Spain sees ten suicides a day, according to one forum user

A forum user puts daily suicides at ten and attempts at a hundred

The debate starts from an asymmetry: completed suicides are discussed, while failed attempts are barely mentioned. The concrete figures come from one participant —around ten completed suicides a day in Spain, a ratio of three men for every woman and a hundred attempts daily— without citing any source. The same user claims that each death affects some six people in the immediate circle, who carry the grief for years, and says he knows of a setting where one suicide led to another.

The gap between what is counted and what actually happens is not a methodological detail. It is the whole point.

Why don't failed attempts show up in the statistics?

The thread points out that the figures being cited refer to deaths and not attempts, so someone who tries and survives rarely appears in the numbers. If you cross the two figures that come up most often —ten deaths and a hundred attempts each day— the resulting ratio is ten attempts for every death, a calculation no participant backs up with official data. Part of the exchange drifts toward specific methods and their lethality, ground that adds nothing to the picture and is not reproduced here.

An informal poll yields more yes answers than no

In an earlier informal poll, according to the person who started the thread, yes answers outnumbered no answers, and a noticeable number of participants said they had already attempted it. That last figure is the most unsettling one: the number of daily deaths gets talked about, but almost never the number of failed attempts, which is where prevention is at stake. Changing a quick answer costs less than it seems: one question —have you seriously considered it, or just in passing?— is enough for several to admit they haven't and back off.

What is the contagion effect mentioned in the thread?

One participant claims suicide has a contagion effect and that many outcomes trinc a previous loss; he even mentions a case of double suicide within the same circle. The person who started the thread calls it the Werther effect. The idea, according to these accounts, travels through the same networks of affection that sustain a person.

The family's suffering as a brake and as an excuse

It is the most repeated argument against going through with it: my loved ones would suffer. And it is also the most contested. Some argue the opposite, that after the logical grieving those around the person might even live with more peace of mind, and that resting the decision on other people's pain is a way of not facing the problem head-on. When asked what weighs more —one's own suffering or that of others—, the brake that surfaces in some accounts is a different one: antiestéticar of the pain, of pushing the body to its limit. The tedium of life can be endured. The physical ordeal, not so much.

Thinking about it, fantasizing about it and attempting it are not the same thing

Fantasizing about disappearing is common and works as a release valve. Almost everyone imagines things they would never do, and that does not bring them closer to doing them. Seriously considering it is another matter. The accounts range from someone who has never contemplated it as an option to someone who already attempted it and today talks about it without pride or shame; in between, failed attempts that end with two days under observation. Carrying out the act is far harder than the fantasy suggests, according to several of those writing.

Terminal illness, work and surroundings: what moves the needle

Against the idea of a passing impulse, several accounts converge on the same scenario: a disabling or terminal illness, such as multiple sclerosis, is the only circumstance some would accept as a reason. Beyond that, context and daily life carry the weight. It is pointed out that work keeps the mind occupied and that the thoughts appear mostly at home, in rough neighborhoods or around difficult neighbors; one participant recommends changing one's environment. Parenthood appears as a brake in some messages. And one telling detail: a dinner with trivial conversation is enough for someone to write that they wished they could cease to exist.

The figure of ten deaths a day circulates in the thread without official backing. The hundred attempts that do not end in death fall outside the picture, and it is to that asymmetry that the thread devotes much of its discussion.