suicidal people with trauma and suicidal people with no trauma

[snow_cones59]

Do you think someone who lives a normal life with no real past traumatic experiences can be as suicidal as someone who has suffered horror stories

 

[cheaptrick]

Interesting question. Setting aside pathologic causes like brain defects, and assuming the suicidal ideation is reactionary I would imagine the person without trauma is more likely to make a full recovery. Of course anyone can be suicidal for any reason. One mans mountains is another mans mole hill.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I imagine a person who has lived a happy life right up until they became chronically ill could absolutely feel as intensely suicidal as someone who suffers more with mental anguish from past trauma.

Imagine having chronic pain most of the time. Not being able to sleep because of it. Either not being taken seriously by doctors and eventually, loved ones too. I suspect other people's sympathy runs out for all sorts of reasons. Physical pain can also surely trigger mental pain too. It's got to be depressing to be unwell all the time.

I'm fortunate in that I've only had periods of intense pain- to date. Although, I've lived with family members who were in almost constant pain. They may have had less traumatic events happen in their life- compared to me. They didn't outright express a desire to suicide. Their life was miserable though. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to swap.

I think in general, it's pretty tricky to put suffering on a scale too. It can feel quite demeaning to have someone insist they are suffering more. How can anyone really know? Even if objectively speaking- one person's life has been worse, it may be that the other person has less resilience to cope with their 'easier' lot in life.

It may not even necessarily make one person more likely to actually commit suicide than the other. Do we take that into account also? By actually committing suicide- does that prove that those people were suffering more? I think it's impossible to know really.

 

[Pangs93]

Suicidal ideation and mental illness don't discriminate. You could've had the best, happiest, most carefree life and still be struck by mentall illness or suicidal ideation (independent of mental illness) at any point in life.

I also think people who have had good lives tend to be hit harder than those who've experienced significant trauma. They have a lower threshold for pain and discomfort so when it hits, it hits like a freight train. I don't really buy into the idea that trauma makes us resilient, brave or strong though, personally its made me feel incredibly weak and broken. However, I do think it increases a persons tolerance for suffering when their whole life has been built upon it. Both groups have it hard in different ways. I dont think either group can be considered more or less suicidal.

I have to admit though, this belief is something relatively recent for me. When I was younger I experienced rather extreme irritation at folks who had great parents and easy lives who would then tell me of their suffering. Those who didn't experience abuse, bullying, poverty, etc who would whine to me about how hard their life was. I was very narrow-minded and unempathetic to those I thought had it easy. It took a lot of inner work to get over that mindset and realise people can still experience extreme psychological pain even in the absence of any trauma. Something I'm still working on even now.

As forever sleep said, putting suffering on a scale is tricky. There is no objective metric for suicidality or emotional suffering.

 

[YourLocalEdgelord]

All it takes is something like losing your job, your home, an illness, or a divorce even. So yes. Though I think the more traumatized you are, the harder it will be to recover.