Four out of 10 people who make an attempt on their life are under 30 years old

Laura Poy and Carolina Gomez

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday June 19, 2022, p. 8

When Leonardo took his own life, he left us suspended in time. No one in the family thought that he could feel so bad, with such enormous anguish and pain: so alone. For most, says Paulina, his sister-in-law, he was a normal 19-year-old boy who studied, wanted to be a musician, had a girlfriend, played the guitar and was the one who sang the best at parties.

When he committed suicide, before the end of the year of 2020, the first reaction was disbelief, immense pain and defeat. We feel that we all failed him.

Every year the death by own will increases in Mexico. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported that in 2020 there were 7,896 self-inflicted deaths. A year earlier, 7,223 were reported, and in 2018, 6,808. This phenomenon is spreading more and more and official data reveals that four out of 10 suicides are under 30 years of age.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines suicide as a deliberate act, initiated and carried out by a person with full knowledge or expectation of its fatal outcome. It is a multidimensional disorder, the result of a complex interaction of biological, genetic, psychological, sociological and environmental factors.

In Mexico, the most recent figures indicate that in 2020, of the total deaths from self-harm, 278 were children between 10 and 14 years old (3.5 percent); 882, from 15 to 19 years old (11.1); 1,142 young people from 20 to 24 (14.4), and 1,151 from 25 to 29 years (14.5).

every 40 seconds

In the world, annually just over 700 thousand people commit suicide. It is estimated that every 40 seconds someone takes their own life, and 77 per cent of deaths from self-harm occur in low- and middle-income countries. The most common methods are hanging, use of firearms and ingestion of chemical substances.

Dr. Diana Tejadilla Orozco, director of the Mental Health Care Model of the Ministry of Health (Ssa) and coordinator of the National Suicide Prevention Program, points out that death by will is a public health problem in Mexico, but it is 100 percent preventable.

In the past two decades, he explains, the suicide rate increased by 275 percent, and every year it increases alarmingly.

In 2021, the incidence was 6.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, when in previous years data from 5.2 to 5.3 were reported. In emergency contexts, such as the covid-19 pandemic, he adds, there is an increase in mental health problems, but they also become more evident.

Inegi data indicate that deaths from self-inflicted injuries represent 0.7 percent of deaths nationwide. By gender, men have a rate of 10.4 per 100,000 inhabitants (6,452), while for women it is 2.2 (1,436).

Thus, in Mexico, the population between 18 and 29 years of age has the highest incidence of suicide, with 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people; it is followed by the group of 30 to 59 years, with 7.4 deaths. The states with the highest rate of deaths of this type per 100 thousand inhabitants are: Chihuahua (14), Aguascalientes (11.1) and Yucatán (10.2). In contrast, Guerrero, Veracruz and Hidalgo have the lowest rates.

We didn’t see the signs

Almost two years after his death, Paulina considers that Leonardo could have received help to prevent his outcome. But we didn’t see the signs. As a family it has taken us a long time to recognize that locking yourself in your room for hours was not normal. She gradually isolated herself from the family and we did not perceive that it was a sign of alarm. Her door went from being always open to being locked. Today I cannot tolerate that my children close the doors, I feel terror.

▲ In the country, four out of 10 suicides are under 30 years of age. In the image, a scene outside the Fray Bernardino Álvarez Psychiatric Hospital.Photo Marco Pelaez

And Tejadilla Orozco affirms in turn: It is not that we suffer from suicide or suicidal behavior. When we have the intention of death is when suicidal behavior begins, that is, thought, ideation, fantasies and attempt.

He adds that the first risk factor is a previous attempt. It is known that the most susceptible day for a person to seek a self-inflicted death is right when they left the hospital after having had the attempt. A close follow-up must be given in the first 72 hours, with calls, messages and even visits, and thus the danger decreases by 50 percent.

The specialist specifies that prevention, long before reaching a crisis, is the key. It is about working with young people so that they can detect their anxiety, what they feel and listen to them.

Dr. David Hernández Guzmán, a psychologist at the Mental Health Unit of the Juárez Hospital in Mexico, points out that attempts to kill oneself are similar in men and women, with a slightly higher trend in men.

The most important difference is the lethality of the attempt. They use methods such as hanging and firearms, which by the nature of the action are more likely to cause death.

They, on the other hand, use chemical substances, medicines or poisons that do not always cause death. In addition, women go more to mental health services, talk about what they feel, make use of their own support networks, such as friends and family, while the man represses himself and, in the long run, commits the impulsive act when his Emotions are beyond your ability to control.

pioneer program

Almost two years ago, a group of experts developed the National Program for Suicide Prevention, which made Mexico a pioneer in the field. We are the first nation in the region to have a public strategy to prevent suicidal behavioraffirms Tejadilla Orozco, which allows the standardization of detection, evaluation, diagnosis, level of risk and treatments.

He explains that among the five priority axes is training, for which 10,000 health workers have been instructed to detect cases from the first level of care. They are psychologists, social workers, nurses and doctors. Even, he points out, administrative staff, in order to identify the signs of suicidal behavior.

Community brigades have also been created, the Emotional Support Groups (GAE), with which the psycho-emotional education of the population is promoted, which allows recognizing the signs prior to developing a mental pathology that can lead to ending one’s own life.

Paulina reflects that suicide It doesn’t end with the one who left. It is an indelible mark that hurts and fractures, but it also gives you an opportunity to rebuild yourself and identify in others when there is pain, loneliness and reach out to them. It makes it clear that you should ask for help, because no family is immune, it can happen to anyone if they feel there is no way out.