Sorry everybody for my “not-so-positive subject” posts. I have noticed (as well as been reminded) how a lot of my posts don’t show a particularly nice or happy view of Sweden. Only showing negative parts of Sweden and Swedish culture has not been deliberate, I’m just writing about things as they come to mind and most of all as they turn up in Sweden. What I’m writing about this time is a subject which has up until recently (meaning a couple of weeks ago) been a strictly taboo subject.

Since a 13-year old girl killed herself a couple of weeks ago the local newspapers in Umeå broke the heavy and icy silence (tystnad) about suicide and started writing about its horrid and evermore increasing numbers. The number of adults committing suicide (begå självmord) has in general decreased the past couple of years, though that is not the case for young people. Last year statistics showed an increase from one young person committing suicide over a three year period in Umeå, to 5 young people committing suicide in just one year in that city. Just in 2010 another 2 young people have already killed themselves. This subject has hardly ever bee talked about in the media! Now people are being faced with horrid statistics. Families have been left in confusion (förvirring) and devastation. These numbers are for Umeå alone, ie. not including any other incidents in the rest of Sweden.

In the article in which they also interviewed the mother of the daughter who had killed herself, the mother says that her daughter had showed signs of not feeling well, but they never thought she would go as far as killing herself. That seems to be the case with most of the parents of teen suicides. People are now saying it is societies fault for not seeing the “warning” signs. Only a partial number of the people who try to commit suicide actually succeed; there are so many others who survive. There are waiting lines for getting phycological consultation and once you get there you are often treated according to the philosophy: quantity over quality, mostly because there aren’t the resources to deal with all the young people needing help. There have been cases when children haven’t been believed when they say they feel really unwell… (I do of course not know the details of the situation more than that the parents and child felt very disappointed in the system which was supposed to be taking care of them.

Just a thought on my part here: I can’t really understand why a nine year old, or somebody older could possibly want to commit suicide. Theoretically I can understand the reasons why, I can even recall the feelings associated with not wanting to live and having people around me saying that they don’t want to live anymore… But why? That all hope has been crushed out of human beings at such a young age and that it is so suddenly and so drastically increasing all the time.

How can this be happening?

To end on a lighter note: We do in fact have an organization called BRIS. BRIS stands for Barnens Rätt I Samhället ie. Children’s rights in society (CRIS I suppose we could call it) This organization is a helpline for any child (barn) who needs an adult to talk to without having to pay for the phone call, have their telephone number registered, say who they are or where they are from. It’s a completely volunteer-based idea and is not bound to any religious or political group. Nor is it founded or driven by the state. It relies on people’s good will. Adults can also talk or write anonymously about their own or other people’s children.

So many people are so happy that this subject is finally being talked about, just because we haven’t talked about it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t existed before.