Causes and Risk factors of Suicide

There are many causes behind suicidal issues. Most commonly, feelings that one cannot cope up with and experience or situation which seems overwhelming to them. One mistakenly considers suicide to be a solution when they assume their future to be hopeless. Such people may experience tunnel vision, wherein which during the midst of a crisis they start believing that suicide is a single way out.

There seem to be some genetic links to suicide as well. Individuals that commit suicide or the ones who get suicidal thoughts or such behavior generally have been identified to have a family history of suicide.

Risk Factors associated with Suicide & Depression:

Women attempt suicide more than men, however, more men die of suicide than women because the attempts of men are more effective such as using a fire arm, shooting themselves, etc.

One is at risk of suicide if they:

• Feel worthless, hopeless, agitated, lonely or socially isolated
• Experienced stressful events in life like losing a loved one, breakup, legal or financial problems
• Use alcohol or drugs as these can make one feel reckless and worsen the thoughts of suicide
• Have some psychiatric disorder, like major depression, bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder
• Have family history of some mental disorder, violence, suicide, substance abuse, sexual abuse, etc
• Have medical conditions that are associated with suicidal thoughts or depression like chronic, pain, terminal illness or chronic disease.
• Made attempts of suicide earlier

Children and Teenagers:

Suicides amongst children & teenagers are led by stressful events of life. What seems minor to an adult may seem very serious & insurmountable to a young person i.e. loss of friendship, problems in school, etc. In some cases children or teens have felt suicidal because of some life events that they do not want to discuss like:

• Having psychiatric disorders including depression
• Conflict with or loss of family members or close friends
• Sexual or physical abuse
• Drugs or alcohol
• Medical or physical issues like becoming pregnant, affected by some sexually transmitted infection
• Being victimized by being bullied

Murder and Suicide:

Some rare cases show that individuals who feel suicidal are also at risk or taking other’s lives and then their own lives. This is called homicide-suicide or a murder-suicide. Some factors are:

• Conflict with romantic partner or with spouse
• Current financial or legal problems
• History of depression or some mental health issues
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Having access to some weapon such as a gun

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