Discussion 90% of People who survive a Suicide Attempt don't end up committing suicide.

[IfyouareamanWinston]

I only skimmed the article but one thing they did not clarify is if the suicide attempts were all sincere attempts to die. What I mean is that people may do reckless things in a moment of passion that are not logical or well thought out. Like cutting your wrist the incorrect way for example or jumping from a inadequate height.

People who make those attempts my be more influenced by mania etc.

 

[marc_old]

If having access to information and peaceful, reliable methods wasn't forbidden, then maybe people wouldn't be attempting to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge only to have their SI kick in.

 

[alterationitfinds]

i feel like this statistic could protential come from the fact that those who have attempted and failed may have significant health issues that either prevent them from trying again or dissuade them from trying again in case they receive more health issues from a second attempt

 

[kilowatt]

That sounds a lot like a pro-lifer statement. 90% seems exaggerated.

 

[Namensjemand]

Interesting article. Well this life is all the "you" got. Just pulling the line on literally all you got may seem overkill afterwards. The suffering / hopelessness which pushed you there may, even if bad, simply not suffice to outweigh the totality of the loss avoided. And there is some sense to that, I must say. Hm... my recent failed attempt didn't change a thing. It gave me more time to process my psychosis and strenghten my grip on reality, but I find my death wish still perfectly intact and a future suicide attempt within the next weeks/months very likely. But I also feel quite sober about my death wish, by now.

 

[Meditation guide]

Probably the aftermath of a failed attempt adds to the fear of trying it again. And realizing how difficult it is to actually pull off. It's extremely traumatic to fail, so I can understand not wanting to go through it again and possibly fail again. I also don't completely believe those statistics.
They might end up like me, in limbo, thinking about it all the time but scared to fail.

 

[Ghostofthepast]

This is interesting I have attempted multiple times so I guess I'm a minority

 

[Spiritual survivor]

What if this isn't based on facts, but just to discourage people from attempting?

 

[Wyldfyre4948]

I feel like the numbers are skewed to make it seem like suicide doesn't work. As it is I've made 10+ attempts and still believe my life will end via suicide. It's probably a prolifer article to discredit the ever rising number of suicides.

 

[rhiino]

Although this is an old thread, the topic is quite interesting. I see many problems with the data, though.

1. It seems like, for the researchers, a suicide attempt is already being at the chosen site for the act, e.g. a bridge or a tall building, even when no further actions are taken. That, for me, is not an attempt. Going through with it and then surviving is an attempt.
So in those numbers there are even those people included, that genuinely only want help from society or their friends and family and never intended to kill themselves in the first place; of course they cannot admit that afterwards. This alone can skew the results big time.

2. They only consider people who survive an suicide attempt. So the people that are most determined with their suicide, that rather (but not always) end up succeeding with it right away, are excluded. More realistic numbers would be to look at everybody that tried to commit suicide (even if they succeeded immediately).

3. They only consider attempts at a single location, a bridge. Survival instinct is very strong with jumping (I know from experience) and if the people do not have another method at hand, they might not even try again. I wanted to jump in the past and the second I was up there I knew, I would never be able to end my life in that way. (Of course I would not count that as an attempt.)

4. It is very easy to let every set of data back up what you want it to back up, if presented correctly. On the other hand it is hard to make a study that is not skewed by methodical errors. It is very obvious that the researchers want to tell the people that there is no need to try to commit suicide in the first place.

 

[Darkover]

More than 700 000 people die due to suicide every year, 1 out of 20 suicide attempts succeeds, thats 14,000,000 attempts per year, or 1,120,000,000 attempts per 80 years one lifetime, 56,000,000 people would of died via suicide within the average lifetime but over 1 in every 8 of us would of attempted suicide at least once during our lifetime

 

[DEATH IS FREEDOM]

You have to think in the opposite way. When you get used to something, it becomes easier to perform. So it is with everything. People who have gotten used to death - people who have several failed suicide attempts behind them are more likely to succeed with suicide because they have knowledge and experience about it.

 

[Notwinnernotawin]

Oh I will. Definitely.

 

[sserafim]

If i survive, i will be in the 10%

Same

You have to think in the opposite way. When you get used to something, it becomes easier to perform. So it is with everything. People who have gotten used to death - people who have several failed suicide attempts behind them are more likely to succeed with suicide because they have knowledge and experience about it.

What if the failed attempts incapacitate them enough that they can't try again though? Like people who become paralyzed or something. I think this could be a factor in it

If having access to information and peaceful, reliable methods wasn't forbidden, then maybe people wouldn't be attempting to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge only to have their SI kick in.

Literally!

Probably the aftermath of a failed attempt adds to the fear of trying it again. And realizing how difficult it is to actually pull off. It's extremely traumatic to fail, so I can understand not wanting to go through it again and possibly fail again. I also don't completely believe those statistics.
They might end up like me, in limbo, thinking about it all the time but scared to fail.

Yeah I'm too scared to fail an attempt and be left with permanent damage. That's the only reason why I haven't tried yet. I think about it all the time though. The thought of having brain damage, being blind, or paralyzed terrifies me

 

[CrazyDiamond04]

This is likely due to sampling bias.

 

[MiMif]

Because the majority of suicide attempts are just people wanting attention that is the same people who call suicide hotlines, if you seriously wanna die you won´t call a stranger to tell you not to do it.

I feel like that's kind of a mean point of view. Who are you to judge that if someone has attempted I doubt they are doing it for attention. I feel it's mostly because fear of failing or realizing they don't really want to die and just want something to change.

Everyone goes through stuff what you said is like really insensitive. I called a holine in my teen years and it was not for attention it was because I had literally no one to turn too and when I was looking up ways to ctb apart of me wanted to be saved so I called. I had a nice conversation though it didn't help at all ngl. How is calling a hotlines even attention seeking the person doesn't know who you are....you sound like a very close minded person.

 

[MatrixPrisoner]

Key word is "attempt".

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

100% of People who survive a Suicide Attempt will die anyway because every human will die anyway no matter what.

 

[SMmetalhead36]

If i survive, i will be in the 10%

That's me also

 

[Givenupx]

I don't know how that can be accurate cuz most things you read about people who attempt once and survive are more likely to to attempt again. Myself for example attempted at 13, 22, 32, 33, and 34 with 3 attempts being between 33-34 all being overdose attempts and 1 night night method. I'm about to be 35 and I'm making sure nothing will mess up this last one. I just don't know how to be happy in this world.

 

[figurehead]

According to statistics I'm aware of the majority of people who end up committing suicide have previous attempts. Which is not exactly the opposite of that - not everyone who attempts suicide die by suicide - but those who do are at higher risk.

 

[DeadManLiving]

In one Mega study with nearly 50,000 participants the lifetime risk of ultimate mortality after a first attempt was 53%. So while 90% of survivors do not go on to complete suicide, this does not taken to account the entire population, the majority of which is dead and not factored into the model.

During the 21-31 year follow-up, of the 48 649 people admitted to hospital after an attempted suicide, 5740 (11.8%) later successfully committed suicide (table 1)⇓. Attempted suicide by poisoning was the most common method (83.8% of attempters) and was linked to 4270 later suicides. The highest relative risk for eventual successful suicide (53.9% in men, 56.6% in women) was found for those in whom the index attempt was by hanging, strangulation, or suffocation.

In one large study they found that 59% of first attempt survivors later reported that their attempt was a cry for help but not a genuine repudiation of their life. In another swedish study involving around 10,000 participants, 69% of those who attempted suicide by hanging and had a psychotic disorder died from suicide within one year.

It's counterintuitive that the greatest predictive factor to a subsequent suicide attempt is a previous suicide attempt.

The greatest confounding factor in all studies was that the all suicidal subject sample group were selected from patients that were brought in to the emergency department. The other limitation in these studies was that the suicidal subjects that died we're not included in large part simply because they go straight to the morgue and are unable to be located or confirmed dead.

So if you have 10,000 subjects that have made a previous attempt, 400 would die if one in 25 attempts result in death. The subject study population now becomes the remaining 9,600 who attempted but did not die.

To get an actual reliable statistic one would have to track down those 9,600 subjects over time until natural death. Among the remainder, the difficulty is that most that reattempt and die using the 1:25 ratio are 384 dead, but since ratios can't be used as an assumption the actual study subjects would have to be located. A majority end up as missing persons, overdoses ruled as accidental, end up in the morgue instead of the emergency department where previous studies used records from instead of all sources and/or locating next of kin for collateral information on method of death becomes prohibitive.

If you have a higher chance of reattempting after the first attempt, then we're going to see greater mortality across the board except those that are dead cannot be come back to testify with the 90% of survivors that they would have decided to not attempt again.