Maybe it's just a saying, but how would one succeed in kill something inside them without killing themselves?
There's drowning one's demons in alcohol as others have said
or if you want to be dorky about it- surgery
I expect it's true in terms of flooding your system with adrenaline. Short-term, it may jolt someone into being grateful they are no longer in that situation anymore. Maybe even give them a new perspective on life if they did actually nearly drown. Maybe, they suddenly realise what they could miss out on.
As for curing what's making that person suicidal to begin with. I doubt it. What problems can be solved by nearly drowning? Perhaps real pain and panic may put other problems into perspective but ultimately, life goes on. What was it about life that the person hated so much? Why would that have changed after their near death experience? If it's illness, nearly drowning will probably only make that illness worse. If it's situational, financial, a suicide attempt likely won't go down too well with employers and loved ones. I suppose though, it could go the other way and people start to give them more attention and support.
That all said, there is that weird statistic that 9 out of 10 of suicide survivors will not die by suicide in the future. So, maybe there is something in it. Perhaps the act of attempting shakes something up in them. Of course, we don't know whether they lived out the rest of their lives in misery... I find that statistic hard to believe too.
Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date. This has been well-established in the suicidology literature. A literature review (Owens 200…
www.hsph.harvard.edu
My guess: The "seriousness" of attempts and attempters isn't accounted for in these statistics, as it's hard to quantify. As such, they're extremely skewed.
Like, many people will attempt literally just because they're having a bad moment and in that hour or day or week they have nothing to live for.
As per your source- "The relationship between suicide attempts and completions is a complex one."
One critical statistic-
"An international review of psychological autopsy studies found that approximately 40% of those dying by suicide had previously attempted (
Cavanagh 2003). The proportion was lower (25-33%) among studies of youth suicide in the U.S. (
Brent 1993, Shaffer 1996).
A history of previous attempts is lower among those dying by firearm suicide and higher among those dying by overdose (NVISS data)."
My guess? Drug overdosers are generally more impulsive.
I actually have an example of this- an online friend of mine tried to OD because her then boyfriend was ignoring her. Her attempt was completely spur of the moment- took a bunch of random pills and called a friend who convinced her to call 9/11 before she passed out, which is how she survived. I don't know that much about her personal life or trauma or etc but she's very BPD and prone to violent mood swings. She's pretty happy with her life most of the time.
Someone who wants to die for a protracted amount of time and plans it out thoroughly is a whole other deal. They're patient and methodical. I'm one of them. When I eventually CTB, it'll have been after a year or more of planning and waiting.
Additionally-
"5% to 11% of hospital-treated attempters
do go on to complete suicide, a far higher proportion than among the general public where annual suicide rates are about 1 in 10,000."
"Approximately 50% of all people who die by suicide have previously self-harmed. One in 25 patients presenting to the hospital for self-harm will complete suicide in the next 5 years."
I'd also note that this statistic only includes attempts that resulted in hospitalization or were otherwise known to the researchers. All the people who tried OD, poison, hypothermia, or jumping and survived without mentioning it or who lied and said it wasn't suicide aren't counted.
So the statistic is really "9/10 people who either admitted to attempting or couldn't plausibly deny it and were admitted to a hospital did not go on to CTB".
