Suicide Prevention Is Impossible
Suicide Prevention is Impossible. Discuss. | | |
Introduction
Suicide is a leading worldwide cause of death that claims around 1 million lives each year. Its causes are often shrouded in myth and avoidance, due to the sensitive nature of the topic. It leaves loved ones with more long-lasting feelings of guilt, puzzlement, shame and distress than any other form of death, (Gallo &Pfeiffer, 2003) and affects more people than we, perhaps realise. Despite the volume of people affected by this tragedy, the debate of preventability still exists, partly due to lack of public knowledge about suicide and partly due to the vast array of reasoning behind both arguments.
Warning Signs and Risk Factors
Kring, A.M., Johnson, S.L., Davison, G.C., & Neale, J.M. (2010) list various facts about suicide that allude to the idea of who is more at risk. For example, suicide risk increases with age although the suicide figures for young people are dramatically increasing also. Being divorced or widowed increases ones risk of suicide and, according to Arias, Anderson, Kung, Murphy and Kochanek (2003), men are four times more likely to kill themselves than women. Another significant risk factor is the link with depression and mood disorders as people suffering from these often have suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behaviours. Already, there is an archetype forming of a middle age male, who has recently lost their partner and perhaps as a result, now suffers from depression. It can be argued that these attributes, collectively, may translate as a suicide risk, however falling into any of these categories, or even all, does not necessarily mean that this person will commit suicide or exhibit suicidal behaviour. In fact, it could be argued that these statistics do not facilitate suicide prevention as the categories are so wide and such a large proportion of the population will fall into each, that investigating each case would, itself, be impossible.
A myth
Introduction
Suicide is a leading worldwide cause of death that claims around 1 million lives each year. Its causes are often shrouded in myth and avoidance, due to the sensitive nature of the topic. It leaves loved ones with more long-lasting feelings of guilt, puzzlement, shame and distress than any other form of death, (Gallo &Pfeiffer, 2003) and affects more people than we, perhaps realise. Despite the volume of people affected by this tragedy, the debate of preventability still exists, partly due to lack of public knowledge about suicide and partly due to the vast array of reasoning behind both arguments.
Warning Signs and Risk Factors
Kring, A.M., Johnson, S.L., Davison, G.C., & Neale, J.M. (2010) list various facts about suicide that allude to the idea of who is more at risk. For example, suicide risk increases with age although the suicide figures for young people are dramatically increasing also. Being divorced or widowed increases ones risk of suicide and, according to Arias, Anderson, Kung, Murphy and Kochanek (2003), men are four times more likely to kill themselves than women. Another significant risk factor is the link with depression and mood disorders as people suffering from these often have suicidal thoughts or engage in suicidal behaviours. Already, there is an archetype forming of a middle age male, who has recently lost their partner and perhaps as a result, now suffers from depression. It can be argued that these attributes, collectively, may translate as a suicide risk, however falling into any of these categories, or even all, does not necessarily mean that this person will commit suicide or exhibit suicidal behaviour. In fact, it could be argued that these statistics do not facilitate suicide prevention as the categories are so wide and such a large proportion of the population will fall into each, that investigating each case would, itself, be impossible.
A myth