Statistics
Overview: Suicide 20th C
Myths & Facts
The Person with Suicidal Thoughts
SALT Strategy
Youth Suicide
Elderly Suicide
Male Suicide
Aboriginal Suicide
Gay & Lesbian Suicide
Rural Suicide
The Media
About Suicide
Understanding the Person with Suicidal thoughts.
What the person with suicidal thoughts is feeling
- The person with suicidal thoughts' actions are motivated by emotional pain (feelings of loneliness, depression, rejection, fear, despair, worthlessness, hurt, sadness, misunderstood, unloved, anger, guilt, shame, deep loss, grief, confusion, overwhelmed, alienation, isolation, helpless, hopeless, etc.)
- The person with suicidal thoughts sees suicide as the only option to stop their pain (tunnel vision)
- The person with suicidal thoughts can become obsessed with suicidal thinking because the pain seems overwhelming.
- The person with suicidal thoughts often has an unreal concept of death - they see it more as stopping the pain than dying.
- The person with suicidal thoughts feels as though nobody understands what they are going through.
Why the person with suicidal thoughts feels this way
- The pain the person with suicidal thoughts feels is usually a response to a loss which they have experienced (the loss of a family member, a job, failing an examination, losing a partner, the loss of a pet, loss of control, loss of support from friends and family, loss of body parts, loss of mental abilities, loss of abilities due to excessive drugs and alcohol, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, loss of meaning, etc.)
- This could be one major loss, or a series of losses which they have experienced.
- When people cannot cope with loss they often find themselves in emotional crisis.
- When they are overwhelmed with their crisis, one more loss could trigger suicidal thoughts.
