CHECK Berlin #2

EN
psychology
thoughts. Of course, it was
his right to decide when he
wanted to go. But did he really
think it through? Could
he really not see what other
options were out there for
him? Or did we all just not
want to hear it? Cheer up,
Tobi. It’ll be fine, Tobi. Smile,
Tobi. Unfortunately it’s a
sad fact in life: Unless you
pretend to this world it will
disown you. It‘s understandable
to not want to live in
such a world. But there are
other ways than to leave it
completely.
Had I just sat down
with you
You can go see a therapist
and build an environment
for yourself where you are
loved the way you are. You
can fight this world and
change it until it suits you
better. Indifference is not a
bad thing either, but it must
not become an end in itself.
It must help to filter out the
harmful and bad in order
to retain enough strength
to continue to be able to
see the useful and good.
But would these thoughts
have helped him? I replay
the situation in my head:
Tobi on the bench at Motzki,
me on the way somewhere.
Instead of just saying hi
and moving on, I stop and
sit with him. If I had asked
him what was wrong and he
had truthfully answered „I
don‘t want to live anymore“ I
would not have known what
to say. And that‘s exactly
what I should have told him.
That and that I will sit with
him without knowing what
to say until he wants to live
again. (ts)
* name changed by editor.
Helplines and emergency aid
There are 105 telephone counseling centers in Germany, supported
by the Evangelical and Catholic Church. Calls to 0800/111 0 111 or
0800/111 0 222 are free of charge. In many other countries there
are similar offers, which are listed at https://www.ifotes.org/ or
https://www.befrienders.org.
SUICIDE AND CORONA - FIGURES FOR BERLIN
The research portal
correctiv.org stated that
reports about the increase
in suicides in Berlin „by 300
percent“ since the start of
the corona measures has
been a misleading presentation.
Overall, emergency
calls for suspected suicidal
acts decreased from January
to April 2020 compared
to 2019.
The increase of 300 percent
relates only to a specific application
code of the Berlin
emergency services: the
one for jumps with a suicidal
intent from more than
ten meters high. Emergency
calls for “suicidal incidents”
in Berlin decreased overall
in the first four months of
2020 compared to the same
period in the previous year.
From January to the end of
April 2019, 3.348 emergency
calls were received with a
code reference to self-harming
behavior. From January
to the end of April 2020
there were only 3,172. This
indicates a decline of 5.3
percent.
However, there were also
deviations upwards, such
as the „deliberate intake of
medication overdoses with
triggered breathing difficulties“
(67 cases, increase
of 31 percent), the „deliberate
overdose of tricyclic
antidepressants“ (17 cases,
increase of 89 percent by
April) and the „combination
of acute suicide risk in
connection with violent behavior“
(69 cases, increase
of 15 percent).
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