"With 10 suicides a day, maybe politicians need us to get naked with a gallows before Congress"

• Hemeroteca: The mystery of suicide in the pandemic

"My mother took her own life on the day of

last year, but

is an issue that cannot be politicized and therefore does not matter. My mother's life does not matter."

It is the first time that in a public act the actor

does not put a face to another, but to himself, a character transmuted into person.

"I live a daily nightmare, but I understand my mother a little, I understand what it means to live in shit."

It didn't matter much that the mask covered his mouth.

He was worth with his eyes.

Sitting at the table of speakers, Román Reyes has questioned the political, health, medical and social systems, unable to reduce the staggering statistics of suicide: more than 3,600 a year, 10 a day, one every two and a half hours ... And 200 daily attempts.

At his side was the actor

, one of the three faces of that first

of humorous irreverence.

"Until nine years ago I was happy. I had a partner, family, friends, work and money. But my head began to cheat me and I was diagnosed with

. And one day in my living room, an inner voice told me: ' Jump out the window. 'I started slapping my head. But it didn't go away. I lived constantly for months with that thought in my head. Until one day I leaned against the railing of my terrace, leaning over to throw myself ... " .

Actor Román Reyes.JAVIER BARBANCHO

Both victims of suicide or its shock waves have spoken this Wednesday in the middle of the brightness of Madrid's El Retiro during a conference organized by the

to demand a

, a promise that has been repeatedly unfulfilled.

,

and

have completed an alignment of experts in a meeting of data, words and emotions held 24 hours before

, that more or less chosen end that is the first cause of unnatural death in Spain .

The psychiatrist and Lieutenant Colonel

directs the Mental Health area of

and has been closely treating suicide survivors and the families of suicide

for many years.

"Suicidal behavior warns, is processed, shows signs. But we are failing to detect it. What are we not doing to rescue these people? There is a lack of prevention by the authorities, television and radio campaigns that make clear the symptoms of the suicidal ideation. There are campaigns against gender violence but not against violence against oneself, which is the greatest type of violence. If you see someone in crisis, who has different behaviors, who eats differently, who has new gestures, ask them. You have to talk about suicide and death. "

Dr. Presa says that the

has supposed an exponential growth of autolytic ideas.

"During the 15 days after the start of the

we did not have a single admission. From then on, patients began to admit. Even an 85-year-old man who had tried to take his life because he did not want to infect his family."

For this psychiatrist, the

generates fear of the disease itself and its consequences, including anxiety and her feeling of inability to carry out daily work.

"We have military personnel that have been in Afghanistan and they don't control this. They say they are not the same anymore."

Also the psychiatrist

has highlighted the undesirable marriage between the pandemic and suicide.

"As I read in an article, Covid and suicide is the perfect storm. We have variables that indicate that it will worsen. The infection produces symptoms similar to those that lead to suicide:

plus

. It is a

continuous

. It is estimated at a 20% increase in

,

and

, some of which will end in

and suicides. We are already seeing cases in people who were in treatment and committed suicide during confinement. We already see the complications of the pandemic and the increase in income. We don't even have a free bed. In vulnerable people, Covid is the last straw ".

Arango has spent decades studying and treating wounds of the mind at the

in Madrid and for a year he has also presided over the

, two ideal viewpoints to observe suicide.

"Half of the people who commit suicide have gone to the doctor before the act. We know that 40% had contact with their family doctor in the previous 60 days. What will be happening now, with a

collapsed

? Now it is more difficult to do detection. "

And there prevention appears: "I wonder why there are no campaigns. There are two answers, but both are false: it is a lie that it cannot be prevented, because there are countries that have reduced suicides by 25% with aggressive investment policies, and It is a lie that it is expensive for the system, because for every euro spent on prevention, 20. So I think there are no campaigns because suicide sells little. The benefit is not seen in the short, but in the long term and there is also a stigma to talk about death ".

Marta Presa, Director of Mental Health of Gómez Ulla;

Ana Lancho, president of the La Barandilla Association, and Celso Arango, head of Mental Health at Gregorio Marañón.JAVIER BARBANCHO

This can be corroborated by

, clinical psychologist and coordinator of the

of La Barandilla.

"We have received more than 3,000 calls. Anxiety,

and

are increasing

, but it is difficult to talk about it. People who have stopped their treatments call us. The Covid is reactivating fears."

It was not the pandemic that led

to try to kill herself twice.

It was the

, the insults, the shaking, the beatings ... Surely that nun who told her it was like a car without gas and that they were going to treat her at school didn't help much.

"At 14 I got used to being teased. I left school, I had two good years, but at 16 I felt lonely, ignored and a burden to others. I was a toxic person. I tried to commit suicide twice. I wanted to see myself. To die".

Until another nun helped her live.

"I started to write what I felt, to break the taboo. I came out of the closet and here I am, with

, and fighting my demons."

He tells everything, and more, in his novel:

.

"I leaned against the railing of my inclined terrace to throw myself ...".

Javier Martín can tell you.

It was not thrown.

Why?

"I live in a seventh room with a terrace and I would spend hours walking around the terrace thinking about whether or not I would jump. One day I leaned against the railing of my terrace, inclined to jump off, and he said to myself: yes, no, yes, no ... I thought that if I threw myself I might not die and remain

. But the key was that I thought that a neighbor would find my body and that the police would call my partner to tell them. I thought of my partner's face of terror and that threw me back ".

The actor has also come face to face with the health system: "I was admitted twice. The second time I did not get out very well and they gave me an appointment for two months. I would have had time to take my life 60 times. I could pay a psychologist, but not all people cannot afford it. There is a lack of psychologists in

. A politician spoke with the association and said that if we wanted to raise awareness we had to make a lot of noise. Noise? With 3,600 deaths a year? With 10 suicides a day? I would ask the politician if those seem little noise to him. How many suicides do they need? 7,000? Maybe politicians need a photo. Or that we get naked with a gallows around our necks in front of Congress. "

For his colleague by profession and in pain, the response of the political and health system does not serve him either.

Perhaps that is why Román Reyes has more than 200,000 signatures on the

campaign

to improve care for people with suicidal ideation: "My mother was hospitalized several times but never more than a month. The last psychiatrist told me that she They were yelling at me because my mother had been there for a month. Is it a financial or means problem? Besides, entering without prior self-harm attempts is an odyssey. I don't blame the

but it is desperate. There is a lack of psychologists and psychiatrists. A psychologist in Primary Care It is a luxury. Is being well in the head a luxury? "

-Román, how far does suicide matter to us?

-They are second-rate dead.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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