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| Suicide- A cry for help |
Suicide, intentional, self-inflicted death.
A uniquely human act, suicide occurs in all cultures. People who attempt or complete suicide usually suffer from extreme emotional pain and distress and feel unable to cope with their problems. They are likely to suffer from mental illness, particularly severe depression, and to feel hopeless about the future.
FEW FACTS ABOUT SUICIDE.
Hanging is the leading method of suicide worldwide
Suicide is a cry for help
Small minority of suicide is done on impulse
Only 15 to 25 percent of those who kill themselves leave suicide notes.
Three times more women attempt suicide but more men die of it.
Suicide rates also vary between men and women and between ethnic groups. Men complete about 80 percent of all suicides. However, women attempt suicide three times as frequently as men.
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Lowest suicide rate is among priests and nuns.
All suicides have three interrelated and unconscious dimensions: revenge/hate (a wish to kill), depression/hopelessness (a wish to die), and guilt (a wish to be killed).
For a person having suicidal tendencies love and care is never going to be enough because it is not enough to be loved it is the ‘if somebody who needs me’’.
The question in their mind that creates havoc is
“Is there anybody who cares, who needs me, to whom I make a difference?”
Suicide is committed when somebody loses hope.
TINA( there is no alternative)
TAAA( there are always alternatives)
DSH( deliberate self harm) is the process through which we may all go through at one time or other.
WHO ARE SUICIDE PRONE
The suicide rate varies by age group. Of all age groups, the elderly have the highest suicide rates, particularly white men over the age of 75. The increased rate of suicide among elderly people appears mostly due to the debilitating effects of physical illness, loss of social roles and relationships, and untreated depression
Suicidal behavior has numerous and complex causes. The biology of the brain, genetics, psychological traits, and social forces all can contribute to suicide. Although people commonly attribute suicide to external circumstances—such as divorce, loss of a job, or failure in school—most experts believe these events are triggers rather than causes in themselves.
The majority of people who kill themselves suffer from depression that is often undiagnosed and untreated. Because depression so often underlies suicide, studying the causes of depression can help scientists understand the causes of suicide
Research indicates that suicidal behavior runs in families, suggesting that genetic and biological factors play a role in one’s suicide risk. Among one community of Amish people in Pennsylvania, almost three-quarters of all suicides that occurred over a 100-year period were in just four families. Studies of twins reared apart provide some support for a genetic influence in suicide.
People may inherit a genetic predisposition to certain psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and alcoholism, that increase the risk of suicide. In addition, an inability to control impulsive and violent behavior may have biological roots. Research has found lower than normal levels of a substance associated with the brain chemical serotonin in people with impulsive aggressiveness.
At times it is the hostility against self
SEVERAL COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF SUICIDES.
These include a sense of unbearable psychological pain, a sense of isolation from others, and the perception that death is the only solution to problems about which one feels hopeless and helpless. Cognitive theorists, who study how people process information, emphasize the role of inflexible thinking or tunnel vision (“life is awful, death is the only alternative”) and an inability to generate solutions to problems. According to psychologists, many suicide attempts are a symbolic cry for help, an effort to reach out and receive attention.
Single people.
Studies consistently show that although suicidal people do not appear to have greater life stress than others, they lack effective strategies to cope with stress. In addition, they are more likely than others to have had family loss and turmoil, such as the death of a family member, separation or divorce of their parents, or child abuse or neglect. The parents of those who attempt suicide have a greater frequency of mental illness and substance abuse than other parents. However, suicide occurs in all types of families, including those with little apparent turmoil.
Fluctuations in social and economic
Occasionally, people commit suicide as a form of protest against the policies of a particular government. Because depression precedes most suicides, early recognition of depression and treatment through medication and psychotherapy are important ways of preventing suicide (see Depression: Treatment). In general, suicide prevention efforts aim to identify people with the highest risk of suicide and to intervene before these individual Risk Factors
Certain aspects of a person’s life increase the likelihood that the person will attempt or complete suicide. Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of suicidal intent is hopelessness. People with a sense of hopelessness may come to perceive suicide as the only alternative to a pained existence. People with mental illnesses, substance-abuse disorders such as alcoholism or drug dependence, and behavioral disorders also have a higher risk of suicide. In fact, people suffering from diagnosable mental illnesses complete about 90 percent of all suicides. Physical illness also increases a person’s risk of suicide, especially when the illness is accompanied by depression. About one-third of adult suicide victims suffered from a physical illness at the time of their death.
Other risk factors include previous suicide attempts, a history of suicide among family members, and social isolation. People who live alone or lack close friends may not receive emotional support that would otherwise protect them from despair and irrational thinking during difficult periods of life.
SIGNS OF SUICIDAL INTENT
About 80 percent of people who complete suicide give warning signs, although the warnings may not be overt or obvious. These usually take the form of talking about suicide or a wish to die; statements about hopelessness, helplessness, or worthlessness; preoccupation with death; and references to suicide in drawings, school essays, poems, or notes. Other danger signs include sudden, dramatic, and unexplained changes in behavior and what are called “termination behaviors.” These behaviors include an interest in putting personal affairs in order and giving away prized possessions, often accompanied by statements of sadness or despair.
Most suicides can be prevented because the suicidal state of mind is usually temporary.
A person who observes these signs should ask the person in question whether he or she is thinking of suicide. If so, the observer should refer the person to a trained mental health professional to reduce the immediate risk of suicide and to treat the problems that led the person to consider suicide. Most suicides can be prevented because the suicidal state of mind is usually temporary.
SUICIDE PREVENTION PROGRAMS
In the United States, mental health professionals established the first major suicide-prevention telephone hotlines in the 1950s. Counselors or trained volunteers usually staff the hotlines around the clock. The staff members provide a listening ear to those in despair and tell callers where they can go to receive professional help. Although hotlines provide a valuable service to people in crisis, research has shown that hotlines help only those that call. Young women call more frequently than do men, who have a greater risk of suicide.
An increasing number of schools have suicide-prevention programs that train students, teachers, and school staff to recognize warning signs and tell them where to refer students at risk of suicide. These relatively new programs have not yet demonstrated their effectiveness at preventing youth suicide.
Another prevention method involves restricting access to means of killing oneself. Barriers that prevent people from jumping off bridges, for example, and restrictions on access to firearms have shown some effectiveness in reducing suicides. Such methods introduce a delay during which suicidal feelings and decisions may change or rescuers can physically intervene.
Today, with more modern views of mental illness and concern for the rights of survivors, most major religions offer compassion and traditional funeral rites in cases of suicide. No U.S. state now considers suicide a crime. Helping someone complete suicide, however, is criminally punishable in several states.
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WHO HAVE HIGH RISK OF ATTEMPTING SUICIDE
v Who have attempted suicide earlier
v Who had close encounter with suicide
v Peer pressure
v Alcoholics
v Mentally ill.
v Separated widowed and divorced
v Person with status incongruity
v Retired and elderly
v Certain professionals
v Like doctors (in them psychiatrists)
v Celebrities
v In police lower class has higher rates
v Escape from a intolerable situation
v Revenge against a loved one
v Guilt : self punishment
v People with higher expectations and perfectionists
GENERAL PRESENTATION
See whether the person belongs to a higher suicide risk
Who is traumatized
Listen to the cry for help
Give positive strokes
Accessing suicide risk
Ask the question whether the person is feeling suicidal then the risk comes down. Don’t avoid the subject and hesitate to ask the question.
The above information was collected as a part of my DCS ( Diploma in counseling skills, Banjara Academy) education.
Activity: Started on 2nd Oct 2002,
SAHAI is Bangalore's telephone helpline for people in emotional distress. Our dedicated, trained volunteer counsellors are available to answer your calls between 10.00 a.m. & 6.00 p.m., from Monday through to Saturday.
All calls are confidential and privacy is assured.
Whether it is facing problems with your family, in school, at work or with your friends,Sahai Counsellors will give you their undivided attention and will guide you. And, when you're ready,
SAHAI will help you find a long-term solution to your problems, through telephone counselling.Sahai volunteers will help and equip you with the skills,needed to cope with distressing situations of life like loss, failure, broken relationships or the ever-increasing demands of today's fast-paced life.
SAHAI volunteers are homemakers, professionals and college students - people from all walks of life who are committed to saving lives. SAHAI volunteers undergo 30 hours of suicide prevention training conducted by professionals from
NIMHANS and the
Medico Pastoral Association, along with
Rotary Bangalore East, three of the help line's founding partners.
Volunteers are trained to help each caller ventilate, to respond without judging, and to guide the caller to address their problem. Volunteers learn how to listen pro-actively, and to recognize and assess signs of stress and depression.
Details: Indias first suicide prevention helpline we are pioneers in telephone counselling in Bangalore.
Support: Suicide prevention and emotional distress telephone helpline.
Note: Public awareness, more volunteers and funds to raise awareness.
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