Identifying warning signs of suicide can help relatives connect people who are considering suicide to resources. Talking about suicide openly and reducing stigma are also important.
Keeping people safe by restricting access to lethal items and places can reduce suicides. Other strategies include reducing suicide attempts by connecting them with support services and encouraging them to try new treatments like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy.
Life Skills
Having life skills helps you function in your daily routine and maintain a good quality of life. Life skills include everything from being able to feed yourself and dress yourself to the ability to think and solve problems creatively. People can develop life skills through community engagement, work, education and non-profit groups that fill gaps in their abilities.
Developing life skills can help prevent suicide. OMH promotes the use of suicide prevention strategies such as teaching coping and problem-solving skills, reducing access to lethal means and connecting those at risk with immediate crisis support.
Resilience is also important to suicide prevention. Resilience includes traits such as positive self-concept and optimism, and it can be strengthened through activities such as community events that bring together people with shared experiences. A lack of resilience makes you more likely to consider, attempt or die by suicide when faced with a traumatic event, loss, financial stress, relationship breakdown or a physical illness.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to adapt to difficult life events and situations. It is a skill set that can be learned and developed over time. This is an essential element in preventing suicide.
Several studies have shown that resilience is a protective factor against suicidality. Resilient individuals have a variety of adaptive strategies, such as positive coping and emotional regulation. They are also better able to identify and use their strengths to overcome difficulties. Resilient individuals are able to find meaning in their experiences and have a strong sense of purpose.
Resilience is a complex construct that incorporates both biological and human elements. Specifically, it includes brain and behavioral plasticity, the affiliative circuits of the brain, oxytocin, and biobehavioral synchrony, as well as the capacity to attribute meaning to trauma through cultural myths and a meaningful life.
Support
Suicide is complicated and affects people of all ages and backgrounds. Those who commit suicide are often in a great deal of pain and cannot see another way out of their situation. They may also have a mental health condition, such as depression or bipolar disorder.
When someone you know is struggling, it’s important to check-in with them often and listen to them without judgement. This shows that you care and are concerned. It’s also a good idea to reduce their access to lethal means of self-harm, such as distributing gun safety locks, changing medication packaging or putting barriers on bridges.
It’s also important to follow up with them after you have connected them with immediate support systems. Studies have shown that ongoing contact, such as sending a caring letter or leaving them a voicemail can reduce their risk of suicide. This strategy is part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention that involves many sectors of society.
Awareness
Awareness is the state of knowing something, like the awareness that the sun rises every morning. Public awareness campaigns are often used to educate people on health topics that may be stigmatized or unfamiliar to them. There is evidence that these campaigns can increase help-seeking behaviors.
A person who is suicidal may experience a variety of warning signs, including mood shifts (irrational anger or hopelessness), researching ways to kill themselves, withdrawing from friends and family, sleeping too little or too much, giving away prized possessions, and more. Symptoms of depression, alcohol use disorders or a history of suicide attempts also indicate increased risk for suicide.
For those who have been directly impacted by someone’s suicide, the grief can be devastating. Survivors often struggle with feelings of anger, guilt and despair, replaying “what if” scenarios in their mind and feeling blame for the loved one’s death. NIMH’s resources can help families cope and find support.