Why do people with depression attempt suicide?
With depression, in addition to a decrease in mood, symptoms such as a feeling of self-doubt, decreased self-esteem, and a gloomy and pessimistic vision of the future appear. People with depression may also experience persistent thoughts about their own worthlessness. Even the successes achieved during life against the background of depression seem unimpressive.
The patient may consider himself guilty of almost all mortal sins. Against the backdrop of illness, such a person begins to think that he himself is the source of misfortune for his family and friends, and his death will free his relatives from the heavy burden of caring for him.
Depression and suicide are closely related. Ideas of a meaningless existence that are common in depression can contribute to thoughts of suicide. At first, thoughts appear in the minds of patients about how good it would be for everyone if an accident happened to them. Gradually, an irresistible attraction to suicide and obsessive ideas about committing suicide join in.
The risk of suicide is especially high when a depressive disorder is combined with a chronic somatic or neurological disease (stroke, diabetes, cancer). Quite often, such people cannot lead a normal life and are forced to cause a lot of inconvenience to loved ones and burden them. So thoughts come to mind on how to make everyone happy...
Suicide can also occur as a result of the development of reactive depression: a sudden life catastrophe literally shatters a person’s life into smithereens, and instead of starting all over again, overcoming the difficulties that have arisen, the person chooses to take a step into nowhere.
Attempts to commit suicide are a common occurrence among creative people suffering from manic-depressive psychosis or dysthymia. At the peak of high spirits, such people create masterpieces, become famous, and when a depressive streak sets in in their lives, they can attempt suicide.
Suicidal behavior in depression
Suicidal attempts are one of the most dangerous consequences of depression, manic-depressive psychosis, and schizophrenia. According to statistics, from 40 to 60% of all suicides on the planet are carried out by patients with depression.
Men commit suicide 4 times more often than women. This is due to psychological characteristics. If women talk more about their fears and negative emotions, and try to share them with others, then men, on the contrary, are not inclined to tell anyone about their experiences. As a result, suicidal thoughts and tendencies in men remain unrecognized. And they learn about them only when nothing can be returned. In addition, men are more likely than women to abuse alcohol, so they have a higher risk of developing alcoholic depression and suicide on this basis.
The most predisposing time for suicide is the early morning hours. This is due to hormonal fluctuations occurring at this time. Most people who attempt suicide in the early morning hours suffered from insomnia all night, sad and painful thoughts filled their minds, and in order to get rid of all this they decide to commit suicide.
Why do people with depression attempt suicide?
With depression, in addition to a decrease in mood, symptoms such as a feeling of self-doubt, decreased self-esteem, and a gloomy and pessimistic vision of the future appear. People with depression may also experience persistent thoughts about their own worthlessness. Even the successes achieved during life against the background of depression seem unimpressive.
The patient may consider himself guilty of almost all mortal sins. Against the background of illness, a person suffering from depression begins to think that he himself is the source of misfortune for his family and friends, and his death will free his relatives from the heavy burden of caring for him.
Depression and suicide are closely related. Ideas of a meaningless existence that are common in depression can contribute to thoughts of suicide. At first, thoughts appear in the minds of patients about how good it would be for everyone if an accident happened to them. Gradually, an irresistible attraction to suicide and obsessive ideas about committing suicide join in.
The danger of suicide is especially high when depression is combined with a chronic somatic or neurological disease (stroke, diabetes, cancer, HIV infection ). Quite often, such people cannot lead a normal life and are forced to cause a lot of inconvenience to loved ones and burden them. So thoughts come to mind on how to make everyone happy...
Suicide can also occur as a result of the development of reactive depression; a sudden life catastrophe literally shatters a person’s life into smithereens, and instead of starting all over again, overcoming the difficulties that have arisen, the person chooses to take a step into nowhere.
Attempts to commit suicide are a common occurrence among creative people suffering from manic-depressive psychosis or dysthymia. At the peak of high spirits, such people create masterpieces, become famous, and when a depressive streak sets in in their lives, they can attempt suicide.
When is the risk of suicide highest for depression?
The likelihood of committing a suicide attempt is not the same for all patients with depression. Against the background of a mild course of the disease, even if suicidal thoughts appear, in most cases they do not turn into actions.
The risk of suicide attempts is also reduced during severe bouts of depression. Although thoughts of suicide quite often haunt patients with severe depressive disorders, severe motor retardation and inability to do anything act as a defense mechanism that prevents a person from committing suicide.
The most dangerous periods in terms of suicide attempts are the periods of “entry” and “exit” from severe or moderate depression.
As depression progresses (the onset of severe depressive disorder), patients are haunted by obsessive thoughts about their own worthlessness, suicidal thoughts, and in order to punish themselves, not to disturb others, and simply not seeing any prospects in the future, such people can commit suicidal acts. As depression progresses, motor retardation does not yet reach the same severity as at the peak of a depressive disorder, and patients with depression may attempt suicide.
When patients with depressive disorder start taking antidepressants, the effect of treatment does not occur immediately. Initially, some disinhibition of the patients occurs, motor activity appears, although a negative assessment of oneself and suicidal thoughts still persist. That is why, during the period of recovery from depression (in the first two weeks from the start of treatment), many patients are capable of committing suicide.
What manifestations help to suspect suicidal thoughts and suicidal tendencies?
You can suspect the presence of suicidal thoughts, suicidal tendencies in patients with depression and not only by the following signs:
Suicidal thoughts can slip into statements - “if only death would take me sooner”, “I don’t want to live, I want to take my own life once and for all.”
Constant conversations about the futility of existence, about one’s own helplessness, and burdening others with their problems.
Progression of depression - loss of usual interests, insomnia, severe melancholy.
Some people who carefully plan suicide begin to put things in order in advance - they draw up a will, finish a book (finish a report) so that after their departure there are no unresolved issues.
If a person does not spontaneously commit suicide, but systematically prepares for this, then he can say goodbye to loved ones - call them, write. Sometimes it is a sudden call that helps loved ones understand that something is wrong in the behavior of a person with depression, that he is preparing for something fatal.
How to prevent suicide attempts if you are depressed?
In many cases, you can suspect the presence of suicidal thoughts in a person suffering from depression in advance. To do this, you need to regularly communicate with a patient with depression, take an interest in his affairs, and express your support to him. After all, people with depression are often pushed to commit suicide by loved ones. And not even themselves, but their behavior, indifference, absorption in their own worries.
If the following statements apply to your friends, then you should seek help from a specialist psychologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist.
A person’s appetite has changed, he is rapidly losing weight or gaining weight. He feels constant anxiety. He withdraws from friends and family. He can't concentrate. What he used to really like no longer interests or pleases him. He is tormented by a feeling of hopelessness or guilt. His mood and behavior changed dramatically: before he was very calm, but now he is extremely excited; Previously, he loved to be in companies, but now he avoids all communication.
For the most part, people who are depressed or thinking about suicide do not talk and do not want to talk about their feelings. They feel unwanted. They have lost hope and do not express their emotions, believing that their experiences will fall on the shoulders of others. Some are afraid of being ridiculed. This is understandable because those who talk about suicide are often not taken seriously or what they say falls on deaf ears. Such a reaction can lead to irreparable consequences. Therefore, if your acquaintance, friend or relative brings up such a topic, you need to take it seriously and find time for a deep and compassionate conversation. It is necessary to convince this person that he has someone to turn to. That relatives, friends, a psychologist are undoubtedly ready to listen to him. Often the opportunity to talk can ease the pain, and although it is difficult to start such a conversation, it is still necessary. Also, one should not lecture and point out all the reasons why a person is obliged to live. Instead, you need to listen more and try to convince him that depression and suicidal tendencies are treatable.
But the most terrible and, probably, stupid thing, in my opinion, is the suicide of young people who have not yet faced truly serious problems, but who know how to exaggerate the magnitude of their, sometimes far-fetched, grief.
Therefore, let's be more attentive to each other, because this is important, let's not be so callous and selfish? Maybe we should listen to the worries and problems of people close to us? After all, suicide is one of the consequences of depression that can be noticed and prevented in advance. And our helpers in the fight against suicidal tendencies are attention, support and love.
For help, advice and adequate treatment of depression, neuroses, suicidal thoughts, contact a psychiatrist at the Krasnoselkup Central District Hospital. Do not be afraid of condemnation, all treatment takes place on an anonymous basis, without registration, since these conditions are considered borderline in psychiatry. You will be surprised how effective this is and you will smile about your experiences in the past!
Psychiatrist-narcologist
Kolobova Yulia Viktorovna
When is the risk of suicide highest?
The likelihood of committing a suicide attempt is not the same for all patients with depressive disorder. Against the background of a mild course of the disease, even if suicidal thoughts appear, in most cases they do not turn into actions.
The risk of suicide attempts is also reduced during severe bouts of depression. Although thoughts of suicide quite often haunt patients with severe depressive disorders, severe motor retardation and inability to do anything act as a defense mechanism that prevents a person from committing suicide.
The most dangerous periods in terms of suicide attempts are the periods of “entry” and “exit” from severe or moderate depression.
As symptoms progress (the onset of severe depressive disorder), patients are haunted by obsessive thoughts about their own worthlessness, suicidal thoughts, and in order to punish themselves, not to disturb others, and simply not seeing any prospects for the future, such people can commit suicidal acts. As depression progresses, motor retardation does not yet reach the same severity as at the peak of a depressive disorder, and patients with depression may attempt suicide.
When patients with depressive disorder start taking antidepressants, the effect of treatment does not occur immediately. Initially, some disinhibition of the patients occurs, motor activity appears, although a negative assessment of oneself and suicidal thoughts still persist. That is why, during the period of recovery from depression (in the first two weeks from the start of treatment), many patients are capable of committing suicide.
The problem of suicide
Suicide is the voluntary taking of one's life. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the suicide statistics were as follows: 3–4 people per 100 thousand population. In 1926, this figure was already 7.8 people per 100 thousand. In the USSR, the highest suicide rate was noted in 1981: 35 people per 100 thousand population. The sad statistics of suicides in our country have been kept secret for a long time.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a suicide rate of more than 20 per 100 thousand population indicates a crisis in society. Currently, the average figure for Russia is 36 per 100 thousand population. 20 %
Of the total number of suicides committed by children and adolescents. In 92% of cases, suicides were committed by children from disadvantaged families.
Every year, 500 thousand people commit suicide around the world. In Russia in 2000, 56.9 thousand people committed suicide, in 2001 – 57.2 thousand. According to sociologists, official suicide statistics differ significantly from real figures (according to various estimates, by 2–4 times), since only obvious cases are included in them. Russia has long held a strong position as one of the leaders in the world in the number of suicides. In our country, more people die from suicide than from murderers.
What are the causes of suicide? The famous professor-suicidologist A.G. Ambrumova in her research showed that suicide cannot be regarded as a direct consequence of mental pathology, including the depressive register. According to the definition of A.G. Ambrumova, “suicide is a consequence of socio-psychological disadaptation of the individual in the conditions of an experienced and unresolved microsocial conflict.” Thus, suicide is a mental crisis. This is a spiritual problem.
Among suicides, only 10% are mentally ill people. The rest were practically healthy mentally, but were in a state of personal crisis. And further. For one completed suicide, there are 20 suicide attempts (data from Prof. V. Wojciech, head of the suicidology center of the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry).
Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy) wrote: “Poor suicide sufferers!.. You did not accept redemption, short earthly cleansing sufferings - sweet for the one who accepted - oh, much sweeter than those illusory pleasures in longing for which you died. Yes, it was in your power to do this, as the power of evil, which had no power over you then, suggested, whispered to you, but it was in your power not to do this. It was in your power to know that there is a God, that He is not only the highest expression of Truth and Justice, inaccessible to our understanding, but even much more than all these weak human concepts. It was in your power to understand that God could not give the Cross and not give strength - that it was in your power to turn to God, to be saved by invoking (not falsely) His Name...
Before committing suicide, suicides do not at all know that an ugly, (inexpressibly) evil spirit is standing next to them, forcing them to kill the body, to break the precious “earthen vessel” that preserves the soul until God’s time. And this spirit advises, and convinces, and insists, and compels, and intimidates with all sorts of fears: only for a person to press the trigger or jump over the windowsill, running away from life, from his unbearable languor... The person does not even realize that “unbearable languor” is not from life, but from the one from whom all the thoughts that “justify” killing oneself come from. A person thinks that it is he who is reasoning and comes to a suicidal conclusion. But this is not him at all, but his thoughts are spoken by the one whom the Lord called “a murderer from time immemorial”... A person only weakly agrees, invisibly takes the sin of the devil upon himself, combines with sin and with the devil...
One word of repentance, one mental outline of the saving Cross and looking at it with faith - and the web of evil is dissolved, a person is saved by the power of God from his death... Just a small spark of living faith and devotion to God - and a person is saved! But do all people who have been saved from killing themselves or from some other sin understand that a disgusting evil spirit stood near them (and maybe still stands or sometimes approaches them), a creature detectable only by some kind of spiritual sensitivity and heightened spiritual attention?
“Just as we did not come into the world of our own free will, we certainly do not have the right to leave it without the knowledge and will of the One who sent us here” (Blessed Augustine).
“Suicide is the fruit of despair, obscuring the self-awareness of the existence of God, His truth and retribution in the afterlife. Such a delusion, in turn, is the fruit of human self-will, addiction to the earth with its perishable goods, satiety with these goods or bitterness over the lack of them” (Hieromartyr Philosopher of Ornatsky).
“In a calm state, think about what kind of darkness the soul must go into in order to pass into eternal, terrible torment because of a small sorrow .
No matter how hard it is here, even if we live on earth for thousands of years in severe suffering,
it will still end.
And in hell there is no end to torment,” (Hegumen Nikon (Vorobiev)).
“Not everyone (even Christians) is aware of the actions and manifestations of evil spirits, about which the word of God speaks with such amazing power and clarity. 90 %
suicides take their last step under the direct influence of the spirits
of murderers from time immemorial
(
John 8:44)
...
Almost every suicide is the murder of a person by a demon - by the hands of the person himself
. (Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)).
About the so-called “euthanasia”. "Church,
Remaining faithful to the observance of God’s commandment
“Thou shalt not kill”
(Exodus 20:13),
cannot recognize as morally acceptable the attempts now widespread in secular society to legalize the so-called “euthanasia,” that is, the deliberate killing of hopelessly ill people (including at their request).
The patient’s request to hasten death is sometimes due to a state of depression, which deprives him of the ability to correctly assess his situation.
Recognizing the legality of euthanasia would lead to a derogation of the dignity and perversion of the professional duty of a doctor, called upon to preserve, and not to suppress, life. The “right to die” can easily turn into a threat to the lives of patients whose treatment does not have enough money.
Thus, euthanasia is a form of murder or suicide,
depending on whether the patient participates in it.
In the latter case, the corresponding canonical rules apply to euthanasia, according to which intentional suicide, as well as assistance in its commission, are regarded as a grave sin. A deliberate suicide,
who “did this out of human resentment or on some other occasion out of cowardice,”
is not awarded Christian burial and liturgical commemoration
(
Timothy Alex, right. 14
).
If a suicide has unconsciously taken his own life “out of the mind,” that is, in a fit of mental illness, church prayer for him is permitted after the ruling bishop has examined the case. At the same time, it must be remembered that the guilt of a suicide is often shared by the people around him, who turned out to be incapable of effective compassion and showing mercy.
Together with the Apostle Paul, the Church calls:
Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ
(
Gal. 6:2
).” (Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church).
What manifestations help to suspect suicidal thoughts and suicidal tendencies?
You can suspect the presence of suicidal thoughts or suicidal tendencies based on the following signs:
- Suicidal thoughts can slip into statements - “if only death would take me sooner”, “I don’t want to live, I want to take my own life once and for all.”
- Constant conversations about the futility of existence, about one’s own helplessness, and burdening others with their problems.
- Progression of depression - loss of usual interests, insomnia, severe melancholy.
- Some people who carefully plan suicide begin to put things in order in advance - they draw up a will, finish a book (finish a report) so that after their departure there are no unresolved issues.
- If a person does not spontaneously commit suicide, but systematically prepares for this, then he can say goodbye to loved ones - call them, write. Sometimes it is a sudden call that helps loved ones understand that something is wrong in the behavior of a person with depression, that he is preparing for something fatal.
How to prevent a suicide attempt if you have a depressive disorder?
In many cases, you can suspect the presence of suicidal thoughts in a person suffering from depression in advance. To do this, you need to regularly communicate with a patient with depression, take an interest in his affairs, and express your support to him. After all, people with depression are often pushed to commit suicide by loved ones. And not even themselves, but their behavior, indifference, absorption in their own worries.
So, maybe let's not be so callous and selfish? Maybe we should listen to the worries and problems of people close to us? After all, suicide is one of the consequences of depression that can be noticed and prevented in advance. And our helpers in the fight against suicidal tendencies are attention, support and love.
Interesting articles on the topic:
- How to stop feeling sorry for yourself?
- How to learn to enjoy life: 7 basic rules.
- about the author
- Recent publications
Anna Nikolenko (Zaykina)
The author is a practicing psychiatrist with 12 years of experience. Master of Medicine and compassionate doctor. More information about the author is on this page.
