Expanded Suicide: What It Is, How It Occurs And Why It Creates Controversy
The concept of suicide expanded , as a result of several unfortunate events that have occurred in recent years, has become known. It is the act of first murdering a loved one and then committing suicide.
Below we are going to define in more depth what this expression is about, what diagnostic criteria experts on the subject use to delimit when we are faced with a case of extended suicide, risk factors and comment on why it is a controversial expression.
Extended suicide is a tragic event in which the individual first ends the life of a loved one, usually a son or daughter, and then commits suicide The victim of the person who will end up committing suicide is usually a person whom he is fond of, and considers that, far from taking away his future, he is saving him from an adverse future.
In this type of homicide, it is not that the mother, or the father, depending on the situation, hates her children or other close beings, or has had largely negligent behavior towards them. We are not talking about a case in which the homicidal-suicidal person has previously committed abuse. Suicide is not an act of repentance for the murder of a loved one , but they coincide in time. She first makes sure to take his life and then takes it from herself.
Usually, the person who commits this act is deeply depressed, having a very pessimistic idea of how the future will go for both themselves and their loved ones. Due to this pattern of thinking, and considering that there is no way out of the dead end in which they believe they are, the mother or father decides, as an act that they understand as altruistic, to end their child’s life and then end with his own.
The way in which the life of the child or loved one ends is usually more or less rapid and, in most cases, as painless as possible The homicidal person tries to avoid all suffering for his son, even though he is doing her the greatest evil of all evils: murdering him. Among these “soft” and less traumatic methods of murder are the use of psychotropic drugs, gas release, stabbing in strategic and fast-bleeding areas, jumping from a great height…
According to Save the Children, around 24% of the deaths of boys and girls recorded since 2012 were murders perpetrated by their mothers, 36% by their fathers and 7% as a result of suicide due to bullying. The remaining 33% of child deaths were due to reckless homicides or murders carried out by people outside the family. About a third of mothers who murder their children attempt suicide afterwards, and 23% of them succeed.
What signs indicate that we are facing this type of homicide?
There are diagnostic criteria to determine that there is a case of extended suicide , or that the person is at risk of trying to take the life of a loved one and then attempting suicide. The most notable are the following:
Risk factor’s
Different explanations have been given to understand why a person, in most cases women who commit homicide-suicide, commits extended suicide, although in most cases the explanation resorts to psychopathology, especially when suffering from depression. elderly.
In most cases, these are women who are depressed , whether due to abuse or other factors such as marital breakdowns and financial problems. They are so desperate that they do not believe there is going to be a better alternative than death. It is especially common when the person has psychotic or delusional symptoms, such as those that can be found in cases of paranoid schizophrenia.
It has been seen that suicidal history prior to carrying out this extended suicide attempt, whether successful or not, is a risk factor. In addition to this, suffer from a serious personality disorder , such as BPD, is something that can significantly influence the achievement of this type of homicide-suicide. Substance use and intoxication can also contribute to its occurrence.
To all this, We should not make the mistake of stigmatizing mothers who have gone through or are going through a depressive episode, have been diagnosed with schizophrenia or, in the past, have committed suicide attempts. As we have already seen, abuse and marital problems, along with work and economic problems, can cause a person to feel so overwhelmed by events that they see no way to keep their children safe, and decide to end everything at once. time.
A controversial concept
Killing a child or another loved one, whatever the motivation that pushes you to commit this type of act, is something despicable and certainly cannot be justified in any way, whether you are a man or a woman.
The expanded concept of suicide has been criticized , given that, sometimes, and as some media outlets present it, rather than treating it for what it is, a homicide followed by a suicide, it is presented in a very different way to the aggressor. Depending on the ideology of the medium, the fact that a mother murders her son can be seen either as a heroic act against sexist society, or just the opposite, emphasizing the lack of criticism towards the behavior of the person. she has killed
It is important to highlight that There is little information about the number of cases in which, really, we would be facing an expanded suicide itself. That is, her mother ends the life of her child because she does not see a promising future.
In these cases we would be dealing with a person who is suffering from a psychological problem, mostly depressive type combined with psychotic symptoms and delusional ideas. This does not condone the homicidal act, but it allows us to understand that whoever has done it does not do it out of revenge or hatred towards the husband or the victim but rather believes that he is being altruistic.
On the other hand, there would be the idea that, indeed, there are cases, although few, in which the mother would not have any mental disorder and the homicidal act would have been committed in a context of domestic violence, in a situation that would have gone away. of the hands.
The records in which cases of extended suicide are taken into account are made a posteriori, that is, once they have happened and the suicidal person can no longer explain their reality because they are dead.
This means that the investigation, although efficient in most cases, does not always know with complete accuracy what the motivation of the murderer-suicide was. If the person was depressed but did not go to a professional, there will be no medical or psychiatric history that allows the murder to be contextualized and, if it were the case that she was the one who committed abuse but the husband did not report it, it becomes difficult to be sure if the husband’s statements after the event are true or invented.
Given all this, there is a final reflection, and that is that Mood disorders and domestic violence should not be underestimated whoever the aggressor and the victim are.
Everyone can suffer, at some point in their lives, depression, which can worsen depending on the personality characteristics of the individual and factors external to them, such as the experience of abuse that hundreds of women suffer every day. and that are related to the majority of cases of extended suicide seen in the media. It has to do with the situation that you have had to live in and certain factors that have predisposed you to believe that the best thing you can do is end everything this way.
Everyone can live in a situation where, far from seeking a realistic solution or seeking support from loved ones and authorities, they believe that the best ending of all is death. The person who is suffering should be helped as soon as possible react to symptoms of extreme sadness that may indicate psychopathology, see if progressive isolation is occurring or the person does not show signs of enjoying what they previously liked.
It is for all this that it is vitally important to understand that psychiatric units specialized in seeing how the mother-child bond (or father-son as the case may be) should be established and encouraged to observe If there is a risk of this type of homicide-suicide being committed In addition, interventions in the face of suicidal crises should be refined and ensure that, especially, the child or loved one involved in the suicidal act is not hurt.
The intervention must be multidisciplinary , in which psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists and doctors work in a collaborative and coordinated manner to ensure the maximum well-being of both the mother/father and their children in the event of a case of mood disorder. Greater sensitivity is also necessary on the part of other professionals who do not work directly with psychiatric patients or cases of abuse, such as gynecologists, family doctors and paediatricians.
