Suicide is a major problem in psychiatry, a drama within the family and an act of desperation and without the possibility of seeing other ways out decided by the person.
Our “free will” is the ability to be free to decide, but how do we know if it is a decision that we would make in the same way if we were given time to reconsider? In the majority of patients who have been put into treatment and have managed to save their lives after a failed attempt, they recognize that they did not want to die, but that it was the only possible way out they saw at the time. Many adequately treated depressions avoid this risk.
The causes are psychopathological -biological-, personality traits, psychosocial and family. In the literature we have great stories that propose suicide as a vital exit not lacking in romanticism, but that in some biographical cases, we can analyze in the present that corresponded to major or bipolar depression, that currently and conveniently treated perhaps would give other options and other possibilities of decision.
In the case of adolescents, attempts at self-harm may be impulsive behaviors or calls for attention that sometimes have already been “exposed” in a more or less obvious way to family members, but they have not been given the appropriate importance. In our consultation we find that the patient talks to us about self-injuries that in most occasions, the parents do not have news of it. Psychotherapy with family intervention and the administration of guidelines can help prevention.
If we take into account that 9 out of 10 cases of suicide have a history of psychological suffering, it gives us much to think about the reason for wanting to cease to exist. Nowadays, social desperation has increased and has provoked a greater number of attempts, some of which have fatal results, therefore the role of society on the meaning of existence also plays a role that we should not forget.