Each suicide generates a heated debate in society related to mental health issues. In these discussions, many myths are often born and some of them turn out to be unusually tenacious. In this article, we will try to dispel the most popular ones.
Myth # 1: People who attempt suicide are just trying to get attention / This is a cry for help
Fact: Most people who try to take (or take) their own lives (over 90%) suffer from mental illness. Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, drug addiction, and often a combination of these diseases are the main causes of suicide.
Attempts to present suicide as a peculiar way to attract attention is to call the sick person an ordinary manipulator. In addition, even if a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then the person needs help!
Myth # 2: Selfish people commit suicide
Fact: Suicide is a terrible tragedy for a family, for most of those who have survived such a death of a loved one, life is forever divided into "before" and "after". However, a person who is in such deep depression that he decides to commit suicide thinks that others will only be better off without him.
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Three murderous sensations become the soil for suicide: helplessness, hopelessness, and one's own worthlessness. The hopelessness whispers, “Your life will never get better. Don't even try to change anything. " Helplessness paralyzes the will - a person feels that he cannot control anything: whatever happens, only aggravates the situation. " Worthlessness adds fuel to the fire: “You are an absolutely useless creature on this planet. Your life is meaningless, you only interfere with everyone."
These sad three gundos in the head of a sick person are so loud that any attempts to convince a person of the value of life, their own significance, love for him simply drown. Many people who commit suicide are sincerely and firmly convinced that they are doing their loved ones a favor with their suicide.
Of course, it's hard to see the problem of suicide from that angle. But if you have ever suffered from severe depression or you yourself thought about how to leave life of your own free will, then you know what this is about.
Of course, if you had to go through the suicide of a loved one, then you most likely felt (or feel) anger and bewilderment towards him. So it's natural to call someone an egoist who has left you (or tried to do so) in such a monstrous way, because he caused you so much pain.
Myth # 3: Don't ask the person you are worried about if they have thoughts of suicide - this may provoke him
Fact: If you are worried about a loved one, be honest with them. Ask him head-on if he is thinking of taking his own life. What happened next? Listen. Surely with your question you will give him / her the opportunity for the first time to express everything that has accumulated in your soul.
Myth # 4: People who commit suicide really want to die
Fact: A suicidal person wants to get rid of pain - and this is exactly the same as wanting death. The surviving jumpers from the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco) admitted that they changed their minds already in flight. Especially often in this sense, they recall the words of the failed suicide of Ken Baldwin, who said that at the moment of jumping off the bridge in 1985, he “immediately realized that everything in my life that seemed irreparable was absolutely fixable - except for the fact that I just jumped."
Myth # 5: If you do not allow a potential suicide to carry out their plans in the way they choose, they will find another way to kill themselves
Fact: Preventive measures work. For example, returning to the Golden Gate Bridge: for many years they have been in the first place in the ranking of the most popular ways to end life in the entire western hemisphere. In 2017, 39 people jumped from this bridge. By the way, the San Francisco government has approved a $ 200 million anti-suicide barrier project, which is to be completed by 2021.
Skeptics might say that future jumpers will simply find another bridge. But they are wrong: in 2013, an analysis of data from 22 previous studies on suicide was carried out in order to understand how effective all kinds of nets, fences on bridges, viaducts and rocks, "chosen" by suicides, are. Result? While the number of suicides on adjacent bridges and rocks (without nets and fences) increased slightly, the overall number of suicides fell by almost a third.
So it works. But what about those who tried to kill themselves but were stopped? Will they try again later. Oddly enough, no. In a 1978 study, researchers analyzed 515 cases from 1937 to 1971 in which people tried to jump from the same Golden Gate Bridge but were rescued. 90% of these people were alive or died of natural causes, even decades later.
Of course, none of us can single-handedly cover a whole bridge with a net in order to save a loved one from the fatal stupidity, but we are quite capable of hiding a hunting rifle from sin. A 2004 study found that men with firearms in their homes are 10 times more likely to commit suicide than those without weapons. And in 1986, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a study that found that for every criminal killed with a firearm stored in the house, there were 37 suicides who committed suicide with their own firearms.
Myth # 6: Media doesn't have much of an impact on suicide
Fact: Copycat suicide is a reality. Dozens of studies have shown that exaggerating the details of the suicides of stars (for example, the death of Robin Williams in 2014) leads to the emergence of many imitators. The more details get into the press (how exactly the deceased favorite of the public prepared suicide, what dose and what sleeping pill he used, what brand of razor cut his veins with a razor), the more desperate people decide to follow their example. Therefore, it is so important that in such cases journalists refrain from giving details.
Myth # 7: Suicidal thoughts are rare
Fact: Not at all. However, the thought of the thought is different. One thing is fleeting thoughts like “I'm tired of everything. It would be nice to end all the problems at once "or" I would like to just disappear from the face of the Earth, as if I did not exist. " Such thoughts at different periods of life can arise in everyone. They pop up in your head and go away, and you shouldn't worry about it. However, if such thoughts appear often, and especially if you are going through a difficult period, it is quite possible that your psyche is giving SOS signals.
Some people are haunted by passive thoughts about death, such as "If I fell asleep and did not wake up, I would not mind at all." Or they imagine being accidentally hit by a bus.
The next most dangerous are active suicidal thoughts when a person plays in his imagination as he suddenly jumps onto the road in front of the bus. And the last, most dangerous level involves drawing up a detailed plan: when, where and how to commit suicide.
However, if someone confesses suicidal thoughts to you, do not try to assess the level of their danger: it is wiser and safer to always take such a revelation extremely seriously.
Svetlana Gogol