Suicide Help – Seeing the Signs

The recent wave of high-profile celebrity suicides, like Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, raises a host of questions. What causes people to resort to suicide? Why has suicide increased 25 percent over the last twenty years? Is suicide preventable? More shocking still is to hear that in half of suicides, people had not been diagnosed with any mental health issue, such as depression or anxiety.

Not many people have been left untouched by suicide. Most of us have experienced family members, friends, or coworkers who’ve wrestled with suicidal ideation, attempted suicide, or lost their lives in completed suicide. Survivors are left with feelings of guilt (Did I miss something? Could I have helped?), despair (How could this happen? What pain they must have felt to carry this out. How will I go on with my life?), and anger (What a selfish and stupid thing to do. How could they do this?)The first feeling of survivor guilt – feeling that you missed signs or signals from your loved one – may be the most haunting. Part of the helplessness experienced by survivors relates to feelings that the situation is out of your hands. Only people who commit suicide can control what they are doing. Survivors are only left with prevention. However, it is worth knowing the warning signs so that intervention may come earlier for this “permanent solution for a temporary problem.”

1. Feeling Like a Burden: Those who contemplate suicide often feel like a burden to those around them, and may express this in different ways. Their sense of self-value is extremely low. They will often talk about wanting to kill themselves or simply “not wanting to be around” anymore.

2. Isolation: People will isolate from others around them and withdraw. They will stop sharing information and emotions with others, and stick to themselves.

3. Substance Use Changes: Increases in substance use sometimes can signal intensified suicidal ideation. Substances may be used to “numb out” intolerable feelings of anxiety and depression, and unfortunately, contribute to making decisions, in the moment, to take their own lives.