Paper : "Suicide Notes: Assessing Their Impact on the Bereaved"

[daley]

I found this research paper and although the findings are weak, I thought it might be interesting for people here.
Especially for considering whether to leave a note, and what it's contents might be.

The paper is : Suicide Notes: Assessing Their Impact on the Bereaved , published in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 2018 , The American Association of Suicidology

Trying to summarize what I understood from it.

1) They try to understand whether those who had a close one commit suicide, are impacted differently depending on whether or not they got a suicide note.
2) Furthermore, if they got a note, does it matter if it's content were "helpful" (e.g. expressed love) or "non-helpful" (e.g blaming others).
3) Furthermore, if the did not get a note, does it matter if they wanted a note or not.

They only manged to show 3. In particular, if a person was expecting to get a note, and did not get a note, their mental outcomes were worse.

There are significant methodological problems, because the people surveyed are such that they are likely to have worse outcomes to begin with.

Still you might find it an interesting read, if you are inclined to read academic papers.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

When people have loved ones kill themselves, their initial reaction tends to be to take it personally. They internalize the suicide and see it as an indictment of the role they played in the decedent's life. In cruder terms, the unavoidable message that a suicide tends to communicate is that you weren't worth it. Of course, as stated these emotional reactions are what people often experience in the very direct aftermath of the suicide. Ideally as people go through the mourning process they shed that way of viewing their loved one's action that they had in the beginning.

Not leaving a single word, especially if the other people was not wholly aware of your feelings and intentions (and yes, of course many considerations complicate that), only serves to exacerbate and solidify those initial feelings, however limited the utility of suicide notes in that regard may be.

Of course, a different story holds if your final communication contains nothing but venom and bile. Even if it's not unmerited, maybe it would still be better to abstain from that. Depending.