Covert suicide: what it is, characteristics and examples

Suicide is currently one of the main health challenges worldwide, as it constitutes a serious public health problem. And it is that according to statistical studies of the World Health Organization (WHO), the annual number of suicides worldwide ranges between 800,000 and 1,000,000 households; what has been a suicide case every 40 seconds.

When an undercover suicide has occurred, it is difficult to detect whether a death was actually caused by an accident or whether it was suicide. In the case of covert suicide, the person has chosen a way of committing suicide in a way that raises the suspicion that it is an accident.

In this article we will see what is covered suicide and some details about how it is usually carried out.

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What is covert suicide?

Sigmund Freud already spoke in his day of covert suicide, postulating that in addition to suicide that responds to an action that has been deliberate by the subject himself, there is also another type of suicide caused in order to respond to purposes at the unconscious level of the subject, this being suicide covert.

We speak of a suicide undercover as those cases in which it is difficult to know if the person has died as a result of an accident or if it is a suicide. And it is that the limits of a covert suicide are very diffuse, so in most of these cases it is very difficult to differentiate if a death was caused by an undercover suicide or is a accident.

It is very important for professionals in the field do some very rigorous tests in order to clarify the differences between an undercover suicide case and those where the deceased person was prone to be exposed to high-risk situations, being frequent that in these people, who like to practice risky activities, there are mastery purposes or a search for reaffirmation of one's own self above the search for death, so in this second case we would speak of an accident and not of a suicide.

Those cases in which people practice activities with a very high risk (for example, climbing skyscrapers, practicing some activity dangerous without adequate protections or participate in illegal motorcycle or car races without being a professional or without doing it on a prepared circuit for it) have been baptized as "suicide orders". In these cases, if a death occurred, it would be very difficult to differentiate if it was due to an accident or if it was a concealed suicide.

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Most common forms of covert suicide

There are many ways in which a covert suicide has been carried out, but it is difficult to detect whether it was caused intentionally or if, on the contrary, it is an accident. We will explain below some of the most common ways to carry out a covert suicide.

1. Unexplained traffic accidents

There have been many cases in which a traffic accident has occurred that is difficult to explain how it could have happened in such circumstances, which is why researchers consider the hypothesis that it was due to suicide covert.

In investigations into suicide, numerous cases have been found that have been caused by the intention of the injured person to take their own life, which also has been called autocides.

In the event that an autocide has occurred, it is often officially reported that it has been a traffic accident in order to protect the family of the deceased person from stigma Social.

Studies in this regard estimate that autocides or suicides account for more than 5% of deaths in traffic accidents, and that figure can rise to 15% in the United States.

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2. Overdose

When an overdose death occurs, experts in the field say it is not easy know if the person has accidentally overdosed the substance or if he has done so with the intention of committing suicide; as happened a few years ago in two very notorious cases such as that of the actresses Marilyn Monroe and that of Romy Scheneider.

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3. Poisoning

In cases of death due to poisoning, something similar occurs in cases of overdose. And it is that in these cases also It is very complex to find out if the death was the result of an accident or if it was a case of undercover suicide.

4. Domestic accidents

There are cases of domestic deaths that have occurred due to an accident at home that can lead to suspicions that it could be behind a covert suicide as a cause, being a very complicated hypothesis of show.

5. Drowning

There are studies that investigated various cases of drowning in various countries, finding that behind many drownings could be a covert suicide, which proposed a preliminary hypothesis for psychological autopsies on suicide by drowning.

The high number of drowning cases suspected of being caused by covert suicide in elderly people in Japan, with a rate of 13.5 cases per 100,000 among elderly Japanese women, which is higher than the rest of the age and sex groups. However, it was also found that the number of cases of suicide by drowning was less than that of drowning by accident.

In all these cases, the experts in performing the autopsy and forensic examination, after having performed the corresponding tests, will be those in charge of clarifying what was the cause of death, being able to contemplate the hypothesis that it was a suicide covert.

Therefore, experts in the field affirm that not all suicides that are recorded are truly a suicide, but are the result of an accident. At the same time, not all suicide deaths are proven, as is the case with many covert suicides.

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Pseudosuicides

In addition to covert suicide, there are other forms of suicide in which it is very difficult to know if the cause was the result of suicide, such as pseudosuicides.

There is a series of behaviors whose final result is the death of the person who carries out those behaviors, but in these cases the samples collected and the evidence point rather to the hypothesis that the person had no intention of committing suicide.

Pseudosuicides cover all those situations in which the cognitive and volitional capacities of the deceased subject are seriously affected, as is the case in those cases in which the person had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia or a confessional state, so that the hypothesis that this person could have committed suicide is rejected person.

However, part of the scientific community agrees that in these cases the death could be suicide. For this reason, statistical diagnostic manuals of great importance in the field of mental health, such as the DSM-5, propose "suicidal behavior disorder" as a diagnosis for future editions, although there are still more studies in this regard.

In suicidal behavior disorder, criteria D and E are specifiers about the fact that the act that caused the death was not carried out during a period of time. state of confusion or during a delirium, and that was not carried out for a political or religious objective, so that these specified serve to discard the medical causes and the spiritual and social motivations, so that in these cases we could be talking about another covert suicide or a pseudosuicide.