In the words of both Noblia and González, the idea of suicide is gradually embodied within oneself. “In some cases it’s more spontaneous,” says González, “but many others make the decision after tying everyone to tying; suicide is not just an action driven by madness.” On the other hand, the World Health Organization warns that in most cases of suicide there has been some prior warning: “Many people give clear warnings about their intentions. Therefore, all threats of self-harm must be considered. In addition, most people who try to commit suicide are ambivalent and do not seek only death.” I mean, they experience conflicting emotions or feelings at the same time.

Attempts at suicide

Experts say that suicide attempts should be given attention, because 10% of them will commit suicide. In France, health services assisted 195,000 suicide attempts in 2002. With the addition of those that went unnoticed, the number increases. Of these, 64,000 were hospitalized in psychiatry. According to a survey conducted by CCOMS and DREES between 1999 and 2003, 8 per cent of the population attempted suicide at one time or another. The results showed that 2% had a high risk of suicide. This group includes those who have carried out their suicide attempt in the previous month, or those who have tried to commit suicide in their lifetime and have had this idea in mind in the last month.

WHO warns that many suicides occur when a person has enough energy and will to turn desperate thoughts into destructive actions. However, never attempting suicide does not mean that this person will always be in danger. Suicidal thoughts may emerge again and again, but they are not persistent and often do not reappear.

IS IT A FREE DECISION?

“Yes, suicide is a free choice, but that freedom is conditioned,” says Erkizia: “We live at all times in conditional freedom, we have not freely chosen the circumstances, there is no absolute freedom.” He says that “our limits are our body – space – and time – born, live, die. Neither body nor time –birth– are chosen at the beginning. However, one becomes the master of one’s time and body. We are free to decide what to do with the body and time while dying.”

“No, I don’t think it’s a free decision,” Noblia tells us: “Whoever puts the rope around his neck has not been forced directly by anyone, nor raped by anyone, because otherwise it would be murder, but still... there may be many factors behind that person’s suffering.” Iñaki González answers the question with a metaphor: “There are ways to encourage you to commit suicide indirectly: I can close nine doors for you and leave only one – that of suicide – open. I didn't open it for you, but I closed the others. If someone who may have a propensity to commit suicide has someone harmful on his side, he can make him take the final step.”

Erkizia gives us another example that can be given for a long discussion, based on the deaths of the Italian philosophers Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei. What is suicide, what murder? Both of them had the opportunity to choose their own destiny, which is why Erkizia talks about conditional freedom.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) believes that if the Earth was recognized as a rotational movement, other presumed movements should be rejected, and there was no reason to believe that the stars were at the same distance or that the contours of the stars were limited. In 1591 he was arrested by the Inquisition and asked by Cardinal Bellarmine to renounce these ideas, otherwise he would be accused of heresy and killed. Bruno did not fulfill his promise and was burned alive in 1600. According to the philosopher and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), following the theory of Copernicus, the Earth was not at the center of the universe. In 1633 he was arrested by the Inquisition and asked to give up his ideas that he would be tortured and killed otherwise. He knew what had happened to Bruno and chose a different path: to give up all his work. Galilei was not assassinated by the Inquisition, but was imprisoned in his home until 1642.

The happiness of it. The loneliness

“The person who is able to be happy will not commit suicide,” González tells us. “The problem is they haven’t taught us how to be happy. ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? Butcher, carpenter...’ No, I want to be happy. “You have to be productive, competitive,” they just tell us. This society is sick, unnatural and therefore it is normal to adopt unnatural behaviors. Unnatural society has unnatural consequences.”

Gonzalez says that “denying love and happiness” is another factor: “The couple dies and I deny myself to be happy. From this denial, I will feel that I am out of place. I just suffer.” In the words of Blas Erkizia, “those who know how to be alone, who love themselves, are less at risk of suicide.” The Spanish poet Antonio Machado recalls what he said: “Love your neighbor, but do not forget that he is another person” (10).

Knowing how to be alone is one thing, feeling isolated is another. In this sense, we asked Noblia how she understands loneliness, referring to the rural world between 1955-1975. “You can’t compare past and present loneliness,” he tells us, “before there was no radio, television, telephone, car... Not to mention the Internet.” According to a 2009 study by the French Institute of Public Health, the risk of suicide among farmers is three times higher than that of executives. The main factors are working conditions, easy access to means of suicide and social isolation caused by a lack of pay (11).

In 2006, there were 145 doctors in the Northern Basque Country for 100,000 inhabitants, out of a total of 391 (in addition to 403 other specialised or specialist doctors). There are, however, major inequalities between inland and coastal areas, with 163 doctors on the coast for 100,000 inhabitants and only 93 on the inland side (12). Also, when they have to go to the hospital, the interiors must be directed to Bayonne. The bridge is also administratively linked to Pau. All these factors make it more difficult to carry out preventive tasks – among others, suicide.

FORMS OF SUICIDE

In 2008, 3,457 people committed suicide in Spain, according to data provided by the INE statistics institute. Without going into detail, we will mention that 1,723 of them were killed by hanging, 706 by jumping from a high place, 354 by taking “poison” (analgesics, narcotics, drugs and biological substances...), 194 by shooting with firearms and 141 by drowning. These are the most recurrent forms of suicide today, and we can see that these data are consistent with the results of the study carried out by Argitxu Noblia in 1976, with the exception of the fact that there is a difference that deserves to be highlighted. Between 1955 and 1975, of the 450 people who committed suicide in Lapazú and Lower Navarre, 160 died by hanging, 27 by jumping from a high place, 97 by firearms and 102 by drowning. Looking at the data in the cold, we will realize that those who jumped are much less. Iñaki González has given us an explanation that can help us understand the difference, based on his experience: “People die differently on the farm. They have ropes and a shotgun at their disposal, but there is not enough height to jump.”

In terms of gender inequalities, both according to the INE and according to Noblia, the differences are small between the number of men and women who died from poisoning, jumping or drowning. On the contrary, many more men committed suicide by hanging and especially by shooting with firearms. According to data published by the CépiDC Centre in France in 2004, 50 per cent of men who committed suicide died by hanging, and 19 per cent by firearms. In the case of women, 60% died by hanging and taking medication in a very similar amount.

The hidden suicides

In addition to the obvious suicides, there are also those that remain hidden, which have been defined by several experts as suicides disguised. These include, for example, self-censorship or the path chosen by motorists in order to make what happened more confusing, or suicidal drug addiction in cases of people who consume substances chronically. Iñaki González explains that if you go to the place where an accident has occurred and you notice that something strange has happened, you call directly to the border guards so that they can decide how the death occurred. He says that traffic accidents are a special case: “Let’s say you’ve received some very bad news. You've taken the car, but you're crying, you don't see well, your consciousness is lower, and you've decided to drive faster, get out of the way... you don't want to die, but you don't do anything to prevent death. Part of our job is to help the person who has lost consciousness to reverse the situation, through drugs, for example.”

THE FEAR

Luz Noblia presented her suicide study 35 years ago. He tells us that no one has followed his work since then: “It is difficult. The dead are dead, that's over. The issue is not politically correct. Once a year, on the International Day for the Prevention of Suicide (September 10), the media releases reports and data, but the rest...” Even on the street, he says there is a certain fear or reluctance to deal with the issue: “People talk more than before, but they don’t like it. Everyone takes it for themselves. If it happened to him, why not to me? It is complex.”

Iñaki González believes that we are not prepared to face suicide and death in general: “Just as we don’t know what money is because it doesn’t interest us to know what it is, neither does it interest us to know how death works. For centuries, control over death has been guaranteed by terror. We're afraid to talk about it, too. It's embarrassing, it's almost worse than sex. If you talk about death, they'll think you're weird, people think you're sick. Our religion says we get rid of him after he dies. How can we not accept death when our culture says it’s the right time for the best?”

Gonzalez has nailed a passage from a story he read as a child: “Members of a culture that I don’t remember were throwing a memorial party when someone in the community died. Death was compared to reaching the end of a book. When you’re reading the novel you enjoy it; and when you get to the end you don’t cry, you keep it on the shelf – in the corner of your memories – even though you know you’ll probably never read it again. The same thing happens with the deceased, you keep it in the corner of your memories and remember that you have been happy by his side. But here we have mourning, etc. We have learned that religion controls us with life and death; we fear death.” Even in Nobel’s words, “Catholicism has not helped to accept suicide; that it is sin, guilt...”. For González, “religion continues to weigh on everyone.” We've demystified everything except suicide.