Roger
I Liked Ike
- May 11, 2019
- 972
Acknowledgement: This is a cut 'n' paste extract from a CNN report of 21 August 2012, entitled "Psychiatrist: I Hate Suicide but I also Understand It" by psychiatrist Charles Raison. The article is generalised, but seems to have been prompted by the suicide of Tony Ridley, the film director.
. . . . . . . even psychiatrists have a difficult time predicting when someone is at heightened risk for suicide. In part, this comes from the fact that many people who really want to kill themselves keep their mouths shut about it and just go do it. In part, it comes from the fact that suicide is often an impulsive act driven by acute and unpredictable increases in anxiety and despair that one cannot predict in advance.
For families and friends worried about the suicidal potential of a loved one, there are a few useful pieces of advice I can offer from the research literature, such as it is.
First, older men are more likely by far than other people to kill themselves.
Second, people who kill themselves often will tell someone ahead of time. Any such communications should be taken with utmost seriousness, and all efforts should be made to keep the person safe and get him or her to appropriate treatment immediately.
Third, even over the suicidal person's objections, the means for committing suicide should be removed from the environment. Guns should be taken out of the house. Pain pills should be taken elsewhere.
Fourth, studies conducted over the last 20 years suggest that the biggest short-term risk for depressed people to kill themselves is the development of unbearable anxiety. If a loved one with depression begins to pace the floors or do other things suggesting that they are becoming consumed with terror, panic or dread, the risk for suicide shoots up.
Finally, it is not true that talking about suicide increases the likelihood it will happen. In fact, studies suggest the opposite.
Much of this resonates with me, despite the fact that point the Second in the quoted passage appears to partly contradict the first sentence of the extract, ditto the "finally" point. (Those who are serious don't talk about it, but just do it, and the act is often impulsive when a crisis of anxiety strikes.)
Maybe "talking about it" is not the same as discussing it with an anonymous panel of entities on an internet forum ?
Certainly I now keep schtoom about the subject when I talk to people, and fear of being sectioned is only part of the reason. I also try now to maintain a reticence about my own plans even in this forum (by all means correct me if I have failed there) though I was more explicit a few weeks back. I realised that I would be consumed by embarrassment if I said that I was "going to do it" then backed out.
The impulsiveness aspect is firmly in my psyche, and I think that this is a problem (or is it an excuse) for me when it comes to the matter of starting the regimen. My mental state is on a real rollercoaster, as I react to various things happening, and if I had the immediate means then I think it's likely that I would by now have made a serious attempt during one of my periods of trembling and shouting at myself. I don't know just how the 48 hour waiting period and eight hour fast required by my method will allow me to get over the worst of the crisis, though my age and susceptibility to anxiety seem to add weight to my Lack-of-survival prospects.
The article isn't very well written, though I'd place more blame on the CNN editors than the author. Added to the unexplained contradiction already mentioned we have the tautological, "unpredictable increases in anxiety and despair that one cannot predict in advance." That sentence should be terminated after the word "despair." Ho hum, so what ?
. . . . . . . even psychiatrists have a difficult time predicting when someone is at heightened risk for suicide. In part, this comes from the fact that many people who really want to kill themselves keep their mouths shut about it and just go do it. In part, it comes from the fact that suicide is often an impulsive act driven by acute and unpredictable increases in anxiety and despair that one cannot predict in advance.
For families and friends worried about the suicidal potential of a loved one, there are a few useful pieces of advice I can offer from the research literature, such as it is.
First, older men are more likely by far than other people to kill themselves.
Second, people who kill themselves often will tell someone ahead of time. Any such communications should be taken with utmost seriousness, and all efforts should be made to keep the person safe and get him or her to appropriate treatment immediately.
Third, even over the suicidal person's objections, the means for committing suicide should be removed from the environment. Guns should be taken out of the house. Pain pills should be taken elsewhere.
Fourth, studies conducted over the last 20 years suggest that the biggest short-term risk for depressed people to kill themselves is the development of unbearable anxiety. If a loved one with depression begins to pace the floors or do other things suggesting that they are becoming consumed with terror, panic or dread, the risk for suicide shoots up.
Finally, it is not true that talking about suicide increases the likelihood it will happen. In fact, studies suggest the opposite.
Much of this resonates with me, despite the fact that point the Second in the quoted passage appears to partly contradict the first sentence of the extract, ditto the "finally" point. (Those who are serious don't talk about it, but just do it, and the act is often impulsive when a crisis of anxiety strikes.)
Maybe "talking about it" is not the same as discussing it with an anonymous panel of entities on an internet forum ?
Certainly I now keep schtoom about the subject when I talk to people, and fear of being sectioned is only part of the reason. I also try now to maintain a reticence about my own plans even in this forum (by all means correct me if I have failed there) though I was more explicit a few weeks back. I realised that I would be consumed by embarrassment if I said that I was "going to do it" then backed out.
The impulsiveness aspect is firmly in my psyche, and I think that this is a problem (or is it an excuse) for me when it comes to the matter of starting the regimen. My mental state is on a real rollercoaster, as I react to various things happening, and if I had the immediate means then I think it's likely that I would by now have made a serious attempt during one of my periods of trembling and shouting at myself. I don't know just how the 48 hour waiting period and eight hour fast required by my method will allow me to get over the worst of the crisis, though my age and susceptibility to anxiety seem to add weight to my Lack-of-survival prospects.
The article isn't very well written, though I'd place more blame on the CNN editors than the author. Added to the unexplained contradiction already mentioned we have the tautological, "unpredictable increases in anxiety and despair that one cannot predict in advance." That sentence should be terminated after the word "despair." Ho hum, so what ?
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