Tell Me More About Suicide: Risks, Warning Signs, and Resources
June 16, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.
We’ve taken a look at famous people who have attempted suicide, as well as celebrities who committed suicide, so let’s now look at suicide itself: some of the causes of suicide, warning signs of suicide, and resources for people considering suicide.
Please keep in mind that this post is just an overview – and a brief one at that – and by no means meant to act as a substitute for medical professional advice.
Read on.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, three years ago, in 2004, suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s estimated that per every completed suicide there are at least 8 to 25 attempted suicides.
Back in May 2008 I posted Suicide Warning Signs: In Light Of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Within that post are:
- Suicide warning signs, as well as questions you can ask yourself and observations you can make regarding your loved ones who may be contemplating suicide.
- Suggestions on what to do if you think or know for sure a loved one is planning suicide, i.e. get help.
- Web sites and organizations to check out for help with suicidal situations.
I also highly recommend checking out the following:
- Suicide: You Are Not Exempt – Marijke Durning shares the experience of her brother’s suicide with Mental Health Notes.
- The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance’s very thorough section on suicide prevention which aims to help you better understand suicidal thinking, offers suggestions on how to cope with and get help for suicidal thoughts, helps you better recognize suicide warning signs, and describes how you can respond to a suicidal situation. The DBSA also provides a round up of suicide hot lines and Web sites.
- The National Institute of Mental Health’s section Suicide in the U.S.: Statistics and Prevention, which also covers risk factors and what roles age, gender, and ethnicity play in suicide statistics.
- Two sections from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Web site: The Emergency Department Resource Toolkit, which provides downloadable versions of informative brochures for consumers, families, and providers, and their intensive section covering resources, organizations, and discussion and support groups.
If you are contemplating suicide, please get help. If you so much as suspect someone you know is contemplating suicide, please get help. There are resources available to you, and there are people out there trained and willing to give you the help you need.
Image: morgueFile
Wow Alicia – I’d forgotten about writing that. I’ve been feeling really stressed the past day or – that overwhelming kind of stress, brought on by happy events (my youngest’s grad) and stressful events (my Wed. wisdom teeth). I’ve been anxious, teary, and I definitely couldn’t sleep last night.
I needed to read this. I am a huge, huge, huge believer in everything happens for a reason, even JP’s death, we just don’t know always what the reason is and sometimes we never do. And there was a reason why I followed the link to this post and then decided to read my own writing.
Thank you. This day just got a lot better.
Marijke
@ Marijke – I’m really glad it could make your day better
I agree, there are reasons for everything, and I also agree that sometimes we may never know the reasons (and that’s so frustrating at times, isn’t it? It takes patience, practice, and acceptance to be able to say “I may never know why that happened” and still feel “OK” with it).
Your comment is so related to the stress I’ve experienced in the past week, too (good and bad). I may post about it later.
Congratulations on your youngest’s graduation and good luck with your wisdom teeth!
Actually, according to NIMH, in 2004 suicide was the 11th leading cause of death, not the leading cause.
Part of the problem with predicting suicide is that it is such a rare event, especially (as you mentioned) since there are so many more attempted suicides for each completed. It even goes beyond that, in that there are many more people who strongly consider suicide than attempt.
Just remember all: Asking someone if they are thinking about suicide does not make them any more likely to act on it. It’s good to talk about these things… people considering suicide need support and help to keep them safe.
@ Darin – Thanks for chiming in! And thanks for the correction – writing all the celebrity health posts left me a bit drained, behind, and rushed to get them done. Good thing I linked to it.
You make a really good point about the fear of asking someone about suicide – lots of folks probably think if they ask their family, friends, or anyone else whether they’re contemplating suicide, it may trigger them to actually go ahead and attempt it (if they were contemplating it).
Nice Web site, by the way.