Suicidal thoughts. There are many risk factors associated with such thoughts and attempts. Risk factors include self-destructive behavior which may be related to life events, unfavorable home environments, or inheriting it from relatives. Personality traits like aggression and hostility or feeling introverted or hopeless play a role in such thoughts. Loss of control, poor, insuficient or bad problem solving techniques, or rigid cognitive life styles is also characteristic of this. Similar traits are found in depressive behaviors. Teenagers may have been exposed to others who have had these behaviors and simply copy the behaviour thinking it is normal and not knowing anything else. Just as anyone who is brought up in a household of alcoholics, drug takers, criminals or violence thinks that is normal. Many who suffer with this turn to ask agony aunt online, free online advice columns, advice page or the voluntary service The Samaritans and similar organisations take thousands of calls a week from people.
How can you know that someone is planning this? Very often they do not tell you. A previous suicide attempt is the best predictor of similar future behaviour, especially if the reason for why they felt that way before has not been resolved. Without intervention, a failed attempt may be followed by one that results in death. There are also warning signs. These factors include changes in behavior such as being prone to accidents, drug and alcohol abuse, physical violence towards self or animals, decreased appetite, withdrawal from family and friends, running away, low grades in school, unkept appearances, becoming unfriendly, negative, shy or secretive, notes that make such threats, taking risks, purchasing weapons.
Significant warning signs are expressions of hopelessness, impending doom, explosive rage, highs and lows, after periods of depression a sudden display of cheerfulness, crying spills, insomnia or too much sleep, a decline in self-respect. Changes in thoughts is a warning sign such as difficulty concentrating, concentrating on morbid or death things, hearing voices, seeing visions, expressing bizarre beliefs, irrational speech, and having a sudden interest in or losing interesting in religion/Church/God/praying/the bible etc.
Living in a dysfunctional family due to separation or divorce, loss of an important relationship such as a friend or even a pet may also contribute to feeling suicidal, especially if the desperate person was lonely and they had bonded with that pet or person.
Someone who was happy but who has been forced into an unhappy situation may well feel this way but whether they act on it or not depends on them. If you put a dozen people in the exact same situation you may get one who gets suicidal thoughts while the others grit their teeth and bear it or look for a solution.
Suicide is an action; it is not an illness. It is the final act of a person experiencing severe pain and desperation, but what about those who are left behind to cope. The "survivors" are the relatives, friends, acquaintances and caregivers of a victim- the bereaved. There are four major forces confronting the survivor- the question Why, the shame, guilt and the anger associated with losing a loved one. If the grieving person who is contemplating dying had been having problems with the person and perhaps the last time they spoke to them they had a terrible argument they will find it hard to move on and feel it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, many of them ifs and buts.
The reasons behind a teen's falling victim to this can be complex. Although few children kill themselves the rate of increases tremendously during adolescence The older the child the more likely. This may also be due to an older child having more opportunity to go ahead with the idea. The risk increases dramatically when kids and teens have access to guns, and nearly 60% of all suicides in the United States are committed with guns. That's why any gun in your home should be unloaded, locked, and kept out of the reach of youngsters. But why do you have a gun in your home in the first place? Ammunition should be stored and locked apart from the gun, and the keys for both should be kept in a different area from where you store your household keys. Always keep the keys to any firearms out of the reach of children and adolescents. Just because the thought is there does not mean the action needs to follow.
Suicide rates differ between boys and girls. Girls think about and attempt it about twice as often as boys, and tend to attempt it by overdosing on drugs or cutting themselves. Yet boys kill themselves about four times as often as girls, perhaps because boys tend to use more lethal and physical methods, such as firearms, hanging, or jumping from heights.
One problem with suicide is that a person who is irrational, negative or easily upset may see it as a solution to a problem which is temporary. Where a doer might make more effort to change the situation and a positive person would make more effort to see the good side of things or wait for things to pass. If someone is feeling like commiting suicide because their lover has rejected them they may forget that the awful feelings they have NOW of being rejected, unwanted, unloved, lonely, confused, angry or worried will pass and in a year or a two they will have forgotten all about it! Suicidal thoughts are awful but they will pass if you handle them right and look to the future. Some threaten it as a way to get attention whilst others genuinely see it as the best option for them.
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