In the past year 2023, 189 people took their lives in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the largest number of recorded suicides, 43 of them, was recorded in Tuzla Canton.
The fewest suicides, two of them, were in Bosnia-Podrinje canton, is confirmed to Fena news agency from the Federal Police Administration.
Out of 189 suicides, 152 were committed by men and 37 by women.
People over 70 years old committed 53 suicides, and people between 60 and 70 years old committed 44 suicides. In the past year, four minors took their own lives in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A total of 1,994 suicides were recorded in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past ten years.
A million people commit suicide every year
Psychotherapist and psychologist Ivana Trlin told Fena that every 40 seconds in the world one person dies due to suicide, which is almost a million people a year.
“Attempted suicides are twenty times higher than that number. The rate of attempts is slightly higher among women than among men, however, this may be related to the fact that men use weapons and more aggressive ways. Women often try to commit suicide by overdosing on pills, in which they often fail,” she explained.
She added that suicide is the result of a complex interplay of biological, social, psychological and environmental risks and protective factors, but she believes that it is possible to prevent it.
“You need to know how to recognize a person who is planning suicide. We must not be under the illusion that people who talk about suicide will not actually do it. It is a cry for help and should be taken seriously. We are often surprised when we hear that someone has committed suicide, but most people who commit suicide have been thinking about it for a long time,” Trlin believes.
She adds that a suicidal person usually gives many signs, from talking about it, guilt, self-blame, self-harm to any unusual actions.
They don’t want to kill themselves, but what is inside them
“The people who committed the murder actually did not want to die, but desperately wanted to live. Suicide is usually a product of deep psychological suffering where the person sees suicide as a solution to their currently intractable problems that bring unbearable pain. Most people who commit suicide actually want to get rid of that pain. It’s their way of getting out of trouble. One of my professors said that a person does not want to kill himself, but what is inside him that is tormenting him,” she recalled.
She emphasizes that it is absolutely possible to prevent a person from this act, because most people give warning signs such as overreaction to criticism, self-criticism, aggressiveness towards oneself, anger, rage, writing a will, collecting weapons and the like.
At the end, Trlin mentioned that a person who failed in his plan should still be given help because, as she clarified, according to statistics, four out of five people who commit suicide have already tried to do it once.
