friend can do so as a guide.

The Pan American Health Organization, for example, advocates “helping people who are considering or affected by suicide share their stories and seek professional help.”

García Riera stressed that it is very important “seek the help of a specialist because in addition to the underdiagnosis, an overdiagnosis can also appear”.

In case of emergency or inability to immediately access a psychiatrist, it is advisable to contact the nearest health center which has staff trained in mental health.

In Rosario there is the service of Agudo Avila Hospital (Suipacha 667) and the Paidosychiatry Chair of the Faculty of Medical Sciences has an extension service that provides assistance but does not have a service of emergency.

Bullying and Cyberbullying

Raspall paid particular attention to bullying and cyberstalking (physical or psychological harassment of a boy, teenager or young person in person or via social media) as a disease of our time that can cause a person to thinking about committing suicide.

“These are very powerful triggers for someone to start brooding over the idea of ​​suicide”, he pointed out.

He also focused on those who have drugs and weapons on hand in their homes. You have to be very careful about this.

“Usually there is a first phase of desperate search for help, but then you see this person throw in the towel. In any case, it is appropriate to ask, to speak, ”insisted the psychiatrist.

Pandemic risks

For his part, García Riera said that the pandemic leaves deep traces on the mental health of the population and that deeper problems began to be felt 6 months after the arrival of the Covid, and much more a year and a half .

“There is an aggravation of the images without treatment. This happened both in terms of the management of physical and psychological problems, ”he said.

“We see that symptoms of anxiety have been encouraged, particularly in adolescents. There are also more pictures of phobias for fear of getting sick yourself or someone more vulnerable in the family. “

Given the consequences of the Covid epidemic, job losses, the increase in intra-family conflicts, the resounding change in the lives of many adolescents (lack of contact with peers, lack of face-to-face school attendance, of connections, constant problems at home), the number of sudden deaths, the levels of guilt that exist in people who have been the vehicle of contagion from someone who has had a fatal end “It is urgent that health systems take care of it” and noted, “This is not to be apocalyptic but to observe this reality and do something about it.”