Suicide Articles

Listed by most recent articles first.

• Adolescent Tragedies and My Teenager
  Once again I am writing about a terrible tragedy. Fifteen dead children. Fifteen lives ...
• Depression: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
  Depression is one of the most common forms of mental illness, yet at the same time also one of the most poorly understood. Most people have felt emotionally depressed at some point in their life. ...
• How Family and Friends Can Aid Mental Health Recovery
  Recovering from mental illness is terrifying and exhausting, both for the person diagnosed and those who ...
• Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  Fletcher Wortmann obviously knows his subject.  "Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" is for anyone who is or knows someone who is suffering from mental illness of any type.  While Wortmann wrestles with OCD, he ...
• Social Support Is Critical for Depression Recovery
  Every human being wants to belong. This need is so strong that people will do nearly anything to feel ...
• Living with Depression: Why Biology and Biography Matter along the Path to Hope and Healing
  With 114 pages of some of the most beautifully written insight, information, and advice that I have ever read in regard to navigating the labyrinth that is depression and its various treatments, Dr. Deborah Serani’s ...
• Sleeping With Gods
  The subject of mental illness has often been explored in works of literature and other media. Michael Fontana’s novel Sleeping With Gods aims to combine a coming-of-age love story with themes of mental health. In ...
• History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life
  After reading History of a Suicide, written by Jill Bialosky, I was moved by the way the author not only shared her story of her sister's suicide, but also how committed she was to researching ...
• Grief After Suicide: An Interview With Dr. Jack Jordan
  With approximately 30,000 suicides happening each year in the US, countless people are grieving the loss of loved ones who have taken their lives. The grieving process is different to those who have lost a spouse, father, sister, or friend to cancer, heart disease, or a stroke. Many “suicide survivors” are left to process their emotions in private because the topic of suicide is still so taboo in this country. One great resource is the Grief Support Services of the Samaritans of Boston. They recently conducted an interview with Dr. Jack Jordan on the topic of grieving a loved one who has committed suicide. Dr. Jordan is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he specializes in working with loss and bereavement. He is coeditor of the 2011 book Grief After Suicide (Routledge) and the Clinical Consultant for Grief Support Services of the Samaritans of Boston (www.samaritanshope.org), where he is helping to develop innovative outreach and support programs for suicide survivors. I have obtained permission to reprint the interview here, specifically for Psych Central readers. Q. Your book notes that “suicide survivors” can include people who are not on close terms with the deceased. Can you explain? A. Immediate kin are the most likely to be affected, but it’s not just them. It could be a next-door neighbor who saw the person every day. Or a subway train driver could be traumatized after someone jumps in front of a train. Or a high-school student may have had no personal relationship with another student who died by suicide, but may have somehow identified with that person. In general, a survivor is anyone who felt responsible for the death or for not preventing it, or who was deeply and negatively impacted by the death. Q. How is grief after suicide different from other kinds of grief? A. It depends on what aspects of grief you’re talking about. After any type of death, there is a yearning for the deceased. After sudden death, there is shock or disbelief; people have trouble accepting the reality of the death. After a sudden, unexpected, violent death (such as a homicide or suicide), people focus on the horror or trauma of the death. There is a preoccupation with, “What did my loved one go through during their final moments?” But with suicide, there is a whole struggle with, “Did they know what they were doing? Why did they choose this? Didn’t they know how much this would hurt me?”
• Myths About Suicide
  In May 2007 a young woman in Oklahoma died of a gunshot wound to the head. Whether it was self-inflicted or not was not apparent. Her family hoped to prove that it wasn’t self-inflicted and ...
• What to Do When You Think Someone is Suicidal
  Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S., and the third leading cause ...
• History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life
  On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky’s 21-year-old sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland to the house where she still lived with her mother. She’d had a fight with ...
• Higher Risk of Mental Health Problems for Homosexuals
  Homosexual people tend to experience more mental health problems than heterosexual people, research indicates. Discrimination may contribute to the higher risk, believes lead researcher Dr. Apu Chakraborty of University College London, UK. His team looked at ...
• The Buddha & The Borderline
  The Buddha & The Borderline, by writer, artist and advocate Kiera Van Gelder, exposes a regularly hushed-up topic: borderline personality disorder (BPD). BPD is shrouded in stigma. There’s little information about the disorder and, while ...
• Struck By Living: From Depression to Hope
  Any memoir opening with “I tried to kill myself three times” has the imperative to deliver on the promise of importance, conflict, and resolution inherent within that declaration.  For author Julie K. Hersh, Struck by ...
• Edward Cullen and the Allure of Depression
  It's fairly clear at this point that Twilight's leading vampire, Edward Cullen, is the heartthrob of the generation. Millions of teen ...
• Cyberbullying and Teen Suicide
  The headline took my breath away. In a town close to mine, a 15-year-old had committed suicide due to cyberbullying. Described as a charming and well-liked young girl, she nonetheless crumbled when targeted ...
• Extreme Thinking and Moods Are The Death of Creativity
  You probably have heard that many of the world's most creative people often had some sort of mental illness. While I can see some truth in this viewpoint, I offer a different opinion: In ...
• Suicide Junkie
  Approximately one million people commit suicide every year, according to the World Health Organization. Despite his best efforts, Steve Westwood is not one of them. “Suicide Junkie," Westwood's autobiography, details his long-term struggles with body ...
• Teen Depression Symptoms
  Teen Depression Symptoms The following are some of the most common symptoms of teenage depression. These symptoms don't directly correspond to symptoms of major depression, but they're similar. A teenager who meets some of the following ...
• Frequently Asked Questions about Suicide
  Suicide is a significant cause of death in many western countries, in some cases exceeding deaths by motor vehicle accidents annually. Many countries spend vast amounts of money on safer roads, but very ...
• Teenagers and Suicide
  Suicides among young people continue to be a serious problem. Each year in the U.S., thousands of teenagers commit suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-to-24-year-olds, and the sixth leading cause ...
• What is Suicide?
  People talk about suicide like it's a secret that you can't share with anyone. Suicide is whispered amongst friends and family members, and when someone engages in a suicidal act, the only question on everyone's ...
• Teenage Depression
  Teenagers experience depression in a manner very similar to adults, but they may experience their emotions more intensely and with greater volatility. Feeling down about a relationship issue or an upcoming exam is normal. ...
• Facts about Suicide
  Men are four times more likely than women to die by suicide, but women try to commit suicide twice as often as men (they're just unsuccessful). Such attempts often are viewed as a "cry for ...