This is a subject that still remains taboo. Each year, around 9,000 deaths by suicide are recorded in France, or nearly 25 deaths per day. For the many families affected by this tragedy, mourning is extremely complicated.
In the documentary “Suicide: They Break the Silence” which will be broadcast on France 2, Wednesday January 29, host Olivier Delacroix collected testimonies from several people who have had to deal with the suicide of a loved one.
A documentary on France 2
During filming, he notably crossed paths with Nathalie, who lives in Redon, in the south of Ille-et-Vilaine. She has been living with deep trauma since the suicide of her eldest son, Arthur, a few years ago.
Just when he seemed to have found his place in the army, the thirty-year-old seriously injured his knee. “He wanted to save lives,” his mother confides in the documentary. “When he had this injury, he knew that he would not make corporal because he would no longer be able to participate in the sports tests.”
Plunged into a deep depression, Arthur ended his life two months after leaving the army. “I didn’t sleep for three nights,” Nathalie recalls. “I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. I felt abandoned.”
-Feeling of guilt
With Olivier Delacroix, she also admits to having been overcome by a form of feeling of guilt. “We blame each other. I wondered what I hadn't seen. Why didn't I talk to him more? A mother's role is to watch over her children. I didn’t know how to protect him.”
If Nathalie has now picked up the thread of her life as best she can, her precious testimony shows the lasting impact that suicide leaves on a family and the extent to which prevention remains more essential than ever.
A documentary to be found on Wednesday January 29 at 10:50 p.m. on France 2 and on france.tv
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