Understanding suicidal behaviour – Part one

Given the recent acts of suicide locally and internationally; many conversations have again begun as people try to make sense of the possible reasons why someone would take his or her own life, leaving many loved ones behind to mourn.

I have chosen to repost this article which seeks to offer some insight into the phenomenon of Suicide.

Suicide is the act of taking one’s own life on purpose. Suicidal behavior is any action that could cause a person to die, such as taking a drug overdose (pain medications), ingesting poisonous substances or even crashing a car on purpose.

There is no single explanation that can account for all self-destructive behavior. I will adopt the features posited by Edwin Shneidman, a clinical psychologist who is a leading authority on suicide, when he described 10 characteristics that are commonly associated with completed suicide. Schneidman’s list includes features that occur most frequently and may help us understand many cases of suicide.

1. The common purpose of suicide is to seek a solution.

Suicide is not a pointless or random act. We must understand that, to persons who think about ending their own lives, suicide represents an answer to an otherwise insoluble problem or a way out of some unbearable dilemma. Take for instance, a teenager who finds his or herself wrapped up in some situation, where in their minds it is hopeless and it is going to cause them to either be publicly condemned or ridicule. Recently I heard of a young lady attempting suicide because someone released some indecent photos of her on the Internet; her attempt at suicide was a choice that was somehow preferable to another set of dreaded circumstances, emotional distress, or disability, which in her mind was much more feared than death.

Attraction to suicide as a potential solution may be increased by a family history of similar behavior. If someone else whom the person admired or cared for has committed suicide, then the person is more likely to do so.

2. The common goal of suicide is cessation of consciousness.

People who commit suicide seek the end of the conscious experience; they desire to ‘skip out of reality.’ They feel that this will put a stop to what has become an endless stream of distressing thoughts with which they are preoccupied. Suicide offers oblivion. Visualize someone living in a situation where day in and day out they feel tormented by family members, persons in the community…my mind goes to someone diagnosed with HIV; so many times we hear of their torturous experiences…this can undoubtedly trigger the thoughts of suicide for such a person.

3. The common stimulus (or information input) in suicide is intolerable psychological pain.

Excruciating negative emotions – including shame, guilt, anger, fear, and sadness – frequently serve as the foundation for self-destructive behavior. These emotions may arise from any number of sources. For instance, a child believing they have caused shame and embarrassment on their family by the choices they have made.

4. The common stressor in suicide is frustrated psychological needs.

People with high standards and expectations are especially vulnerable to ideas of suicide when progress toward these goals is suddenly frustrated. People who attribute failure or disappointment to their own shortcomings may come to view themselves as worthless, incompetent or unlovable. Family turmoil is an especially important source of frustration to adolescents. Occupational and interpersonal difficulties frequently precipitate suicide among adults. For example, rates of suicide increase during periods of high unemployment (Yang et al.,1992).

5. The common emotion in suicide is hopelessness-helplessness.

A pervasive sense of hopelessness, defined in terms of pessimistic expectations about the future, is even more important than other forms of negative emotion, such as anger and depression, in predicting suicidal behavior (Weishaar & Beck, 1992). The suicidal person is convinced that absolutely nothing can be done to improve his or her situation; no one else can help.

6. The common internal attitude in suicide is ambivalence.

Most people, who contemplate suicide, including those who eventually kill themselves, have ambivalent feelings about this decision. They may be sincere in their desire to die, but they simultaneously wish that they could find another way out of their dilemma.

Dr Jozelle Miller
Health Psychologist
Milton Cato Memorial Hospital
To be Continued next week