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Associated Factors

Emotional and behavioral indicators associated with suicide (References 2-5):

• Overwhelming emotional pain that is beyond what the person can endure given their coping capacity or recent loss of coping resources
• Hopelessness that their situation can improve or that the future holds any promise of relief from pain
• Powerlessness over their surroundings or their situation including a stripping away of resources they may have built over time to blunt emotional pain
• Excessive feelings of guilt, shame, worthlessness, negative thinking or self-criticism
• Personality changes including anger, irritability, anxiety, apathy, exhaustion, withdrawing, pervasive sadness
• Declining performance on the job, at school or in personal or family life
• Social isolation or a marked change in friends, often including people whose values are inconsistent with those of the person or their family
• Diminished interest in activities formerly found pleasurable including sex, hobbies, and friendships
• Neglect of personal welfare including declining physical appearance and disregard for good dietary, hygienic or medical wellness
• Significant weight gain or weight loss
• Change in sleep habits including either insomnia or constant weariness with the desire to sleep much more than usual
• Self-medicating their mood with excessive alcohol or drug use
• Diagnosis of a mental health disorder including Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar, and Borderline Personality
• Previous suicide attempt
• History of abuse including physical, sexual, and psychological

Personal or environmental stressors associated with suicide (Reference 2-5):

• Loss of a loved one through death, suicide, or terminal illness
• Loss of stability in a relationship including marital strife, separation or divorce
• Loss of job, chronic unemployment, financial instability
• Loss of status or self-esteem
• Conflict about sexual identity
• Loss of safety, security, stability or home
• Loss of freedom through a brush with the law or threat of incarceration
• Loss of health through diagnosis of life-threatening or perceived life-threatening illness

A person may be at high risk for self-harm when they show these suicidal warning signs (References 2-5):

• Thinking, writing or drawing about death or suicide
• Expressing suicidal wishes, both blatant and vague as in, “I just didn't want to get up this morning” or “I'm going away for awhile” or “people would be better off without me” or “what would you do if I died?”
• Inflicting injury to self such as cuts, burns, excessive tattooing or piercing
• Engaging in reckless or illegal behaviors that suggest a disregard for personal safety or well being
• Developing a suicide plan including acquiring the means and selecting the location and time
• Giving away beloved possessions and/or writing a will
• Saying goodbye to others by phone, in person or through a note
• Attempting suicide, whether seemingly serious or not

References for Associated factors and Warning signs

The APA is a U.S. professional organization for psychologists and other mental health professionals.  

This full text article entitled: “Eight Factors Found Critical in Assessing Suicide” is an online article free for reading at the Monitor on Psychology, 31(2), 2000.

The Monitor on Psychology is available at the following Web address:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb00/suicide.html

CSS is a community resource in northern California that has offered volunteer services for more than thirty years. CSS operates a 24-hour telephone service, currently responding to more than 50,000 calls each year.

CSS provides information about the warning signs of suicide available at the following Web address:

http://www.crisissupport.org/info/signs.html

The NMHA is the country's oldest and largest nonprofit organization addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness and is dedicated to educating the public about mental illness.

The following NMHA Web page provides general information about suicide:

http://www.nmha.org/infoctr/factsheets/81.cfm

Developed with the support of NIMH SBIR contract # N44MH22044

© Copyright iTeleHealth Inc., 2004

Last Updated: July 2004