Host
Ray Hall
Podcast Content
Most people at risk of suicide do not attempt suicide, and it can be difficult to tell when someone might have suicidal thoughts. However, many people who do not intend to kill themselves end up dead because of signs that they are contemplating or planning a suicide attempt.
Factors influencing the risk of suicide include mental disorders, substance abuse, mental health conditions, cultural, family and social situations, genetic trauma and loss experiences and nihilism. Depression is a major risk factor for suicide, as is psychiatric disorders, drug use, chronic pain, family history of suicide and previous suicide attempts. Most research does not distinguish between the risk factors that lead someone to think about suicide and risk factors that lead to suicide.
People with a condition known as bipolar disorder are at greater risk of suicide because they go through periods of depression and periods of high, hectic energy known as mania.
Research has shown that 46% of people who die by suicide had a known mental illness. Other estimates suggest that about half of all suiciders have been diagnosed with a personality disorder, borderline personality disorder being the most common. More than one in three people who died by suicide were under the influence of alcohol at the time of their death.
Every year 800,000 people take their own lives and many more attempt suicide. Between 0.5 and 1.4 people die by suicide, with a mortality rate of 11.6 per 100,000 person-years. In the United States, the suicide rate is highest among Caucasian men over 80 years of age and younger people who have attempted suicide.
Suicide is when people self-harm with the aim of ending their lives and die as a result. Suicide is a major public health problem and the leading cause of death in the United States. In a suicide attempt, people can harm themselves, but the goal is to end their lives so that they do not die.
Suicide thoughts are based on the realization that people who experience suicidal thoughts and urges often fall through the cracks and fragments of a dispersed health care system. A suicide attempt is when someone harms themselves with the aim of ending their life, but does not die.
As with any mental health problem, there are a number of treatments that can reduce the risk of suicide. Psychotherapy can help people with suicidal thoughts to recognise ineffective patterns of thinking and behaviour, to confirm their feelings and to learn coping skills. Do not take this kind of thought as a devastating outcome; suicide is neither a permanent solution nor a temporary problem.
Based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Mental Health 2018, it is estimated that 0.5 per cent of adults 18 and older have attempted suicide at least once.
The problem of poor-quality mortality data is not limited to suicide, but given the sensitivity of suicide and the illegality of suicidal behavior in some countries, it is likely that reporting a misclassification is a greater problem for suicide than for most other cause of death. To date, very few countries have included suicide prevention in their health priorities and only 38 countries reported to have a national suicide prevention strategy. In the Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, Member States committed to work towards a global target to reduce suicide rates by 10% in all countries by 2020.
Research is helping to improve our ability to identify people at risk of suicide and develop and improve effective treatments. This brochure developed by the National Institute for Mental Health can help you learn more about the warning signs of suicide, suicide prevention options and effective treatment options for you, a friend or family member.
Stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide means that many people who think about taking their own life or attempting suicide do not seek help or get the help they need. Studies have shown that questioning people about suicidal thoughts and behaviors does not lead to an increase in such thoughts.
US law allows border patrol agents to deny access to people with mental illnesses, including those with previous suicide attempts. People who feel suicidal are often unaware that it is depression and not the situation that influences them to see things this way, because it has never been a better way. Some people who end their lives by suicide attempt try to escape feelings of rejection, hurt and loss.