Suicidal Tendencies

Introduction

Suicide is an unfortunate occurrence that projects intense emotional repercussions to those who go through it and for the families of its victims. Tendency is an inclination towards a certain type of behavior. Therefore, suicidal tendencies can be understood as inclination of the unfortunate occurrences, majorly death that bring emotional misdoings to the involved persons. According to studies from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010, it was found out that more than 36,000 people in the U.S. killed themselves every year.

Psychology and Suicide

            Psychology today focuses on the causes, prevention and nature of suicide hence understanding and providing necessary measures to help the victims. Psychologists and counselors find this as one of the most important services they can offer. Consequently, it is vital to comprehend the processes in the minds of suicidal patients thoroughly before offering consultation and appropriate therapy. What is going on in the mind of a person determines their suicidal tendencies. She states that it is only two splits in a person that are responsible for or against such tendencies. These are the real-self – representing the importance of life of the individual- and anti-self- representing the self-destruction imaginations of an individual that directly lead to suicidal tendencies. The therapist can only assist them in understanding and coping with their self-destructive states of mind after realizing what is going on in the mind of these individuals and what is driving them to suicidal behavior.

About one million people in estimate succumb to death as a result of suicide each year thus making suicides accountable for 1.5% of deaths worldwide making it the tenth leading cause of death. Suicidal rates within Europe are higher in northern nations compared to the southern ones. In developed countries, suicide ratio in terms of males and females seems to be increasing. Lower male-to-female ratios are shown in Asian countries.
            When describing the common precipitating and cultural factors of suicide, there are many issues that can trigger and increase the risk of suicide, for instance, previous self-harm, psychiatric and alcohol disorders, upbringing, exposure to suicide in the media, and smoking. Additionally, there is an increased risk among employed people as they “have easy access to drugs or poisons” that can be used for suicide. She goes ahead to explain that a number of people develop the suicidal tendencies as a result of environmental and genetic influences, especially if the genetic influence is accompanied by childhood trauma.

In her dissertation on suicide Dr. Lisa Firestone, states that there exist critical inner voices that push an individual into committing suicide. The author also proposes assessment scales on the suicidal tendencies, where there was a consistent identification of the role that the destructive inner voice played in a suicide. This voice is the most common precipitating factor that pushes suicidal tendencies by convincing people that it is better to terminate their lives than to seek for other solutions to their life’s predicaments. The negative process of thought that led these people to such a desperate and hopeless action of suicide shows that, usually, one's worst enemy lives within. In treating suicidal individuals, the patients should be provided with a structure of solving the issue since these suicidal people “usually feel fragmented.” It is also necessary that the therapists include persons in the life of these suicidal individuals as these persons are very crucial in shaping support for the patients.

Mental disorders also play a major role in suicide tendencies since it is believed that about 90% of people who commit suicide suffer from the particular psychiatric disorder. Depression that deeply correlates with the state of mind increases the suicidal risk by 15-20 times. Close to 4% of people with depression dies from suicide. Medical suicidal predictors in depressed people revolve around previous self-harm, hopelessness and suicidal tendencies.

The general physical health may also be considered as a determining factor of suicide. However, it is not yet clearly identified why people with greater body weight index have a lower suicidal risk yet they are the ones at a great risk of depression. Physical condition may cause depression to individuals or make them decide to terminate their life earlier to stop suffering. For instance, cancer, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy and multiple scleroses are just among the conditions that trigger an increase in suicidal risk.

            In some cultures, the traditional or religious practices can influence suicidal tendencies especially on the part of the individuals who may not feel comfortable with such obligatory traditions. The community compels them into take part in them since it is mandatory to adhere to the community practices. For example, in some African cultures, the practice of female genital mutilation and early marriages are a common phenomenon. Some of the members of these communities that may be reluctant to practice them as a culture face the community pressure and seek other options such as suicide just to get out of such predicament.

            Physical and sexual abuse throughout childhood, deaths of idols and population-wide events such as natural disasters are among the many other factors that may bring about suicidal tendencies. Evidence indicates that media reporting of such events can lead to self-harm and influence the occurrence of suicide within a population.
            In describing how physical, psychological, and social factors influence health, it is evident that the influence of health by psychological determinants has been the center of focus since the early years of the 20th century.  Psychologists identify associations between psychological and physiological processes, and there is a growing awareness regarding the necessity of sound communication skills.
            Social factors that affect health revolve around the expectations and gender roles that can impose pressure on a person required to behave in a particular manner. In people’s lives, religious factors and racism are major stressors having a significant impact on their overall health. For example, white, middle-class people tend to have better overall health than inner-city minorities. Health psychology looks into underlying factors that directly influence life quality.

            Health psychology explores career choice as another area that should be explored when helping people develop a healthier lifestyle. There is a link between people’s choices of work and their physical and emotional health. The level of risk to the people’s mental condition increases based on how frustrating the project they deal with is. The work conditions and the atmosphere at the work place making may be influential in developing emotional and psychological illnesses. The body produces particular chemicals and hormones especially when someone is stressed, and some of these substances may be harmful. The difficult conditions and the release of these substances results in a weakening of the immune system. When an immune system is weak, people are more susceptible to physical and mental ailments.

            The employment of principles of health psychology greatly improves the likelihood of preventing any addiction successfully. Through health psychology, people can achieve physical fitness, improvement of life quality for those diagnosed with a terminal illness, decrease chronic pain, as well as prohibit further complications of any serious physical ailment. It can also help to learn new ways of coping with the tensions that monitor the everyday life.
            Due to a large number of factors involved in the suicidal tendencies, suicide prevention remains a difficult concept. However, the strategies put in place can target high-risk groups or focus on the reduction of the risk to the population in general.
In summary, most deaths as a result of suicide happen in developing countries since most of the research on suicidal tendencies comes from the developing countries. Therefore, future research must be directed towards the development and assessment of protocols that are empirically based on suicide-prevention and treatment. Certain attention must be given to the challenges faced by developing countries in preventing the suicidal tendencies.