Jessy Chahine
Daily Star staff

“I can still see the blood on the floor, and the janitor sweeping it, and the smell … the smell,” said the 23-year-old man who requested anonymity, recalling the suicide of a schoolmate some nine years ago. “The smell of blood was everywhere.”
The young man recalled that the suicide victim, who was 15 at the time, shot himself in the head during the lunch hour period, just as the bell rang.
“He explicitly waited for the bell to ring and shot himself,” he said, “so that the gunshot was slightly camouflaged by the ringing.”
“He was such a sensitive person,” the suicide witness added, “people gossiped a lot after the incident, saying he had family problems, so I don’t think it has anything to do with the sort of music we used to listen to at the time ­ the heavy metal and the hard rock.”
Mourning for a natural death is hard, according to psychiatrist Antoine Saab, but mourning for a suicide victim is almost as deadly as the incident.
“I’ve treated several relatives of victims who have committed suicide,” said Saab, who is also the official psychiatrist of Roumieh prison, “and for these people, mourning for their loved ones is a process that will never end.”
Saab said that someone’s suicide is always “a brutal” shock for his or her relatives. “These relatives might never get over the sense of guilt, blaming themselves for not paying much attention to their loved one’s needs before the suicide.”
Generally speaking, Saab explained, those who commit suicide mention it “in their own way” to their parents or psychiatrist before they commit the act.
“The majority of suicide victims have seen, at least once, a psychiatrist before killing themselves,” Saab explained, “because contrary to what you think, suicidal people know that they are people who desperately need help but are incapable of asking for it.”
Every suicidal person, Saab said, “formulates” his death wish in a way or another before committing the suicide attempt, “and these formulation ways are as diverse and numerous as the number of inhabitants on this world.”
He added that no two suicidal people are alike, and that each has his own way and language of expressing his or her SOS call.
The word “language,” Saab explained, includes both verbal and nonverbal expressions.
Economic hardship and social injustice remain the most prevalent causes of suicide, according to coroner Sarkis Abi Aql.
“Of course, some of the people who commit suicide suffer from psychological disturbances or mental problems but most of them kill themselves because of financial and social troubles,” said Abi Aql, who was summoned last Wednesday to examine the suicide case of a 26-year-old man.
The young parking attendant was found dead in his car next to his house. Abi Aql explained that the suicide victim shot himself with a seven-millimeter gun at 5am in the morning, and was found four hours later.
Investigations are currently being conducted to discover the reasons behind the young man’s death, Abi Aql said, “but I’m sure that it has something to do with his financial situation ­ it looked bad.”
According to Simon Karam, a psychiatrist with considerable experience in suicide cases, many reasons can push someone to take their own life.
“Suicide cases are not all the same ­ be it in Lebanon, or anywhere else in the world,” Karam said. “A suicide might take place in the context of some sort of pathological disease such as recurring depression, or it might be caused by schizophrenia, obsession, depression waves or emotional downfalls.”
Besides sufferers from manic depression, Karam explained, other victims include hysterical or anti-social people.
“Some people just don’t have a strong psychological defense system,” Karam said, “so when they’re faced by the slightest obstacle, they blame it all on themselves instead of sublimating or alleviating the reasons.”
Karam added that people who “panic excessively,” namely are “overly scared and anxious” about everything, are prime candidates for suicide. “If generalizing is permissible, we can say that most suicide cases in Lebanon are due to emotional or social solitude commonly found in unemployed people, alcoholics and drug addicts.”
Unfortunately, there is no accurate data in Lebanon that shows the number of suicide cases per year, because most suicide cases do not come to light.
“Suicide is considered as a shameful incident,” Karam explained, “and the victim’s family are looked upon as mainly responsible for their relative’s death, if not totally guilty of it.”
Ranwa Mehdi, a volunteer who used to work as a social assistant in a rehabilitation center that takes care of what she calls “violence survivors,” said that most drug and alcohol addicts she has taken care of exhibited suicidal tendencies. Mehdi said that many suicides could be avoided, “if only people knew how to recognize and cope with suicidal tendencies.”
Mehdi’s explanation of “suicidal tendencies” include emotional clues such as depression, sadness, mood swings, excessive silence or agitation, social withdrawal, an inability to concentrate, feelings of helplessness, worthlessness and self-hate. Loss of energy, poor sleep habits (either sleeping all the time or hardly ever sleeping) and weight gain or loss are also among the common “suicide symptoms.”
“If you detect any of these symptoms in a friend or relative, then you should immediately call for help by contacting a rehabilitation center or a psychiatrist,” Mehdi said.
According to an on-line center for suicide prevention: www.siec.ca, “A youth (or an adult) who can’t shake off depression or anger over problems in the family, at school (or work), or with the community may be harboring ideas of suicide. At the very least, he or she may be risking injury to themselves or others through irresponsible behavior.”
According to another website for suicide awareness: www.save.org, among the
suicide alerts that should be taken into consideration are low self esteem and expressions, such as “I don’t know who I am,” or “I’m different and don’t fit in anywhere.”
The site also mentions that females out-number males in suicide attempts, but males outnumber females in actual suicide deaths because males are more likely to choose a more lethal method.