Psychiatrist, emeritus professor of forensic medicine, member of theNational Suicide Observatory, Michel Debout analyzes the results of an Ifop survey for the Jean Jaurès foundation of which he is a founding member.
He is concerned about the impact of crisis linked to Covid-19 on the risk of suicide, especially when leaving confinements. “Another aspect of the virus”, he believes.
> Read also: full study on increased risk after confinement in this article
You looked at the risk of suicide. Surprisingly, deconfinement seems more weakening than confinement?
Ifop interviewed 2,000 French people for the Jean-Jaurès foundation in September. 20% say they have already thought about suicide, and, among them, 11% during confinement, 17% since. It’s surprising. The exit from confinement appears more like a period of risk.
Why you think ?
During the first confinement, great solidarity was expressed between the French. They felt they were all equal in the face of the threat. A “health war” said Emmanuel Macron.
However, as early as the 19th century, the sociologist Émile Durkheim had shown that in times of war, the number of suicides drops because the social bond is stronger. We stick together in the face of an external threat. Survival reactions are stronger than depressive reactions.
This is no longer the case with deconfinement?
Unemployed people, artisans, traders, business owners whose activity was threatened found themselves facing difficulties, while others found their friends, their work or went on vacation.
Young people are also among the most affected: they viscerally need contact, links, projects, prospects for the future. They were also stigmatized.
Are these realities insufficiently taken into account for you?
I am not criticizing the economic decisions that are made. But they should have been accompanied by prevention of these suicidal risks, which is another part of the health crisis, another aspect of the virus that we are wrong to neglect. I spoke about it five years ago in a book. We know these risks and we do nothing.
Is the risk in front of us?
Yes, because this second confinement is different. Everyone is encouraged to work. Except, in particular, small artisans and traders, who find themselves singled out as if they were not capable of protecting their customers. However, the figures concerning them are worrying.
Among those of them who have already had suicidal thoughts, 42% say they have taken action, with hospitalization. It is a huge number. Anger is there, you have to be careful. It is a real societal issue that should alert the public authorities.
What leads to suicide?
I often evoke this triptych: devaluation, desocialization, depression. When you are no longer sure of yourself, that you have the impression that you are no longer worth much, you withdraw into yourself, you no longer go towards others, and you slip into dark thoughts. We ask ourselves: “This existence, what is it worth?” “,” To whom am I useful “?
At the end of this process, these people do not die because they commit suicide. They commit suicide because they are already socially and relationshipally dead.
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