The number of suicides in Spain continues to increase: 4,003 people took their lives in 2021

• How to help a person who has thought about taking their own life What are the warning signs?

  what should we never do?

• Survivors The complicated grief after a death by suicide, fight against pain, stigma and loneliness

Spain continues adding record numbers of extreme suffering: 4,003 people took their lives in 2021,

, according to data released today by the

(INE).

It is the first time that the barrier of 4,000 deaths has been exceeded.

Suicide is the leading cause of external death in Spain, a death that in the vast majority of cases is preventable with help.

In its death report 'Death Statistics by Cause of Death', the INE also offers provisional data for the first half of 2022 and the upward trend is unfortunately the same:

The last annual report, already with an all-time high for deaths in these circumstances, placed

who could not continue in 2020, 11 every day.

It is estimated that each suicide leaves a devastating emotional impact on at least six other human beings around them.

Associations and telephone numbers that offer help

drop down

-In the event of an imminent vital emergency, call the emergency telephone number

directly .

-If you have suicidal ideation

- Telephone of Hope: 717.003.717.

- Suicide Prevention Telephone (Barcelona): 900.92.55.55.

-Telephone/Chat ANAR to Help Children and Adolescents 900 20 20 10

- Phone Against Suicide- La Barandilla Association (Madrid): 911.385.385.- PREVENSUIC: Smartphone application aimed at family members, professionals and people at risk.

- Papageno 633 169 129 supervivientes@papageno.es

-The Yellow Girl Association

-P81 Social Association

-APSAV.

Association for Suicide Prevention.

Green Hugs.

Asturias.

- AFASIB (Family and Friends Suicide Survivors of Les Illes Balears (Balearic Islands)

-AIDATU.

Basque Suicide Association

- APSAS: Association for the Prevention of Suicide and Aid to the Survivor.

(Gerona)

- APSU: Association for the prevention and support affected by suicide (Valencian City)

- ASAM: (Burgos).

- BESARKADA-Hug: Navarre.

- BIZIRAUN: Basque Country

-BIDEGUIN: Basque Country

- After the Suicide: (Barcelona)

- Alaia Foundation (Madrid)

- Metta-Hospice Foundation (Valencia)

- Goizargi: Navarre

- Group Survivors of León.

- There is Exit, Suicide and Duel: (Cantabria)

- Ubuntu (Seville)

- Light in the dark Association (Tenerife)

-Volver a Vivir Association (Tenerife)

There is usually no single cause that leads a person to take their own life, but several factors tend to come together.

The most frequent are having had a

, suffering from major depression or another mental disorder, drug use, a family history of suicide, violence or sexual abuse, suffering from a serious physical illness and having hopelessness or impulsive or aggressive tendencies.

Circumstances of great emotional stress such as a separation, death, loss of money, housing, work or situations of harassment or discrimination can act as

.

Social

is one of the main protection shields against suicide.

Suicide prevention series 'Eleven Lives'.

X-ray of suicide.

: more deaths, greater risk among young people and a growing but insufficient effort in prevention

• Drafting: YAIZA PERERA

• Writing: INFOGRAPHIC: GABRIELA GALARZA Madrid

: more deaths, greater risk among young people and a growing but insufficient effort in prevention

Emergency teams.

Words, gestures and listening against suicide: "To help well you have to touch the pain"

• Drafting: SANTIAGO SAIZMADRID

• Writing: DANIEL IZEDDIN (VIDEO)

Words, gestures and listening against suicide: "To help well you have to touch the pain"

The vast majority of people who think about committing suicide do not want to die

but rather stop feeling extreme suffering.

Trapped in a painful tunnel vision, they are unable to see any other way out than their own death.

"The pandemic has accelerated something that was already taking place previously. The evolution of society in recent decades with a misunderstood concept of well-being entails putting excess value in the here now, when we precisely know that

and eternal, that will never end", explains Isabel Irigoyen, who as a psychiatrist treats people with suicidal ideation daily as a psychiatrist at the Zaragoza Clinical Hospital.

Suicide is everyone's failure.

They are lives that have denounced to society that hopelessness from which they have not been able to get out

Miguel Guerrero, clinical psychologist.

"

​​that make it easier for individuals to face the frustrations and negative events of life. I think the combination of both things has a lot to do with seeing death as a way out of emotional discomfort".

Of particular concern is the increase in suicidal behavior among young people in recent years.

In this sense, Irigoyen, coordinator of the Suicide Prevention Strategy in Aragon, stresses the importance of focusing efforts on reducing risk factors such as "impunity for

, the

, the pernicious use of

with which information about some suicides or self-harm is sometimes treated".

Eight out of ten people express their intention to end their lives or show signs of doing so before doing so, hence the importance of

order to act in time and offer help.

In Spain there is no National Suicide Prevention Plan and it is the Autonomous Communities with specific programs (

or included in a global Mental Health plan. who are in charge of developing the socio-sanitary strategy to reduce the number of deaths by suicide.

What are the most urgent measures?

We have to work on educational aspects that help to face the adversities of life in a healthier way

Isabel Irigoyen, psychiatrist.

"There are no simple or quick solutions,

. I think that we would logically have to work on a common denominator, which are educational aspects that help citizens face the inherent adversities of life in a healthier way. life, if this is not the case, it will be unaffordable to care for so many people in mental health consultations," stresses Irigoyen.

From the health point of view, he highlights the importance of "

. And once detected, of course, an accessible healthcare system to carry out the necessary approach and treatment. For all this, the key is training, training people at all stages of life and also training professionals so that they can detect risk factors and know how to try to minimize them".

Last May, the Government launched

, the first public telephone at the state level that offers professional care and support to those affected and their families.

The hotline, managed by the Red Cross, served more than 63,000 citizens in the first six months of 2022, according to the latest balance provided, there have been more than 2,000 referrals to 112 and some

have been detected .

This work of listening and attention was carried out until then in Spain by the network of volunteers of the

(717 003 717), the

association (911 385 385),

, which offers help to children and adolescents

and town halls such as

(900 925 555).

"

. They are lives that have denounced to society that hopelessness from which they have not been able to get out. It is not an exclusive problem of mental health," warns clinical psychologist Miguel Guerrero, head of the Suicide Unit. Suicidal Conduct UPII Cicero, in the suicide prevention conferences organized this Monday by the Madrid City Council.

Guerrero stresses the need for a collective effort to promote "physical, mental, social and spiritual health" and facilitate "healthy, safe, protective, cohesive, egalitarian and ethical environments" in society.

"Prevention" against suicide, he assures him, consists of

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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