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Martynas Marcinkevičius, a psychiatrist and director of the Vilnius City Mental Health Center, says that currently the number of suicides has not increased dramatically, and statistically around 2 people commit suicide in Lithuania every day. Yet despite the depletion of the pandemic, people are reluctant to hurt themselves in the first year and suicide rates remain stable or even slightly lower.
“The general trends are such that before the pandemic in Lithuania there was really good and beautiful dynamics, suicides decreased due to various fluctuations. Suicide is a very multifaceted, multifaceted phenomenon and its number responds very well to various crises, “said the specialist.
According to the psychiatrist, this trend is not new for scientists: worldwide, suicide statistics do not increase in the first year after the onset of several crises and remain stable, but suicides increase over time.
“As scientists and specialists expected, the number of suicides did not increase during the first year of the pandemic, it even decreased slightly. And this is not surprising, because always during various crises: pandemics, wars, the first reaction is that the number of suicides decreases in the first few months, people are still completely confused.
Experience shows that, let’s say, after the same Spanish flu pandemic at the beginning of the 20th century, approximately a year and a half later, a great increase in the number of suicides begins ”, explained the expert.
With the suicide curve still rising, the general trend in mental health is sad: both in Lithuania and around the world, depression and anxiety are on the rise and the number of suicidal thoughts is on the rise. This particularly affected young people, among whom the number of suicidal thoughts increased from 2 to 2.5 times.
Speaking of recent cases of suicide in the media and, for example, a suicidal doctor, M. Marcinkevičius does not hide his disappointment that such news is presented with details that allow to identify a person. The psychiatrist is convinced that it is necessary to talk about these things, but taking all precautions to protect personal data.
Doctors kill more often
The expert emphasizes that disclosing suicide with details that allow identifying a person is harmful first for the whole family and ultimately for society, as the world famous Werther effect could work, which means that suicides could increase and suicides could be copied. These cases have occurred all over the world.
“It is a crime for society as a whole, because the Werther effect or Werther syndrome has been known and proven in many countries for many years. It is then that the suicide of a famous person is copied. The Pouring effect is characterized by the fact that people of a similar social image are often killed, in this case we are talking about the suicide of, say, a famous middle-aged doctor, a man. It is very likely that the Pour effect causes an increase in this type of suicides in Lithuania, ”said the director of the Center for Mental Health.
M. Marcinkevičius drew a typical portrait of a suicide, usually a man who consumes a lot of alcohol, is unemployed or has a low-skilled job and lives in the countryside.
Regarding groups of people in highly skilled jobs, statistics show that more occupations are killed by various professions:
“When it comes to working people, professions, again, I’m not surprised at all by medical suicide, because doctors, police, social workers all over the world kill more often, because these are professions that involve a lot of emotional stress. , a lot of stress, responsibility. In addition, the daily work of the police officers, doctors and social workers is with the suffering of another person “.
The knowledge of the aforementioned suicides came with the arrival of autumn, which, at least for the moment, was extremely gloomy. When asked if the number of suicides increases in autumn, M. Marcinkevičius says that there is no clear trend and that the decision to commit suicide is related to many reasons: social fractures, experiences, crises. On the other hand, with the end of summer, the gloomier weather and the acceleration of autumn, it is noticed that the mood of people is deteriorating and depressive thoughts visit.
Many suicides can be prevented
The expert emphasizes that many suicides can be prevented if appropriate actions are taken in a timely manner, but the first step is to be able to recognize the suicidal condition caused by a person’s behavior.
“One truth is that practically all people report in one way or another either directly about the intention to commit suicide or indirectly report that it is bad for him. It is very rare for people to commit suicide completely unexpectedly.
Another thing is that they rarely simply say that they are going to commit suicide, but very often they speak of nonsense, of despair, of not seeing the meaning of living, in the end many times they only say that it is very bad for them ”, explained M. signs of suicidal thoughts Marcinkevičius.
When you notice these signs, do not leave the person alone with your suicidal thoughts, try to be close, support and deliver in the hands of professionals.
“You have to react to such signals and really look, try to talk to a person, why, what is wrong with him and really not leave it, and try to pass it on to specialists in one way or another. Now there are all kinds of possibilities, not only to go to a psychiatrist, there are actually helplines, remote consultations from various psychiatrists ”, advises the psychiatrist.
That there is only one step left before suicide can reveal certain human behaviors, such as when a person begins to say goodbye to everyone, deletes their social media accounts or begins to give away all their belongings.
“When there are such signs, then you should try to react very quickly and appear yourself next to that person, or not be afraid to call the people who live together, who live nearby to go see what that person is. In such cases, an ambulance should generally be called and an attempt should be made to transport the person to a mental health facility. It will not necessarily put him to bed, but at least he will definitely evaluate the condition, ”explained the specialist.
Being with such a person, in no way trying to convince him that everything is fine, not inviting places of fun, because those things will not help: “Trying to amuse a person or deny him problems is really the wrong way, because he Usually you will not accept it, you will not listen to it. When a person prepares for suicide, the so-called tunnel thinking often occurs, when the person sees his pain, problem very closely and does not see absolutely and does not explain to him that everything else is fine. “
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