[Robert Pool] Why do some people kill themselves? (25 February 2009, New Scientist)

QuoteFOR a few months in late 2006 and early 2007, the woman who called herself kristi4 was one of the best-known members of the pro-anorexia community. As the administrator of a blog on LiveJournal.com, she dispensed advice, encouraged others and wrote candidly about her own struggles. Then, late one Friday night, after a series of entries describing what she was planning to do, kristi4 killed herself with an overdose of prescription sleeping pills, muscle relaxants and painkillers.

Her death was just one tragic data point in one of the most striking statistics in all of psychology. It has long been known that anorexia has the highest death rate of any mental illness: one out of every five people with anorexia eventually die of causes related to the disease. What has only now been recognised, however, is that a huge number of those deaths are from suicide rather than starvation. Someone who develops anorexia is 50 to 60 times more likely to kill themselves than people in the general population. No other group has a suicide rate anywhere near as high (Archives of General Psychiatry, vol 60, p 179).

Mina.

Maybe the malnutrition leads to faulty thinking or lack of hope?

or how about that eating disorders are control related and that the ultimate control over your body isn't choosing how much food to put into it or not but is actually the control to free yourself from your body via suicide?

Anorexia (and sometimes Bulimia) is often a matter of not just control, but the delusion that the person in question is overweight, ugly, etc, etc, and that is the starting point for a body disphoria and self hatred.
Depression sometimes goes hand in hand with these eating disorders and depression is something I've heard best described as "the absence of hope".
If you already hate yourself, hate your body, and you feel completely derived of hope, then what do you have to live for?
It's common for people to think of suicide as the easy way out, the coward's way out, or the selfish way out. If someone truly believes that he/she are not worth loving, not worth being with, not worth living in general, he/she can come to the conclusion that the right thing to do, by them and Everyone around them, is to stop participating in life completely.

Or, at least that's how I understand it.

The reason I think about suicide is due to a general feeling of disappointment and/or dissatisfaction with myself and the world around me. More recently the physical pain I endure from injuries incurred over the years. I am often overwhelmed by depression and anxiety. Everyday is a wrestling match of sorts. I haven't attempted for a while. I figure I'll prob. just fall over dead soon at this point anyway

Quote from: Virginia Marie on February 27, 2009, 05:11:02 AMThe reason I think about suicide is due to a general feeling of disappointment and/or dissatisfaction with myself and the world around me. More recently the physical pain I endure from injuries incurred over the years. I am often overwhelmed by depression and anxiety. Everyday is a wrestling match of sorts. I haven't attempted for a while. I figure I'll prob. just fall over dead soon at this point anyway.

Hugs.

Mina.

"People who feel an intolerable burden to their family".  That's one of the criteria cited in suicide victims.  How many trans people have felt this?

Julie

Quote from: Julie Marie on February 27, 2009, 11:51:10 AM
"People who feel an intolerable burden to their family".  That's one of the criteria cited in suicide victims.  How many trans people have felt this?

Julie

not me.

I found the line the result is the "thwarted belongingness" that Joiner describes as a key factor in suicide. to be an interesting one. 

Spent five hours talking to a girl who wanted to kill herself over the end of a relationship last night.

I hope to God we changed her mind.

IF that's true, then as a group people without a family would be far less like to kill themselves.  I wonder if that is true.  Interesting if so.

Quote from: Julie Marie on February 27, 2009, 11:51:10 AM
"People who feel an intolerable burden to their family".  That's one of the criteria cited in suicide victims.  How many trans people have felt this?

Julie

I know someone who very nearly did this, she was Gay not Trans though. She felt at the time it was the only way to save her family honour and decided to make it look like a car crash. She changed her mind at the last minute faced her demons and has made a great life for herself.

Many people are anorexic out of a desire to disappear.  Of course, the only way to disappear completely is suicide.

As a younger person growing up in Wyoming there was a very high suicide rate. The psychologists blamed it on the continous wind. Being indoors all of time is depressing. The cold and the wind made it worse. It was extreme depression.
I agree with Major Payne from the movie. "Gotta be somebody needs a killin." but it ain't going to be me.   There to many things to do and so much to see and not enough time. No sense cutting it short. What about that new dress I need and have not found yet. Maybe a clandestine love affair,etc.

Were one actually interested in learning more about why people choose to end their own lives (rather than just rubbernecking at the looney freakshow)--for example, because one has ties to groups with a high suicide rate, these sites might be useful:

Mind, the UK based mental health charity, has collected some statistics relating to suicide and demographics. http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Factsheets/Statistics/Statistics+2.htm

For statisitcs relating to the US, there's this NIMH site: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml

The reasons why people take their own lives are many and varied, but common risk factors include social isolation, poverty, and unemployment.  It's worth noting that while nothing can stop a truly determined person from putting an end to hirself, intervention can prevent some suicides.   It is often the case that if the sufferer can ride out whatever crisis has precipitated the attempt, things do get better.

When the UK reduced the amount of deadly carbon monoxide gas in domestic supplies,  suicide rates dropped.  The same thing happened more recently when sales of paracetamol were restricted here to only a few pills at a time.  While people could have turned other methods, it seems that simply taking these more readily accessible poisons out of their hands has been sufficient to save a lot of lives.  The delay in finding another method is sometimes enough.  This shows that even when ending one's own life seems like the only possible answer, hope might only be a few hours away.  I'd encourage anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts to contact a helpline, or maybe even go to the ER.  Tomorrow might be a brighter day.