Why do you think have therapists a higher suicide rate?

[noname223]

I already did a similar thread. Though I barely gave input myself and only asked whether you ever experienced suicidality or a suicide of a psychologist or psychiatrist. In this thread I want to emphasize which could be the reasons for higher suicide rates among them.

I give a short answer why I think about it. I read a David Foster Wallace story where the professional of a depressed person commits suicide. Moreover I think my case was for some professionals sort of overwhelming. Some professionals gave me up and thought I gonna ctb. One did not really care much. But in a clinic where I was they cared about me. It is a long and complicated story. Both know from my persistent suicidality. Despite the fact people think they would intervene when one has persistent suicidality they don't lock you up forever. In this clinic a female psychiatrist and a psychologist worried about me. I spoke to the female psychiatrist shortly before she quit the job. One could see she sleeps very badly on a regular basis. She looked very exhausted. After we spoke she talked to herself and said something like "we cannot lock him up forever".
I know from another case they worried about. A completely delusional bipolar young girl almost killed herself during psychosis. And she always quits the meds so it just repeat on a regular basis. I think this was another case which was kind of overwhelming. However I don't know all their cases so I might be biased.

I just read again from the people who studied medicine the psychiatrists and anesthetists have the highest suicide rate. The source is German so I won't link it.

There are speculations why they (mental health professionals) have a higher suicide rate. There is the chicken or egg question. Do these professionals have an helper's syndrome because of their own misery or do they become more and more desperate when they are confronted with dread, death, suffering and misery on a daily basis.

People with these jobs experience heartbreaking cases. They must feel impotence/powerlessness when they cannot help another person. However I have met psychiatrists who were completely numb and cold. I can remember two where I had the feeling I could (hypothetically!) shoot myself in the head in front of them and they just would care about all the mess in their room and not about the fate of the individual. Moreover I have to say the bad therapists who are not engaged are the one's who have the easier job.

So the German article describes possible reasons why health professionals have higher suicide rates. The job is very stressful with many overtime hours. They have the knowledge and often the access to lethal drugs. I once read in the past many doctors prescribed themselves benzos to cope with their stress. Which ruined them. In the article it says doctors in the situation of suicidality and substance abuse are scared to lose their license when they open up to someone. In this forum someone had the hypothesis. The fear of being identified in this field is way higher and thus there are less members from this field in this forum. Seems plausible.

Furthermore the huge responsibility one has with this job can be burdensome. Some might have a guilty conscience when patients of them commit suicide or they have to stop the therapy because of lack of success. Many lack sleep which can lead to burnout.

Why do you think is their suicide rate is higher? I think many here have made bad experiences with therapists. I think the bad apples in this job probably can cope better with the huge responsibility that comes along with it. Maybe that is one reason why it is hard to find a compassionate one.

 

[Someone123]

Partg of it is becauase they are dealing with peopele's worst problems all the time and, for the therapists who care, part of it must be that what they were taught iun school to try to help rarely helps. What they should do is focus of people'sw financial p[roblems, p[hysicla health problems, metnal helath issues like anorexia or ocd, and physcial health problems. BUt most of all they should try to talk abuot peopel's family and friends, which ones may be helping and which are not- if a person ends up in therapy their social support network is often weak, though sometimes not- making this stronger is the most important thing.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

I didn't know therapists did. Suicidal feelings were obviously foreign to most I saw.

 

[MideonNViscera]

It's because they are one of those professions who are constantly confronted with the worst aspects of human existence. My therapist cries sometimes in our sessions. She's not going to kill herself, but imagine if one of us went into that field because we wanted to help, only to find out how useless we really are.

 

[Regret]

100k+ in student loan debt will make any wage slave professional want to kill themselves — therapist/psychiatrist included.

 

[Bluescreen]

I think, most of them are not educated well. In Europe and most countries, health insurances pay less sessions. But in 80 Sessions, you can't therapy Personality Disorders or recurring Depressions with Suicidality. The Therapy teaching Schools don't care, they just advertise their Therapy method to get Money and Students. So, the behaviourists say that they can handle Depression in 40 Hours, but it's basically impossible. The one's who have been healed would heal without Therapy also like a Sickness in November.

If I had to work in a public hospital as a Therapist without a chance for another Job, I would kill myself also. I would have chosen the Job to do my best to help others. What is hard for me, is not an Illness you can't thread, it's you don't, because the Public has to pay a private Dinner with some Politicians.
So many people with hard, but threadable Problems, but you would need time and Money that you don't get, because it's not paid. And you know you poison the People with bad Food, dangerous and brain destroying Medicine, but you have to tell them they look better. They know that they have to look better in order not to lose you as a therapist, they depend on you, so they do their best to make you and themselves believe it.
When they leave Hospital or the Therapy ends, they will be unhappy again and Suicide Danger increases. You, as a Professional, know that.

If you don't want to danger your own mental Health, don't be a therapist anymore or work with Patients who can aford a Therapy. Be honest to poor people, there's no help for them.

 

[Unending]

I think that people who actually have enough empathy to see adversity from someone else's perspective are emotionally perceptive to some very heavy concepts where as a majority of other people may or may not understand things like depression, abuse, misery, inner dissonance, etc from a strictly surface-level perspective, but not from that of the sufferer.

I think that when you understand these things from the perspective of the sufferer or have an abundance of empathy, it makes it a lot harder to not see and feel pain everywhere. Even if you succumb to empathy fatigue, you still can feel second-hand suffering, at least in my case.

 

[Escape Artist]

I just read through half of Thomas Joiner's "Why People Die by Suicide" (good book, btw) and it mentions that he thinks people in the medical field have a higher rate because they get desensitized to pain and death, therefore able to overcome SI. He also mentioned what you mentioned - availability of methods.
Maybe psychiatrists and therapists hear about people attempting and catching the bus so often that they're able to overcome their SI because ctb seems like a common and everyday occurrence. They get to contemplate it up close regularly.

 

[another@]

They are given a very dark window. Of course now they realize they are stuck in a room. The next logical step is to escape through that window.

 

[nurplexkid]

Deep down they know they can't help. Most just see their patients deteriorate. A lot of therapists fell into the profession while trying to understand/resolve their own mental health issues. Psychiatrists have poorer mental health, and take more time off, than doctors working in the ICU.

 

[Disappointered]

most people who go into that do so because they have serious mental problems themselves. it's a circus.

 

[choopla]

Based on my own experience, it has to do with frustration. They have to come to terms with the fact that some are beyond helping, and this can make them bitter. They realize the truths of the world and the fact that they're useless for the most part. They realize they chose a sucker profession that is mostly useless.

 

[Seiko]

Probably second-hand trauma.

 

[UKscotty]

Because they get greater insight into just how pointless and meaningless life is.

Once you realise we literally are just here to breed and raise more humans, you realise your life means nothing.

There really is nothing deeper, no gods, no afterlife, no soul etc, these are just made up things to make people think there is purpose.

 

[Forever Sleep]

It's an interesting question. I reckon- like many other people have said- empathy, plus not always being able to help. It's got to get to you hearing depressing and distressing things everyday. Plus- as others have said- maybe underlying issues they are battling. I have known people who were suffering themselves go into councelling jobs.

The top 3 most suicidal professions in the UK are apparently: Medical Doctors, Dentists and Police Officers. Dentists kind of surprised me... Can't say it's a job I see much appeal in but I wouldn't have thought you'd have much trauma to deal with. The other jobs though- I imagine you're dealing with a lot of tragedy nd trauma with likely not great resources to make sure you yourself are ok.