For instance, far more men commit suicide. But far more women attempt suicide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide
I'm sure there are other differences. To me, the questions are:
1. Why do people fail at suicide attempts?
2. Will information that dissuades a failed suicide attempt dissuade someone from making a successful suicide attempt?
I distinctly remember feeling that my brain wanted me to die, but I personally was not of the same opinion at all. So what I did was call up a friend and basically said "You have an hour to convince me not to do this". It worked, I'm here.
But I feel that when trying to commit suicide, you will instinctively do everything in your power to botch the attempt. Because what you're looking for isn't death per se, it's clarity and resolution. Mostly you just want "it" to stop, any sort of traumatic experience can be surprisingly helpful with that.
But of course stopping suicide attempts (that are destined to fail) is a worthy goal too.
Couldn't this thesis explained by selection bias? I mean if you don't regret your suicid decision, you'll probably try again (and again) until you succeed. This IMHO biases the survivers strongly towards those who regret it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_suicide#C...
If it were a decision like "which toothpaste works better", and you could calmly evaluate evidence and act impartially, I imagine there would be fewer suicide attempts, fewer suicides, and a higher percentage of attempts would succeed. But this is a vastly different sort of thing, an intrinsically uninstinctual act. This is just speculation, but I would guess that the rare cases where the suicidal person is overwhelmingly justified by his or her decision (Goering killing himself painlessly rather than being tried and hanged), the success rate improves.
In response to 2., I have no idea - that is an empirical question. But it's an interesting question, and it's good to see the topic discussed in the media as it generally is quite taboo.
He wasn't very good at aiming, apparently. When he shot the bullet into his head, probably in a drunken stupor, he missed his brain and lived... probably still wanting to shoot himself and succeed, but being physically unable to do so at this point he just lay there until someone found him.
By the time he recovered in hospital from the wound, he wanted to live! Albeit with a very disfigured face, which I thought would be a hinderence to an already depressed individual, but he sees it differently and we're all glad for it!
You could say if I was truly motivated, I would learn how to overcome one or more of these obstacles. Well that's a moving goalpost. I maintain that I was motivated to try whatever I had at my disposal, and I was not able to determine whether it was actually possible.
Men in general are treated like a shit, so they kill themselfs. Most women are emotionally blackmailing their families.
Wha-?
I'm by no means a heartless person. However, I truly believe if you don't want to live any more, that it's your right and your responsibility.
I'm not in your head. I don't know what you're thinking. Most of the time, I won't even know that you're depressed. Many people mask it very well. Why is it my fault that you decided to kill yourself?
Isn't the usual approach to at least treat symptoms, if you can't immediately cure the underlying illness?
It's not quite my brain, and it's not quite my mind. It's my life, which in a sense is my mind. Which may or may not be my brain. I think that current psychiatry is confused about which level of abstraction is the one to target - not too surprising, since it's circular, almost strange-loopy. Also, people, even most professionals, don't really know what to do or say when the problem really is your life.
I can imagine suicide cases brought on by real hardship such as a hopeless&painful disease; unescapeable debts in a poor society, or cases such as teenagers married to someone against their will with no chance of escape; these wouldn't be caused by an illness but it's hard to figure out on how to estimate the proportions.
That said, I don't think talking about attempts will help someone who is suicidal in the slightest. If anything it leads to emulation suicides, also known as the Werther effect, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
This has more detail:
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/10/werther_effect_copyca...
This podcast discusses the issue:
http://freakonomics.com/2011/08/31/new-freakonomics-radio-po...
* Cultural shame of surviving family.
* Suicide is a sin in some religions.
* Suicide voids most life insurance policies.Why doesn't anyone talk about "misery prevention" ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2094294?uid=3737536&ui...
It might partly be influenced by a Tourette's like underlying structure, which would here make it more publicly, or in terms of a biological profile, a symptom. Usually all we see are symptoms in the narration of science.