Trigger Warning
This article contains themes of self-harm and suicide. Please be advised.
Here’s one grim fact for you: Across the globe, 1 person dies by suicide about every 40 seconds [*]. That is approximately 800,000 people each year. And for every completed suicide, there are about 25 people who attempt suicide.
That may be a horrific statistic, but unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. For every person who attempts suicide, there are least two individuals anywhere in the world who consider attempting suicide [*]. We can try to do the math, but the resulting number of people who think about suicide would probably just make us feel disillusioned.
In light of World Suicide Prevention Day, it would probably be more helpful to place more emphasis on knowing how to help individuals who are considering ending their own lives, rather than calculating the prevalence rates of suicide attempts. It all starts, however, with deepening our understanding of suicide.
An Emerging Theory of Suicide
There are quite a number of theories already that try to explain suicide. At the risk of sounding arbitrary, though, let’s focus on just one model that expounds on suicidal behavior: the three-step theory.
The three-step theory of suicide is relatively simple. According to this ideation-to-action framework, suicidal behavior is based on the following four factors [*]:
How does suicidal ideation occur based on these four factors? The next sections explain the steps outlined in this theory.
Step 1: Development of Suicidal Ideation
The first step in the ideation-to-action model is heavily contingent on the individual’s pain. Although this pain doesn’t necessarily have to be psychological or emotional, it usually is. This psychological pain is more or less perceived by the affected individual as some kind of punishment for living. Over time – and especially if your pain is so chronic and persistent – the individual will be conditioned to think this way more and more, eventually wearing down their desire to live. And naturally, if you don’t want to live, death becomes an option.
However, this doesn’t mean that if you are living with pain, then you will automatically want to end your life. That is not always the case. This is where hope – or the lack thereof – comes in. If you feel like the pain will never cease or improve, this may result in you feeling like a lost cause. This is when suicide starts to sound like a viable plan.
Step 2: Strong Versus Moderate Ideation
What factors turn suicidal ideation into an actual suicide attempt, though? There are several considerations in play here; however, according to the three-step theory, connectedness is the one chief factor that transforms a suicidal thought into action.
According to the theorists who developed this model, having a sense of connectedness is crucial. Although we often associate this word with love and belonging, connectedness can also be related to your career, passion, hobbies, or perceived purpose in life.
Why does connectedness matter so much? It’s because even if you are in pain and have lost all hope to the point that you’re considering suicide, your connection with something or someone will keep those suicidal ideations at bay. Your suicidal thoughts will most likely remain as that: thoughts. However, if you are in pain, feel hopeless, and are disconnected from the world or your life, that is the time that you will likely suffer from strong urges to end your life.
Step 3: Suicidal Ideation to a Suicide Attempt
If you are suffering from suicidal ideation, the previous steps may have resonated with you. But you might be wondering: Will you act on your desire to end your life?
It all depends on whether you’re capable of attempting suicide. Take note that as human beings, we don’t particularly enjoy getting hurt. With that said, it takes a lot for someone to be capable of attempting because it goes against the natural tendency to survive.
This capability to attempt suicide can take any of the three forms:
In sum, individuals with strong suicidal ideation will likely only attempt suicide if they are capable of pushing through with their plan.
You would think that knowing all of this would make it easier to prevent suicide at this point. However, it is not just about establishing prevention programs to mitigate the prevalence of suicide. Suicide prevention entails a response from every individual who can help and who is willing to help. And it starts with knowing how to be there for someone, especially when they start to see the warning signs of suicide.
Recognizing the Warning Signs of Suicide
Be it as health care professionals, mental health advocates, or loved ones, it is imperative to be prepared if a person we know is planning to take their own life. When it comes to the warning signs of suicide, we consider these as an invitation for us to initiate a dialogue with the individual about their feelings, thoughts, and intentions.
Although it may seem like asking them, “Do you have plans to end your life?” will drive them to attempt suicide, there is no evidence that supports this idea. In reality, when asked about what they are feeling and experiencing, people with suicidal ideation typically welcome the space to talk about their issues.
IS PATH WARM: A Mnemonic
How can we know when to ask them whether they plan to take their own life so that we know how to help them? The following are some of the warning signs of suicide, collectively represented by the mnemonic IS PATH WARM [*]:
How to Help Individuals at Risk of Suicide
Now, suppose that your friend, coworker, or family member is quite visibly suffering from suicidal ideation. Maybe they are exhibiting most of the IS PATH WARM warning signs listed earlier. What now? How can you help?
There are many suicide prevention models out there, but perhaps the easiest one to keep in your back pocket is the five action steps for communicating with someone who is exhibiting suicidal behavior. These action steps are empirically supported by recent suicide research.
Final Thoughts
As the saying goes, knowledge is power. It is thus crucial to learn what drives a person to suicide and how we can spot the behavioral and emotional indicators that someone is planning to take their own life before anything else.
However, it is also worth noting that knowledge is meaningless if it isn’t translated into action. With that said, you can begin applying the knowledge you gained now by reaching out to the people you care about. Being a daily warrior doesn’t just mean being in battle with your psychological disorder. It’s also about helping others end the war with their mental health conditions.
So be there for someone today and help end their war.
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