The Dark Side of Mental Health: Factors That Contribute to Suicide

24Sep 2020 by Tina Mueni 208 Comments
  1. The perception that suicide is the only alternative to some unsolvable problems– most people who go through suicidal ideations and attempts are practically looking for solutions to their problems most times.  The inability in problem-solving and mood regulation often causes insecurity, low self-efficacy, and self-esteem, but it can also lead to anger and aggressive behavior, an emotional crisis that reduces the emotional expression to tearing and extreme emotional expression.
  2. Escaping from pain or stress-psychosocial factors such as stressful environments, negative life experiences, and violence at home. The said factors often seem to provide the background history of most suicide cases, not only specifically against the individuals but more as a presence of deficient coping skills and resilience in life.
  3. Aggression turned inward– exaggerated occurrences of self-blame, self-criticism, and self-dislike, contribute to higher levels of aggression turned inward. The manifest behavior of such aggression is self-disgust and self-hatred presented in obvious symptoms of self-harm like drug abuse, inflicting pain, risky behaviors, and patterns of self-sabotage among others.
  4. Seeking to punish others by making them feel guilty– Simply put, this is a process where a person tries to make others feel guilty for things that they do not have to feel guilty about. For most individuals, with suicidal ideations engaging in guilty trips is common while for others it is a way of self-justification. Some of the usual statements used in these expressions are: you never loved me enough… always felt left out…, wish you had listened, and so forth. While the statements could carry some weight of truth in them they in most cases are a fabrication of irresponsible undertakings in life.
  5. Acting impulsively on momentum feeling of desperation– The question, if suicide attempts are premeditated or just impulsive is a contention point in the analysis of suicide cases. Impulsivity involves a failure of locus of control-which is a lack of control in a person’s events in life including decision-making. Thus, decision-making may be particularly pertinent to suicidal behavior. Deficits in decision-making may impair people’s ability to resolve problems and dilemmas and thus create an accumulation of stressors leading to further pain which in turn gives rise to impulsive suicidal behaviors.
  6. Mental illness-low levels of serotonin a neurotransmitter linked to depression are relatable to suicidal ideations and lack of motivation for living. However, it is only a minority of people with these diagnoses who will eventually commit suicide, indicating that a psychiatric disorder may be necessary, but an insufficient, risk factor for suicide. For instance questions on why certain individuals with no history of mental illness commit suicide while others with the same psychiatric problem do not, Seems to provide a relative view that mental illness will automatically lead to suicide.
  7. The disease of civilization-some interesting facts about suicide, constitute the elusive risks on the victims which bypasses the mainstream health care system. In this case, the risks remain unnoticeable and untamed across age and gender in the population. In the craze, it appears as though committing suicide is the best death for most and so is the novelty of various ways to commit suicide among the celebrated individuals.   
  8. Unresolved psychological issues– everyone goes through difficult experiences growing up. The psychoanalytical framework posits that the experiences infiltrate the unconscious level influencing our emotions and mental processes. They can become the acting points of dealing with pain and they are highly relatable to suicide notes and ideation. An interesting part with unresolved issues is that an individual always feels their burden in their present life but most people would not be able to bring themselves to ask for help at apt times.
  9. Emotional disarray– when going through any change in life, either job, school, new residence there exists some difficulties in managing various, strong, mixed emotions and mood fluctuations. This is so because we are presented with a confrontation of new challenges often. Though the kinds of changes are probably partly influenced by bio-neurological factors without a proper adjustment process, the challenge of dealing with change has been noted as a key factor in suicidal attempts and ideations.

10. Substance abuse-The effect of drug abuse on consciousness and self-control relates to a great extent to decision making and impulsivity in suicide attempts.  More specifically, alcohol misuse as well as psychotropic drugs are strongly associated with suicide risk beacuse of poor judgement.

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