Why do we commit suicide?

 

Often, the decision to commit suicide is influenced by several factors that overlap and reinforce each other. Often, it is also impossible to establish for what reason a person took his/her life. Risk factors for suicidal behaviour can be divided into clinical, social and psychological factors.

 

Suicide: Clinical Factors

Do suicides have a mental illness? Many people ask this question, which is often true, but not always. According to Polish police statistics, the two most common causes of suicide are family disagreements and mental illness.

 

Depression

The mental illness that affects the risk of suicide the most is depression. It is estimated that two-thirds of suicides suffer from depression, and about 15% of people with depression decide to end their lives. Patients who also have insomnia are at greater risk.

 

Contrary to appearances, the most severe depression does not mean the most significant risk of taking your life. You need some determination and energy to kill yourself. Patients with intense depression, having no strength for anything, also do not have the power to commit suicide. Therefore, a more significant risk may be when a person is beginning to recover from depression theoretically. People who have recently been diagnosed with depression are also at greater risk. People who struggle with this disease for longer learn to live with it and less often decide to end their lives.

 

Schizophrenia

The risk of committing suicide is exceptionally high in patients who suffer from persistent auditory hallucinations. Sometimes such persons still hear “voices” telling them to kill themselves and eventually succumb to these commands. However, even if the “voices” do not command suicide, they can be challenging to deal with, and sometimes suicide seems to the patient the only escape.

 

As with depression, those recently diagnosed with the disease are at greater risk than those with schizophrenia for many years. Moreover, schizophrenia is often accompanied by depression, which may be an additional risk factor.

 

Addiction

At least one-third of suicides abuse psychoactive substances. The most common addiction is alcoholism, and suicides are often committed under the influence of this substance. The relationship between alcoholism and the risk of suicide is not straightforward. Alcohol can indirectly affect the risk of suicide by causing family conflict and loss of support from loved ones. Still, the cognitive and physiological changes caused by long-term alcohol abuse may also play a role. Alcoholics who commit suicide often lose an essential person shortly before their death or have experienced an interpersonal conflict or other personal crisis.

 

Personality disorders

Personality disorders approximately seven times increase the risk of taking one’s own life. People with borderline personality disorder, characterized by, e.g. impulsiveness, frequent feeling of emptiness, fear of abandonment, and extreme and ambivalent emotions, are at particular risk.

 

Suicide: Social Factors

Human, as social being, needs support and close relationships. This is especially true when he experiences difficulties in life. People who have whom to turn to in stressful and difficult situations and know that they are not alone with their problems cope better and are less likely to say that the only way out is death.

 

As I mentioned above, crises in social relations, such as family conflicts, are among the most common causes of suicide. The loss of a loved one may also lead to such an act. The more a man depended on the person he/she lost and the less support other people provided him/her, the greater the risk of suicide.

 

Suicide: Psychological Factors

Edwin Shneidman distinguished ten commonalities in suicides:

 

Seek a solution – Suicides often find themselves in situations they cannot solve. The only option seems to be suicide. Therefore, shortly before taking his life, a suicide often feels calm and improves his mood. After all, he no longer has to worry about how to get out of his problems; he has found a solution …

Cessation of consciousness – A person who commits suicide escapes from problems and mental pain, guilt, or other challenging emotions.

Intolerable psychological pain – According to Shneidman, intolerable psychological pain is the pain of feeling pain. It’s an overwhelming emotion for which there is no cure, and sometimes suicide seems like the only cure that can relieve suffering.

Frustrated psychological needs – One of the causes of suicide is unmet needs, such as love, understanding, and achievement. An unmet need for achievement can be especially true of perfectionists. This trait is often associated with suicidal ideation because perfectionists find living up to their own expectations challenging.