Sometimes people label suicides people as selfish, depressed, or seeking attention.
According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), such misunderstandings can increase the stigma of people with suicidal tendencies, hinder them from seeking help, and can also mislead people's understanding of the motivations behind suicide.
online scientific publication "Looking at the world with data" quoted the Global Burden of Disease Research in 2017, saying that suicide is the main cause of death in children and adults, and nearly 800,000 people die from suicide every year around the world. The U.S. Foundation for Suicide Prevention also stated that in 2020, there were 1.2 million attempted suicides around the world.
Understanding the truth about suicide can help people view deaths caused by suicide with more understanding and compassion, allowing people with suicidal tendencies to realize the importance of seeking help, and solve their own mental health problems.
If you or someone you know is in danger, call 400-161-9995, which is the 24-hour free national suicide crisis intervention hotline.
Below are common misunderstandings about suicide that experts have clarified.
Common misunderstandings about suicide
Misunderstandings: People who attempt to commit suicide have psychological problems
One of the misunderstandings about suicide is: Only specific people, that is, people with mental health problems, will have the idea of suicide.
The fact is that many people do not fully meet the standards of mental health disorders. Only when they are under very stressful situations can they be unable to complete important tasks, or when they discover the infidelity of their partner in marriage, they will feel hopeless about life.
In addition, there are other factors such as criminal or legal affairs, abuse, expulsion or loss of home, grief, difficult to cure or exhaustive disease, trauma or other crises.
Misunderstanding: People who attempt to commit suicide are selfish,
The word selfish has a derogatory meaning, as if someone makes decisions for self-pleasant reasons. In fact, they just became very limited in their attention and could only see what was in front of them. You cannot see the background, relationships, and dimensions of things in your life history.
People who attempt to commit suicide or commit suicide are more likely to end their own pain or regard themselves as a burden to their loved ones, not selfish decisions made only by considering their own interests. They just didn't know how to get out of that moment, so they chose to commit suicide. At that time, they only felt unbearable pain, stressed, very sad, needed to escape, and felt that they had no other choice.
Misunderstanding: People who threaten to commit suicide are just seeking attention
Some people believe that people who express suicide thoughts are just seeking attention, and they know that they may get sympathy from others, and they don’t actually intend to die.
But anyway, we still need to take people who are threatening to commit suicide seriously because they really have the idea of suicide and they are really suffering.
Misunderstanding: Suicide is a choice
According to the American Suicide Prevention Foundation, some experts believe that suicide is not an independent choice.
The mentality of people with suicidal tendencies is similar to those with substance abuse disorders and chronic recurrent diseases.
They did not deliberately choose to take medication and ignore their family members. They also did not make decisions that harmed their health, nor did they decide to be a bad employee, or engage in illegal acts. Due to neurochemical changes, these people have limited ability to make complete choices about what they think is possible and what they can do.
Suicide does have a certain intention, but the idea of suicide may overwhelm everything else.
Misunderstanding: Talking about suicide can lead to or encourage suicide
People are afraid of talking about suicide and think that doing so will encourage suicide, so they often avoid the topic of suicide. While asking someone about the warning signs you find may embarrass the other party, this does not actually lead to an increase in suicides.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, talking candidly about suicide can help people reduce their sense of shame, prompt people to seek help, rethink their choices, and share their stories with others.
Misunderstanding: Emotional improvement means the risk of suicide disappears
If someone tries to commit suicide, but his mood seems to improve in the following days or months, you may think their suicide risk has disappeared. But the reality may be the opposite — three months after attempted suicide are the highest risk of suicide, according to the Nevada Office of Public and Behavioral Health Prevention.
"The obvious relief of the problem may mean that the person has made a firm decision to commit suicide and it feels relaxed precisely because of the decision," the report said.
The biggest risk factor for late suicide is past suicide attempts or past attempted suicide among family members or friends.
For a person who has attempted suicide, his relatives or experts may only provide temporary relief or support. But the factors that initially drove the man to commit suicide may still be at work.
In addition, sometimes people who attempt to commit suicide "may also use more deadly means instead."
Misunderstanding: You can't stop someone from trying to commit suicide
Clinical director of the Veterans Reduction Suicide and Trauma Initiative at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, said sometimes people think it doesn't make sense to ask someone if they want to commit suicide because they commit suicide anyway.
But Baker added that some studies have found that people can view interrupted suicide or survivors as a kind of "rebirth".
According to the National Alliance for Mental Illness website, a similar misunderstanding is that "once a person has a suicidal tendency, he will always be suicidal."
But Baker said there are factors that can affect the level or probability of suicide risk. The National Coalition for Mental Diseases says the historical and genetic makeup of self-harm behavior is fixed, but the dynamic factors for specific situations are constantly changing.
The National Alliance for Mental Illness website says suicide is “usually an attempt to control deep, painful emotions and thoughts.” Once these thoughts disappear, so will the idea of suicide disappear. While suicide thoughts will come back, they are not permanent. A person with suicidal thoughts and attempts can also live a long and happy life. ”
Rosk admits, “People usually do what they want to do, but what can we do in the process to help alleviate some of the problems they face. It is very useful to identify possible suicide warnings. ”
