Suicide
The act of intentionally causing one's own death, with complex risk factors and prevention strategies.
Suicide is when someone ends their own life on purpose. People are more likely to die by suicide if they have a mental illness, a neurodevelopmental condition, a physical illness, or a substance use disorder. Some suicides happen on impulse, triggered by things like money troubles, school pressure, a breakup or divorce, or being bullied or harassed. Anyone who has tried to kill themselves before is at greater risk of trying again. To prevent suicide, effective steps include making it harder to get lethal means like guns, drugs, and poisons; treating mental health issues and addiction; reporting on suicide carefully in the media; improving the economy; and using therapies like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Crisis hotlines—such as 988 in North America and 13 11 14 in Australia—are widely available, but how well they work hasn't been thoroughly studied. The scientific study of suicide and self-harm is called suicidology.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Psychiatry
- clinical psychology
- clinical social work
- Onset
- 15–30 and 70+ years old
- Frequency
- 8.9 per 100,000 per year (2021)
- Deaths
- 727,000; 1.1% of deaths (2021)
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Suicide accounts for an estimated 1.1% of deaths worldwide, or about 727,000 deaths in 2021 (roughly 8.9 per 100,000 people per year). Suicide is the fourth-leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds globally (after road injury, tuberculosis, and interpersonal violence), and nearly three-quarters (73%) of suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries. By gender, suicide rates are generally higher among men than women, ranging from 1.5 times higher in the developing world to 3.5 times higher in the developed world; in the Western world, non-fatal suicide attempts are more common among young people and women. Suicide is generally most common among those over the age of 70; however, in certain countries, those aged between 15 and 30 are at the highest risk. Europe had the highest rates of suicide by region in 2015. There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year. Non-fatal suicide attempts may lead to injury and long-term disabilities. The most commonly adopted method of suicide varies from country to country and is partly related to the availability of effective means. Assisted suicide, sometimes done when a person is in severe pain or facing an imminent death, is legal in many countries and increasing in numbers.
Reader's Guide
Views on suicide have been influenced by broad existential themes such as religion, honor, and the meaning of life. Most religions disapprove of suicide. During the samurai era in Japan, a form of suicide known as seppuku was respected as a means of making up for failure or as a form of protest. Suicide and attempted suicide, while previously illegal, are no longer so in most Western countries. It remains a criminal offense in some countries. In the 20th and 21st centuries, suicide has been used on rare occasions as a form of protest; it has also been committed while or after murdering others, a tactic that has been used both militarily and by terrorists. Suicide is often seen as a major catastrophe, causing significant grief to the deceased's relatives, friends and community members, and it is viewed negatively almost everywhere around the world. Definitions: Suicide, derived from Latin, is 'the act of taking one's own life'. Attempted suicide, or non-fatal suicidal behavior, amounts to self-injury with at least some desire to end one's life that does not result in death. Assisted suicide occurs when one individual helps another bring about their own death indirectly by providing either advice or the means to the end. Euthanasia, more specifically voluntary euthanasia, is where another person takes a more active role in bringing about a person's death. Suicidal ideation is thoughts of ending one's life but not taking any active efforts to do so. It may or may not involve exact planning or intent. Suicidality is defined as 'the risk of suicide, usually indicated by suicidal ideation or intent, especially as evident in the presence of a well-elaborated suicidal plan.' In a murder–suicide (or homicide–suicide), the individual aims at taking the lives of others at the same time. A special case of this is extended suicide, where the murder is motivated by seeing the murdered persons as an extension of their self. Suicide in which the reason is that the person feels that they are not part of society is known as egoistic suicide.
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