Introduction
Suicide is an act where one intentionally causes their own death. It occurs very often, twice as much as murder is being committed. Very many people die each year because of committing suicide. It happens to be the among the 10 leading death causes in the world. In the average ages of about 16 to 25 years, suicide is considered as the major leading cause of death while in the age bracket of 26 to 36 years, it is the second cause leading in the number of deaths being witnessed (Cochran & Human Relations Media Center, 1976). Likewise, the rates suicide has been on the rise for the middle-aged or the older adults individuals. From the three books, it can be concluded that one death occurs in every four attempts of suicide.
Halbwachs (1978) says that most of the cases that have been reported indicates that women are the most prone to try committing suicide than men, and its five times likely for them to die when they attempt to commit suicide. Many of our friends or even family members often get some fleeting thoughts about-facing death. Such fleeting thoughts happen to be a smaller problem compared to the real act of planning the attempt of suicide. The risk of an individual committing suicide often increases whenever they try to think of death or killing himself or herself. This will be a guide for them to come up with a suicide plan.
Sharma (1979) argues that most of the people seriously making a consideration of committing suicide have no intention at all to die. They only look at this act of suicide to be a greater solution for a problem that they may be having or a means to end their pain. Such people often feel to be hopeless in their lives, or they might be helpless which makes them feel to be worthless in the society. If a person is feeling hopeless, they are left believing that they can never get the help they need in their lives. If a person feels that they are indeed helpless, they may get to a point where they feel immobilized. They may therefore decide to take a step further and resolve their problems by committing suicide.
Risk Factors of Suicide
Risk factors can be considered as the characteristics or the prevailing conditions that may happen to increase a person’s chance to try to commit suicide. Most of the people that make a consideration towards suicide might be having a number of background problems. These may include having a background of suicide attempts in the family history or even as an individual.On the same note, one might have tried to commit suicide earlier on in their life and it may come back to hound them. In addition, one may be having their own personal history in terms of severe anxiety, being faced with depression or any other problem like having a poor mental healthcare in form of bipolar disorder (Halbwachs, 1978).
Some of them may even be having schizophrenia, which might be affecting their mental health as a whole. This in turn may lead them to a thought of committing suicide. Some of those who tend to commit suicide may be having an alcohol usage problem or even a drug abuse problem. They may be abusing some substances hence it becomes a problem for them to bear with hence resolving to plan for suicide. If someone tries to even talk about how to consider themselves as being only a burden to the other members of the family, they ought to be treated with a lot of care because it leads to committing suicide (Cochran & Human Relations Media Center, 1976). Some of them may even talk about feeling trapped or they are experiencing unbearable pain.
Looking at the three articles, the most common quote that those trying to commit suicide have is that they consider themselves as unfortunate and that they do not have any reason to continue living. They would rather resolve to kill themselves by committing suicide. They often start by looking at how to do it on the internet, or even looking online to be able to identify the materials that might help them carry out the mission (Sharma, 1979). Others may even start acting recklessly towards their own family members and may at once decide get withdrawing in all family activities. They rather keep it to themselves and get isolated totally from the other family of even friends. They may start to sleep so much or even too little to the point that they are awake most of the time.
In the articles, it is evident that some on contemplating to commit suicide may start giving their friend or even their relative abrupt visits. They start to call people only to tell them goodbye or they may begin to give away some of their prized possessions. This is a very common sign in most of the individuals who commit suicide. Another common character that is normally witnessed in people who want to attempt suicide is aggression. They may react violently to a very simple mistake in their social gathering and their moods are often deemed to vary more rapidly in nature (Sharma, 1979). If someone is contemplating to commit suicide, they often may display varying moods like being depressed all of a sudden, being prone to lose interest so quickly in events occurring around them and may even fume with a lot of rage when something wrong is done to them. They often get irritated so easily.
The Warning Signs
The warning signs towards attempting suicide might be when faced with challenges like recent death or the diagnosis of an illness in someone. If at any time, someone starts talking of suicide or even about wanting to be, dead or he or she want to disappear, they should be treated with a lot of care. Even if they happened to be joking, such a conversation should be taken as serious as possible. Whenever a suicide attempt happens, even though the attempt might not have caused any harm to the person trying it, should also be treated with the seriousness it deserves. One should never be afraid when talking to someone think may be having a thought of committing suicide. Talking to such a person about suicide itself must not be considered as a cause to suicidal thinking by such an individual (Halbwachs, 1978). Once somebody gets to understand the behavior of such a person or even knowing their thoughts, it is possible to help them to stop attempting suicide.
Conclusion
I like the research done in the three books because the information given in them helps to give a clear picture of the menace of suicide. In this world, there happens to be no single thing that can be considered as the one causing suicide. It therefore may be considered as dependent on many factors, which may be studied with keen to help such a person. Depression might be the major condition that one can be associated to suicide, and if not properly addressed, it might cause an increase to suicide. It is also important for one to take note that if they actively manage the status of their mental conditions, it will definitely lead to a fulfilling life. To help those people trying to plan for suicide, one should be able to look at the changes in the behavior of those depressed. This change in their behavior may be related to events that may be painful like having lost someone and any other that may affect the way they behave.
References
Cochran, P., & Human Relations Media Center. (1976). Suicide: Causes and Prevention.
Pleasantville, NY: Human.
Halbwachs, M. (1978). The Causes of Suicide. New York: Free Press.
Sharma, P. C. (1979). Suicide Causes, Prevention, and Intervention: A Selected Research Guide.
Monticello, Ill: Vance Publishers.