Myths About Suicide
There are several commonly held inaccurate beliefs about suicide. These include the following from Understanding Suicide, Life Skills Education, Inc.
Those who talk about suicide don’t do it: In fact, three out of four suicide victims have talked about it beforehand. The suicidal person usually goes through a period of deep depression, and talking about suicide is a way of letting others know about their pain. Sometimes the messages are very direct (i.e., “I’d like to kill myself”) but often they are less direct (i.e., “You would be better off if I wasn’t around,” and “I wish I could sleep and never wake up”).
Those who attempt suicide and fail are unlikely to try again: In fact; 4 out of 5 who complete suicide have attempted it at least once before. When someone tries suicide they do so because they are unhappy with life or themselves and feel hopeless about being able to change either. If these feelings about life do not change, or if new coping skills are not developed, another attempt is likely.
All those who attempt suicide really want to die: As mentioned earlier in this article, those who attempt suicide are in great psychological pain, and want to change their lives. The attempt is frequently a call for help. This is supported by the fact that most attempts occur in afternoon and evening hours, and often at home when others are around. These factors add to the likelihood of being discovered and saved. Typically the person attempting suicide is ambivalent about whether or not they want to live. Even when the person truly wants to die at the moment of the attempt, this is frequently a passing impulse, and if they survive the attempt they welcome it when help is offered to them and resume their wish to live.
Non-lethal attempts are only a means of getting attention, and should not be taken seriously: Any attempt to end one’s life needs to be thought of as a serious statement that the person is in pain and does not feel capable of living. If the call for help goes unanswered, the next attempt may be fatal.
It couldn’t have been a suicide, if there wasn’t a note: No more than one third of suicides leave a message behind.
Young people have so few problems they’ve got no reason to commit suicide: Only accidents and homicides kill more people in the 15-24 age range than does suicide. The Center for Disease Control states that 5,000 people in this range kill themselves each year, with perhaps as many as half a million making an attempt.
If someone has decided to kill themselves there is nothing you can do about it: There is a small number of people who have unalterably decided to kill themselves and will successfully complete the act no matter what one tries to do to prevent it. For the overwhelming majority, however, they would choose to live if they thought their lives would be different from the one they are living.
Talking to someone about suicide will only “increase the likelihood of someone doing it:” No one kills themselves because someone refers to suicide. Saying the word will not put the idea into their heads. The best way to find out if someone is considering suicide is to simply, and directly ask them: i.e. “Do you want to die?” or “Are you thinking of killing yourself?” If someone is so depressed that they are considering suicide it is best to get it out in the open where it can be discussed. Talking to someone who cares about what happens to them can be the first step in breaking the pattern of isolation and hopelessness.
Suicide: the Final Statement.
Indicators of suicidal thinking:
Approximately four fifths of those who successfully complete suicide are severely depressed. Many bouts of depression are moderately short lived and if the person can be helped through the episode they have a good chance of recovery. We are talking here of severe depression, not the transient feeling of sadness all of us experience from time to time.
Among the symptoms of depression that can (but not necessarily will) lead to suicide are the following (from Understanding Suicide by Life Skills Education, Inc.):
-Fatigue—uncharacteristic and unexplainable exhaustion coupled with an inability to concentrate on manageable tasks.
-Sleeping Disorders—alteration of normal sleeping patterns, e.g. restless sleep, insomnia, constant sleeping.
-Changes in unusual eating habits—a sudden change in appetite, either increased or decreased.
-Changes in personal appearance.
-Difficulty in decision-making over routine matters, e.g. which clothes to wear, what to eat, what movie to see.
-Slowness of movement, as though great effort were needed to make any move at all.
-Crying over unimportant matters—not crying over the important.
-Anger—irritability over minor causes.
-Use of non-prescribed drugs or the overuse of prescribed drugs.
-Feeling alone when others are readily available.
-Loss of interest in those things that formerly gave a feeling of pleasure or were meaningful.
-Feeling that most things are overwhelmingly difficult.
-Feeling everyone has something you do not have.
-Nagging complaints over minor aches and pains.
-An inability to initiate or maintain close relationships that are both honest and caring.
-Participating in self-destructive behavior, e.g. life-threatening, risk-taking activities such as heavy drinking, reckless driving, violence directed at self or others.
-The inability to resolve difficulties in the past or present, e.g. unstable family environments, alcoholism, incest, child abuse, parental hostility or violence, spouse abuse.
-The inability to accept or adjust to the loss of a meaningful and significant loved one (through death, divorce, or separation).
-The inability to accept or adjust to a dramatic change in lifestyle—such as would be caused by unemployment, business failure, environmental castastrophes.
-An inability to maintain consistent emotional balance, e.g. exaggerated mood swings from depression and lethargy to energy and euphoria.
-It has also been found that those who habitually abuse drugs and alcohol have a higher risk of suicide in response to stressful life situations, than those who are not substance abusers.
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three part series about suicide prevention by Joseph Albert, Ph.D., Director of Counseling Center. The Counseling Center’s e-mail address is counseling@rpi.edu, and Dr. Albert can be reached directly at alberj@rpi.edu.
