Suicide prevention with La Sad on the Sanremo 2024 stage. Why is it so important to talk about it?

«NIt's not you, it's me.” “I don't know why I do it.” “I just know that I don't want to suffer anymore.” These are the phrases on the signs that accompanied the performance in Sanremo by The Sad. Words that hit like a punch in the stomach, because written by young people who took their own lives.

The punk trio has chosen to bring an important and delicate topic to the Ariston stagewhich is still talked about too little today: that of young people's suicides and the importance of prevention.

And to do so, La Sad has decided to hold up on this occasion the activity of Telephone Friend Italyan association committed since 1967 to offering a possibility of listening and dialogue to anyone who has been in a state of emotional crisis or emergency for years continues the awareness campaign #don'ttalkaboutitissuicide.

«The suicide it is the second cause of death among young people”, explains the National President of Telefono Amico Italia Monica Petra in a post on Instagram. «These are alarming data that concern all of us and that must push us to never lower our attention to prevention and to remind us that It is always possible to talk about your suicidal thoughts. It is possible to find help and discuss with someone to transform your emotions. And music is a very sweet and powerful tool for expressing emotions. For this reason we are particularly grateful to the La Sad project which they decided to bring to the Sanremo stage this evening the message that not talking about it is suicide».

The latest data made available by Telefono Amico Italia, last October, on the occasion of the World Suicide Prevention Daythey talk about beyond 3700 requests for help to manage suicidal thoughts in the first 6 months of 2023 alone.

The phenomenon often concerns young people: numbers in hand it is estimated that Every year around the world there are around 46 thousand suicides among adolescents.

Talk about it and try to dismantle the taboos that weigh on this topic it is essential to convey, especially to younger people, the message that i Suicidal thoughts are a sign of internal distress which we should not be ashamed of and which we can talk about to find a solution.

«We have been carrying out awareness campaigns for many years because There is still too little talk about this topic. It still weighs a lot stigma which leads those who have suicidal thoughts to feel ashamed, to feel wrong and therefore not being able to talk about it” – explains Cristina Rigon, vice president of Telefono Amico Italia.

Added to this is the difficulty many parents have in addressing the topic with their children. «There is the fear of emulation – explains Cristina Rigon – but above all the fear of not knowing how to address the topic with the right words and of not knowing how to manage a thought as strong as the suicidal one. Often we prefer to minimizesaying 'you'll get over it', staying on the surface.”

While the kids would need to talk about it.

«Nelle In our chats and emails we receive lots of contacts from young people who want to address this topic – says Cristina Rigon again. – They want to talk, they want make explicit the idea that they are thinking about suicide. We must think that the youngest have still lived a small slice of life, they don't have the experience to be able to understand that what they are experiencing today will perhaps pass tomorrow. They don't see the nuances. This is why it is even more important to give them the opportunity to open up and talk about it».

Without forgetting that the prevention also involves the need to dismantle a false myth that is still quite widespread: or the one according to which anyone who decides to take their own life does so without warning. In most cases, in fact, it is possible to detect warning signals, both behavioral and verbal, signals that everyone must be aware of. And talking about it also serves this purpose.

To accompany La Sad's performance on the Ariston stage, together with Francesco, volunteer of Telefono Amico Italia, also Rocchina Stoppelli, president of The Blue Cup, suicide prevention organization founded in memory of his daughter Giulia who, shortly before turning 17, took her own life, leaving behind some letters in which she wrote: «I don't know why I do it.”.

“We think that she did not recognize the thoughts that were passing through her and was unable to give voice to them, to find the words to express them”, we read on the website of the organization which aims precisely to try to recognize and give voice to these suicidal thoughts that sometimes cross the minds of teenagers, promoting post-traumatic prevention and intervention activities.

The third sign that appeared on stage during the performance of The Sad it is ultimately that of Beatrice De Lucaco-founder of All Knotted (Instagram @tuttoannodato), a project born following the Andrea's suicide18 years old, his high school friend.