A lot of people don't _actually_ want to commit suicide. Humans generally speaking do not want to die, but when you're there, it feels like the only option.
I distinctly remember feeling that my brain wanted me to die, but I personally was not of the same opinion at all. So what I did was call up a friend and basically said "You have an hour to convince me not to do this". It worked, I'm here.
But I feel that when trying to commit suicide, you will instinctively do everything in your power to botch the attempt. Because what you're looking for isn't death per se, it's clarity and resolution. Mostly you just want "it" to stop, any sort of traumatic experience can be surprisingly helpful with that.
1. Men are more "successful" because they tend to use more violent methods - guns, jumping off high places, etc. Women are more likely to use pills. Sometimes attempts are more of a call for help than ending one's life.
2. Your question is unclear to me, but most people who have attempted and failed to commit suicide regret that decision.
Well, in answer to 1., often suicide is attempted at times of extreme emotional volatility - in other words, when it's easy to make a mistake. Additionally, suicide is almost always linked to depression, which manifests itself in a whole host of ways. It's easy to say "just point a gun at your head and shoot, what's so hard about that?" Well it's terrifying, which is emotional. It costs money to acquire a gun, and money problems are highly associated with depression. It's a social activity, and social anxiety often is related to suicidal behavior, etc.
If it were a decision like "which toothpaste works better", and you could calmly evaluate evidence and act impartially, I imagine there would be fewer suicide attempts, fewer suicides, and a higher percentage of attempts would succeed. But this is a vastly different sort of thing, an intrinsically uninstinctual act. This is just speculation, but I would guess that the rare cases where the suicidal person is overwhelmingly justified by his or her decision (Goering killing himself painlessly rather than being tried and hanged), the success rate improves.
In response to 2., I have no idea - that is an empirical question. But it's an interesting question, and it's good to see the topic discussed in the media as it generally is quite taboo.
Committing suicide is actually very difficult. All humans have a strong will to survive, which is always present, even if you are suicidal. Additionally, a painless, nonviolent suicide needs a lot of preparation, which isn't exactly easy either if you are lethargic.
A friend of a friend of mine's experience answers your number 1 question:
He wasn't very good at aiming, apparently. When he shot the bullet into his head, probably in a drunken stupor, he missed his brain and lived... probably still wanting to shoot himself and succeed, but being physically unable to do so at this point he just lay there until someone found him.
By the time he recovered in hospital from the wound, he wanted to live! Albeit with a very disfigured face, which I thought would be a hinderence to an already depressed individual, but he sees it differently and we're all glad for it!
1. I'm surprised how often the simple matter of difficulty is skirted. I've been wholeheartedly and single-mindedly motivated to off myself in the past, and it is hard to do. I don't know how to get a gun, and if I had one, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Jumping from height requires enormous courage to override the instinctive refusal to do it. Hanging requires tremendous endurance of pain: hanging your whole body by your neck hurts!!!, and you do not go out right away. As far as the pills that would actually work, I would not know where to get them.
You could say if I was truly motivated, I would learn how to overcome one or more of these obstacles. Well that's a moving goalpost. I maintain that I was motivated to try whatever I had at my disposal, and I was not able to determine whether it was actually possible.
"...in the past few years, scores of them have come together on social media and in other forums to demand a bigger voice in prevention efforts."
Wha-?
I'm by no means a heartless person. However, I truly believe if you don't want to live any more, that it's your right and your responsibility.
I'm not in your head. I don't know what you're thinking. Most of the time, I won't even know that you're depressed. Many people mask it very well. Why is it my fault that you decided to kill yourself?
It's not your fault, like it's not your fault when children die of cancer. That doesn't mean we should find ways to prevent it. Most poeple who attempt or commit suicide don't want to die, but rather prefer death over life because they want to put an end to their suffering.
That said, I don't think talking about attempts will help someone who is suicidal in the slightest. If anything it leads to emulation suicides, also known as the Werther effect, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
Prevention efforts could include ways to talk about your problems without being afraid that people would treat you differently or force you to do something you didn't want to do. There would have to be an absolute guarantee of privacy of course.
Can you elaborate on this? I think it would be virtually impossible to prevent suicide, not to mention various things perhaps not treated as suicide but which are self-caused deaths (repeatedly engaging in very-very-high-risk activity, for example).
There's a lot of academic literature that supports the claim that reports of suicide in the media lead to an increase in the number of suicides. This is often referred to as "copycat suicide" or "the Werther effect". As a result, journalists and academics are often very careful about they way they publicly discuss suicide attempts. More information can be found here:
I've contemplated suicide off-and-on since age 6. It's just a working part of my language. No successful attempts, or failed attempts, or whatever grammar is being built here.
It might partly be influenced by a Tourette's like underlying structure, which would here make it more publicly, or in terms of a biological profile, a symptom. Usually all we see are symptoms in the narration of science.
[+] [-] graeme|12 years ago|reply
For instance, far more men commit suicide. But far more women attempt suicide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide
I'm sure there are other differences. To me, the questions are:
1. Why do people fail at suicide attempts?
2. Will information that dissuades a failed suicide attempt dissuade someone from making a successful suicide attempt?
[+] [-] Swizec|12 years ago|reply
I distinctly remember feeling that my brain wanted me to die, but I personally was not of the same opinion at all. So what I did was call up a friend and basically said "You have an hour to convince me not to do this". It worked, I'm here.
But I feel that when trying to commit suicide, you will instinctively do everything in your power to botch the attempt. Because what you're looking for isn't death per se, it's clarity and resolution. Mostly you just want "it" to stop, any sort of traumatic experience can be surprisingly helpful with that.
[+] [-] rhuppert|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mbillie1|12 years ago|reply
If it were a decision like "which toothpaste works better", and you could calmly evaluate evidence and act impartially, I imagine there would be fewer suicide attempts, fewer suicides, and a higher percentage of attempts would succeed. But this is a vastly different sort of thing, an intrinsically uninstinctual act. This is just speculation, but I would guess that the rare cases where the suicidal person is overwhelmingly justified by his or her decision (Goering killing himself painlessly rather than being tried and hanged), the success rate improves.
In response to 2., I have no idea - that is an empirical question. But it's an interesting question, and it's good to see the topic discussed in the media as it generally is quite taboo.
[+] [-] id|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sirdogealot|12 years ago|reply
He wasn't very good at aiming, apparently. When he shot the bullet into his head, probably in a drunken stupor, he missed his brain and lived... probably still wanting to shoot himself and succeed, but being physically unable to do so at this point he just lay there until someone found him.
By the time he recovered in hospital from the wound, he wanted to live! Albeit with a very disfigured face, which I thought would be a hinderence to an already depressed individual, but he sees it differently and we're all glad for it!
[+] [-] chaired|12 years ago|reply
You could say if I was truly motivated, I would learn how to overcome one or more of these obstacles. Well that's a moving goalpost. I maintain that I was motivated to try whatever I had at my disposal, and I was not able to determine whether it was actually possible.
[+] [-] altero|12 years ago|reply
Men in general are treated like a shit, so they kill themselfs. Most women are emotionally blackmailing their families.
[+] [-] dclowd9901|12 years ago|reply
Wha-?
I'm by no means a heartless person. However, I truly believe if you don't want to live any more, that it's your right and your responsibility.
I'm not in your head. I don't know what you're thinking. Most of the time, I won't even know that you're depressed. Many people mask it very well. Why is it my fault that you decided to kill yourself?
[+] [-] Swizec|12 years ago|reply
Isn't the usual approach to at least treat symptoms, if you can't immediately cure the underlying illness?
[+] [-] id|12 years ago|reply
That said, I don't think talking about attempts will help someone who is suicidal in the slightest. If anything it leads to emulation suicides, also known as the Werther effect, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
[+] [-] kbatten|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] evanlivingston|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mbillie1|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slc|12 years ago|reply
Why doesn't anyone talk about "misery prevention" ?
[+] [-] jstevens85|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2094294?uid=3737536&ui...
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/197/3/234.abstract
[+] [-] softatlas|12 years ago|reply
It might partly be influenced by a Tourette's like underlying structure, which would here make it more publicly, or in terms of a biological profile, a symptom. Usually all we see are symptoms in the narration of science.