"Many people don't understand why a young person might want to take their own life."

BarcelonaMore and more studies and experts warn that suicide is more common among our youth. The data corroborate this: suicide has become one of the leading causes of death among young people between the ages of 15 and 29. Furthermore, almost 20% of adolescents have thought about suicide at some point in their lives, according to a report on mental health prepared by the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) in collaboration with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). At the same time, according to another report promoted by IDIAPJGol, cases of self-harm among children and young people between the ages of 10 and 24 have experienced an alarming increase of 267% between 2013 and 2022.

It's a reality we can't hide and requires tools from parents, teachers, and guardians to support and help the most vulnerable young people. One of the experts who wanted to sound the alarm is Agustín Bonifacio Guillén, a social worker specializing in child and adolescent mental health and gender identity at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona. For more than twenty years, he has been supporting young people with recurring thoughts about suicide. He has recently published a book about this experience. Plan B (Dome, 2025).

"It's not an easy topic, but it is necessary to talk about it," warns Bonifacio, who prefers to talk more about the concept of hopelessness in life than suicide. According to the author, many factors influence this phenomenon, such as living in a society with an increasingly individualistic discourse, the rise in precariousness and uncertainty, and social media.

"Many people don't understand why a young person would want to take their own life when they have their whole life ahead of them. Well, first you have to feel like you have your whole life ahead of you, and that's not always the case," notes Bonifacio, who also recalls how adolescence has never been an easy time. Who doesn't remember the feelings they had at that fragile age? Add to that other factors, such as problems at home or in their schooling, and the cocktail is ready.

In this context, many adolescents find themselves lacking stable emotional role models. The absence of adult figures who validate their feelings or simply listen to them without judgment can accentuate the feeling of invisibility. Furthermore, intensive use of social media—which often portrays a distorted or unattainable reality—contributes to increased feelings of loneliness, constant comparison, and low self-esteem.

Vulnerable groups

In an article published in 2022 by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, it was found that, as a result of the pandemic, 90% of young people who self-harmed and engaged in suicidal behavior were girls. For the book's author, this finding can also be explained by the fact that, when it comes down to it, girls seek emergency services more often and seek help from the emergency room. "We are seeing that, although it is true that completed suicides occur more among boys, the hopelessness and distress in life are much higher among them. This should prompt us to consider the world we are offering them, because this is a social problem, not a biological one," he laments.

On the other hand, one of the groups particularly vulnerable to lifelong hopelessness is LGBTI+ adolescents. According to a study by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), these young people have a significantly weaker connection with their families and school environments. Factors such as family rejection, peer bullying, and everyday microaggressions are directly associated with increased psychological distress among this group.

Furthermore, adolescents with autism, newly arrived migrants, or people in care often carry a much heavier burden, not to mention cases of bullying or cyberbullying. "I'm struck by a study that indicates how both those targeted and those who have been bullied have a significant rate of hopelessness in life," Bonifacio adds. In fact, 20.4 percent of victims and 16.8 percent of bullies reported in a report by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) that they had attempted suicide at some point. "And many of the young people who suffer bullying don't tell their families about it because they don't care, which means they have to suffer it alone and without asking for help," he continues.

Warning signs

So, how can families and teachers detect when a young person needs help? For Bonifacio, we must first start from the premise that young people, in general, don't have a very good time. Therefore, it's good and necessary to make them understand from the beginning that you will always be there to help them. "You have to leave the door open for them in case they need help," he continues. Beyond this, we must always be alert to sudden mood swings, irritability, abandonment of activities they previously enjoyed, alterations in sleep and nighttime routines, loss of appetite, or a tendency toward isolation.

It can also be helpful to observe their discourse about the future: if they constantly express that nothing makes sense or that nothing is worth trying, these are warning signs. In this sense, it is necessary to value young people's voice, listen actively, and avoid automatic or paternalistic responses. The goal is not to immediately "solve" the problem, but to establish a relationship of trust from which we can work together.

"We know that the main use of AI in 2025 is to seek companionship and therapy. There's a need behind it," the expert continues. So if you detect any kind of pessimistic comments or expressions of a desire to disappear, don't be afraid to consult tools like 024, a suicide hotline that also assists family members. "When in doubt, ask, consult, go to the emergency room, and use all available resources," he emphasizes.

Validate emotions

If, somehow, you find out that a young person in your care is planning to commit suicide, the first thing to do is take a deep breath: "Knowing this can be very scary, but you have to understand that they've entrusted us with something very valuable," says the author. The first step is to acknowledge and validate their emotions, to understand that they're going through a difficult time. "Acknowledgment is different than reinforcement; it's opening a channel of communication and letting the other person know that you understand their pain, that you care, and that you're there to help them and to think together," he points out.

On the contrary, what you should never do is close this channel that has been opened and say things like "it's not that bad," "it'll pass," "with the things you have in life," "you have to look at it from another perspective," or "you'll hurt your family a lot," explains Bonifacio. "Often they don't know who to share it with, so if they tell you, you should validate their emotion and seek help," he continues.

However, as a social worker, the author believes that the public system has many people committed to helping, although the rates of discomfort among healthcare and teaching professionals are very high. "We have a very overloaded system, and the mental health network is not well distributed across the regions," he laments.

Although she advocates for universal, quality access to psychological and psychiatric services, Bonifacio also calls for an end to the growing tendency to psychiatrist and medicate any form of emotional suffering. "We can't diagnose everything, and as a society, we must be able to create lives with hopeful scenarios, such as safe spaces in schools or measures to make life easier for girls and other vulnerable groups," she emphasizes.

In this sense, building more secure relationships, in which active listening and emotional support are promoted, is already an essential step toward breaking the isolation in which many at-risk young people live.