What Are the Causes of a Suicide Attempt?

More than 90% of people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death, and the most common mental illness is depression. Untreated mental illness (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and so forth) is the cause for the vast majority of suicides. More women than men attempt suicide, but more men are likely to go through with it.

Untreated Depression

• According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 9.5%, or 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness in any given year. There are people who are genetically predisposed to depression and who may kill themselves though they do not appear, externally, to be going through any particularly negative life experiences. Other people's depression is caused by many negative life experiences. If effective treatment is not sought or received, suicide is one action the depressed person may take to resolve their own life's miseries, whether these hurts are real or perceived.

Clinical Causes of Depression

• Though far from comprehensive, some the causes of depression include an inability to handle the death of a close loved one, a divorce or breakup of a relationship, a general feeling that life is unfair, a catastrophic loss, such as of work or the ability to work, losing a home, having a serious or terminal illness, being involved in a debilitating accident; being in constant psychological or physical pain, and sometimes just giving up all hope that any of these life devastations can be reconciled or are resolvable. In teens, other things are more predominant, like being overweight, preoccupation with looks, or fear of being bullied or "picked on" in school.

Physical Causes of Depression

• Depression is more than just a feeling of sadness; it is a serious but treatable medical illness that is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. Like heart disease and diabetes, depression doesn't just "go away" without treatment. In some people, the symptoms are manageable, while in others, medication and sometimes hospitalization are needed. In more severe cases, institutionalization may be the only solution.

Warning Signs of Depression that can Lead to Suicide

• Acute signs of risk or self-inflicted bodily harm are threats or talk of desire to harm the self; looking for ways to exact self-injury; talking or writing about death, dying or suicide; increased substance abuse; sense of purposelessness for living; lack of sleep or sleeping too much; feeling of being trapped; sudden acute and silent withdrawal from friends, family, society in general and diminishment of favorite activities; uncontrolled rages and thoughts of revenge; reckless endangerment; and dramatic mood swings and changes.

Ways People Commit Suicide

• Statistics tell us that nearly one million people worldwide commit suicide each year, about 30,000 in the United States. Some of these acts are done by self-mutilation (sometimes with unintended consequences); physician-assisted suicide, mostly done by medical doctors who are asked to end the life of a person who is terminally ill and has a low to zero chance of recovery; firearms; jumping onto the paths of trains or off high bridges; taking highly toxic chemicals or medicines in large quantities that are beyond the body's ability to redeem itself; hanging; and many other ways. It is impossible to tell which method will be used unless those in the inner circle of the depressed person begin to see unusual behavior or an accumulation or collection of implements that could be used to take a person's life.