Prevention of Suicide

Suicide is the leading causes of death in the US. Hence it is considered as a major Public Health issue.

It is found that most suicides start with a thought about committing suicide or begin planning to commit suicide. In the subsequent stages, individuals may try some sort of a self-directed and possibly a non-fatal Act with the eventual goal as to die.

In cases where they succeed in this attempt it could result in a suicide. So a suicide can be termed as self-directed death caused by injurious behavior that one directs towards himself or herself with the idea of dying as a result of that act.

Do you know that suicide was the second leading cause of death among the population with age less than 40. This is as per the statistics collected by the centers for Disease Control and prevention in 2017. It may also come as a surprise to you and also as a sad fact that the number of suicides is more than double the number of homicides committed in the US.

While suicide is a tragic and sometimes a more Complex and complicated event, it must be noted that in most cases it is preventable. Identifying warning signs and symptoms and providing necessary help could result in prevention of suicide in most cases.

Let us take a look at some of the most common signs and symptoms after people who are likely to commit suicide.

You see them saying goodbye to their family members and close friends. this is more so if they do it anew and has not done something like this in the past.
they seem to put things in order in their life and trying to make a will as part of that.
they seem to talk or contemplate and consider about death more often
you could see them drawing themselves away from their family and friends
eating and sleeping habits could be changing drastically and extreme mood swings could also be observed
increase in alcohol consumption or drug usage in a short period of time
They seem not excuse themselves and seem to carry great guilt and talk about that
some of them talk about how they are becoming some sort of a problem or a liability for others
they seem and sound hopeless, desperate, depressed and come across as if they have no reason to live
some of them openly talk about their wish to die and also Express their intentions to harm and also wish to kill themselves
in a newly observed behavior pattern, some of them can be seem to give their important belongings to others for free
some of them experience unbearable pain. It could be at physical level or emotional level pain
in some cases high levels of emotional feelings of range and wish to take revenge could be seen as well.
In some cases they seem to be more anxious than normal
willingness to take risks with fatal consequences with no Apparent reason
some are scene to experience sense of getting stuck in a situation with no solution in sight
some could be seen looking for information on how to commit suicide, looking for information on deadly methods online and purchasing a firearm or purchasing and storing medical pills that could endanger life

let us now look at what could be done if someone appears to be in some sort of emotional or extreme physical pain
the first step

is to ask one of the most difficult questions which is if they are thinking about killing themselves

the second one

is to do everything possible to keep them safe this includes removing any lethal items from their reach and removing or reducing access to other items that could eventually be used to harm oneself.

The third step

is to you take time and listen carefully to understand what the person is going through and what he or she is thinking about

the next step is to help them get in touch with professionals who are trained to assist and help in prevention of suicide.

this could include getting them in touch with National suicide prevention lifeline and other similar trusted resources. These resources do not have to be a professional organization outside. This could be a simple act of getting them in touch with one of their trusted family members or friends
next step is to continue to stay in touch with the person after she or he has undergone some sort of counseling or helping session with a professional.

Risk factors

Let us now look at some of the factors that could cause one to get thoughts of committing suicide.
these include but not limited to

one experiencing some sort of a chronic ,extreme emotional or physical pain
some sort of a medical condition that is painful and also incurable
extreme level of depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorder
someone who has attempted to commit suicide in the past
someone in the family has committed suicide
family has the history of mental illnesses or substance abuse
one going through some sort of a family violence including physical and emotional abuse
having access to legal weapons such as guns or any other lethal weapon
it must be noted that presence of any of the above factors doesn't automatically mean that the person is thinking about committing suicide.

Treatment
Medication is definitely one of the options available but in terms of psychology two of the most commonly tried psychosocial interventions that are found to be of help to people who you are considering or have attended suicide are

Cognitive behaviour therapy and
dialectical behaviour therapy