BE: 13.9/100K
FR: 9.7/100K
DE: 8.3/100K
LUX: 8.6/100K
NL: 9.3/100K

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

38 comments

  5. Hypocrite deep rooted catholic mentality of blaming and judging others instead of offering help. Even within families, people will be ghosted when they have trouble, be it financial, medical, mental… Catholics have ruined the lives of whole generations by using the guilt trap. It’s disgusting and still influences society till today.

  6. My guess would be that mental health services are not as good as in other places or people go un-diagnosed or did not get help until it’s too late. Mental health issues still get a really bad rep for many people around here.

    In my experience at least, too many parents still think that teenagers are just being assh*les when they do have behaviors that are absolute red flags (EDs, drugs, alcohol, self-harm,…). I’ve seen it too many times.

  7. It’s cultural. The Flemish are under stupid social pressure to win a narrow minded rat race for status.

    It’s economical. In the Walloon region the former industrial towns are depressing AF, low job prospects, ..

    This is all conjecture, but those seem to be the differences I’ve seen with our neighbors.

  8. https://www.healthybelgium.be/en/health-status/mental-health/suicidal-behaviour

    I found this. I think we can all make assumptions towards reasons, but this is the study.

    My assumptions were going to be social life, we all hear it is hard to make friends later in life since we are all closed off. Or the rat race we are in that leads to depression or burnouts or just broken relationships.
    I think being more open and talking about our problems will probably help against suicide attempts, not the thoughts.

  9. Insufficient healthcare fot mental wellbeing and bad cultural and social habits.

    Edit: I remember reading an article showing a lot of suicides in rural Wallonia. Without those the Belgian number would be similar to neighbouring countries.

  10. Expat here, from what I’ve heard the waiting lists for psychologists etc are really tough, and it’s hard to get help even if you do decide to get it

  12. Aren’t we all a bit too “jaja ca va?” instead of “feitelijk niet nee”?
    Especially in Flanders I find it very odd that we always try to please other people instead of ourselves.

  14. it has probably several reasons, but culture is a huge one.
    high life standards but closed culture emotionally wise always do poor with suicides, look at Finland or japan.

    i can only speak for the Flemish but they have the tendency to be open and kind but just to a certain degree, and rarely show the tru ‘ back of their tongues’

    wich leads automatically with unprocessed mental issues and frustrations.

    im in my late 30’s now but i remember during my wilder years, the best conversations i had with friends was when they where drunk. it seemed that only by alcohol they dared to speak truly their mind and feelings, whats bothering them or struggle with.

    i live for almost 15 years in Brussels now and being exposed to people from pretty much around the planet made that very confrontational aware how weird that actually is

  15. Because when a child is selfharming, they only do this for “attention”

    And then suddenly they commit suicide and we do a pikachu face.

  16. Not enough talking, like real and deep talking with proper listening between family, friends and peers. Starts at a young age already. “EN HADDE EEN GOE RAPPORT MANNEKE” and the kid is ignored for the rest of the family gathering.

  17. I think that part of the reason is that mental health really doesn’t get the attention it needs. Dunno if other countries do it better or worse, but I was talking with a friend last week. He’s had two suicide attempts last year and is coping with depression and addiction. He wants to get back to work, but his employer refuses to allow him to return part-time – it’s full-time or nothing. And this reflects both the attitude of employers not being able to understand mental health, but also the system not allowing people who want to transition back into a normal life to actually do so.

    So, basically, he has to ‘fix’ his mental health before he can get back to work, but therapy and treatments cost a lot of money and aren’t reimbursed the way ‘real’ medical problems are reimbursed. He’s told me that he’s had to dip into his savings several times already, despite the fact that he’s now living with his parents and doesn’t have to pay rent or mortgage. Such situations really drag you into a downward spiral with no good way back up.

    We often talk about Belgium’s very good ‘sociale vangnet’, and we do certainly have that, but keeping people at rock bottom indefinitely isn’t all that useful either.

  18. Went to psychologist for first time yesterday. Paid 60 euros and I’m getting 10 euros back. For someone to listen to me for an hour this is not suitable.

  19. Heb je al eens proberen te leven in België?
    De overheid is er alleen voor zichzelf en doet er alles aan om zoveel mogelijk geld uit de belastingbetaler zijn zak te halen, om dan met gulle hand het geld weg te geven aan bedrijven en de meest onzinnige VZW’s.
    [https://www.hln.be/geld/duizend-grootste-bedrijven-van-ons-land-betalen-amper-12-6-procent-belastingen~a7e9e518/](https://www.hln.be/geld/duizend-grootste-bedrijven-van-ons-land-betalen-amper-12-6-procent-belastingen~a7e9e518/)

  20. As a suicidal person.

    – Social pressure to be the perfect person

    – psychological help is not being advertised or promoted (i pay €60 every week on psychologist)

    – close mindedness, i heard this from a close family member “shrinks and psychologist are as crazy as their patients”

    – introvert, we tend to DIY solve our own problems without “bothering” the experts that spend years learning how to help people.

    In short an underdeveloped system for mental health, pride and stubbornness.

  23. They should check rate by cities, but I belive Brussels will be the winner.

    Because entire city is GREY. While weather of city is already dark, cloudy or rainy for 5-6 months, I don’t know whose idea it is to paint entire grey/brown tones which are depressive colours.

  25. As with most things probably is multifactoral. Couple of ones I can think of are:

    * Culture focused on hard work. Being burned out, sick or tired is seen as weak (generally).
    * Poorly organised (mental) multidisciplinary healthcare
    * Lacking of state-of-the-art treatments in Belgium (especially compared to NL) and the coverage of those treatments.
    * Mental health being very taboo in young people (“depressed? Please you should’ve been born in the 60’s! I had to conscript in the army!” – most people above 40)
    * I’m probably going to eat downvotes for this one but: the cultural tendency to disregard males in feminazi ruled times. Especially men above 40, which make up a large portion of suicides, are unheard (and are likely to lose child care and financial assets in a divorce).
    * Social media
    * (Cyber)bullying

    These are the main ones I can think of. Feel free to add.

  26. Probably includes euthanasia numbers, Belgium is a rare country allowing euthanasia ‘tourism’ so numbers would be inflated.

  27. Because it’s hard to make new friends in belgium, the weather is always bad, we work fulltime, we have no nature, we have traffic jams, we have this idea of having friends then starting a family, once you start a family you are basically living in a bubble until they are 18, you see your narcist know it all bomma and bompa every sunday, rinse and repeat

  29. Culture of people pleasing and putting the community first; Belgians are pragmatic and prioritise what they believe is best for the greater good but sometimes the greatest good you can do is to be honest with yourself and seek the necessary help. If you’re struggling, just know you’re not alone and you CAN do something about it. Take care 💪💪

  30. A lot of these comments focus on the listening side, and yes mental health services are inadequate in this country and most people are content with a cava? cava. But what I think is more of a problem is the talking part. At least I never learned how to talk about stuff. I have a good circle of friends, but there is always this idea of not bothering them with what is truly going on. I know I can talk with them about anything, and I do to a degree, but not about the root causes, always about the things that are caused by it. It’s a mentality problem that I think permeates the whole Belgian society. We are good at fixing the small stuff and tend delay the big stuff. This house is crap, but one more annex should fix. Putting make up on a pig so it is passable. From politics to daily interactions, it is what we do.

    Keep calm and carry on might be synonymous with the UK, but I feel Belgians perfected it. Until they can’t any more.

  31. On top of the reasons people have already stated here, I also feel like we lack a sense of community. The warm kind not the gossip-about-the-neighbours and what-will-people-think kind. Gemeenschapsgevoel.

  33. zero community feeling, rude people everywhere. I’ve traveled all over the world and its SUCH a big difference compared to other places.

  34. In reality there’s a big difference in reporting. Guy jumps from window, country a does a small investigation and labels it as an accident and country b does a large investigation and labels it as suicide.

    It’s to compare countries who approach things in a different manner.

  35. You don’t have a house by 30? Looooooseeeer!

    Your income is low? Looooseeeer!

    No spouse?

    Cheap car?

    Personaly I don’t care what others say or have, I live my life on my terms, but I can see through my colleagues how they are brainwashed to be fixed on getting something done before a given milestone age. Sometimes regardless of the financial burden it will bring at as soon point.

    One guy was so fixed about buying a house asap, he was living like a worm because he barely met the initial costs and become quickly depressed as hell.

    Few were fixed on having a mercedess C/E or bmw 3/5 that they took crippling loans and further were hit with maintenance costs of having a premium car.

    Priorities of some not awesome earners are not on pair with their income, they want something so bad they get depressed when not having it, or get in financial troubles by buying more they can afford. And people around are not helping, as everyone shows off what they have on social media, ommiting the behind the scenes.

  36. I went to multiple psychologists and i have felt like it really did not help.. like at all.. zero fucking advice i could use. Eventually i stopped trying to find a right psychologist cause it cost me too much.

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