Suicide is rarely the result of a single factor or event but rather results from a complex interaction of many factors. Some people report feeling guilty because they feel they caused a person to commit suicide. Not true!!! Many factors lead to one committing suicide.
Behavioral Risk Factors
Lack of concern about personal welfare
- Suicidal individuals will put themselves in dangerous situations. Some examples include driving dangerously, driving under the influence of alcohol, or antagonizing police officers “suicide by cop”.
Changes in social patterns/isolation
- Suicidal individuals may become more withdrawn and isolate themselves. They may remain in their residence hall rooms or refuse to attend functions they normally attend.
Difficulty in concentrating
- Suicidal individuals may have trouble studying, paying attention to conversations, or paying attention to television. They may appear distracted or ask people to repeat what they have just said.
- Sleep can also play a role. When people are sleep deprived they can’t concentrate and their judgment is poor. A student with sleep problems is at increased risk for attempting suicide.
Use or abuse of alcohol or drugs
- It is not uncommon to see an increase in the use of alcohol or other substances. This might be a way of self-medicating. People want the negative feelings to stop and alcohol/drugs are a way to numb the pain. Alcohol can also lower inhibitions which results in one doing something one wouldn’t ordinarily do when sober.
- Many people may show the changes described above when experiencing stress and will not go on to attempt suicide. Many times with suicidal people these behaviors are more extreme.
Aggressive or impulsive tendencies
- Someone with aggressive or impulsive tendencies has a higher risk for a suicide attempt. They are more likely to engage in dangerous activities such as substance abuse and to get into fights.
Unusual interest in how others are feeling
- Suicidal individuals might try to help others with the hope that someone will ask them about their problems.
- The individual may be hurting but does not know how to bring it up or ask for help.
Sudden or increased promiscuity
- Promiscuity may be an attempt to connect with another person. Again the individual may not know how to ask for help.
- Promiscuity could also be considered a risky behavior that leads “inadvertently” to death, i.e. passive suicide via HIV.
- With regards to relationships, the experience of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse puts one at greater risk for attempting suicide.
Preoccupation with death and violent themes
- Suicidal individuals may talk about death and what it would be like to be dead. They may focus on violent deaths in the media.
Attempts to put personal affairs in order or to make amends
- Individuals may give things away, write letters apologizing for the way they have treated others, or put aside money and gifts for friends and family.
Verbal Cues
- People will frequently use statements such as, “I’m so stressed I could kill myself” or “I’ll die if I don’t get an A”, etc.
- It is important to ask if someone is serious when he/she says that he/she could kill himself/herself. Sometimes making “off the cuff” comments about dying is a part of our common vernacular (e.g., “It is so hot I could die”). However, sometimes the individual is serious and is attempting to ask for help.
Rigid Thinking Patterns
- All-or-none thinking (or black & white thinking) may be an issue. Individuals in crisis are not able to think of alternative solutions. For them it’s either suffer or die. Professionals can help these individuals to see that there are more than two alternatives.
- Overgeneralization means that people think that if one bad thing happens then more bad things will happen. For example, a student may do poorly on a paper and then think he/she is a bad student or a bad person.
- Negative self-talk
- An example “This guy dropped me, no one will ever love me again”
Emotional Risk Factors
Recent, severe, stressful life events
- Facing a shameful or humiliating experience (e.g., breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, being rejected by a club or organization such as a fraternity or sorority, problems with grades) may leave the individual not knowing how to cope.
- Another stressful life event that some individuals face involves getting into trouble with authorities (e.g., losing a driver’s license due to a DUI, getting arrested). The individual may have unrealistic views of the consequences of such actions or may fear repercussions from the legal system, the school system, family, and/or friends.
- Dropping out of school puts a student at higher risk for a suicide attempt.
Identity issues
- Boyfriend/girlfriend enmeshment – individuals may view a large part of their identity as being a partner to someone else. If that relationship ends, they may lose their sense of identity.
- A student who has a sexual identity conflict or is uncertain about his/her sexual identity is at greater risk for a suicide attempt.
Conflict with family or family dysfunction
- One study noted that an argument with a boyfriend/girlfriend/parent was often a leading precipitant to a suicide attempt.
Exposure to suicidal behavior of others
- Seeing others solve their problems via suicide may allow others to think it’s an alternative. Some individuals may want that attention for themselves.
Cognitive Risk Factors
Avoidance function
- Suicidal individuals may want to avoid embarrassing situations. For example, a student has already sent out graduation invitations and then learns that he/she has failed a course and will not be graduating. The student doesn’t want to be humiliated and thus may view suicide as an option.
Control function
- Some individuals will attempt suicide in order to obtain revenge – “I’ll show you what you’re missing.”
Communication function
- The person does not want to die but wants someone to recognize that he/she is in pain and needs help.