If You or Someone You Know Feels Suicidal

Suicide reflects one of the most complex psychological behaviors. One of the factors that makes suicide so complex is the fact that we, as mental health specialists, have difficulty predicting it.

True, there are several indicators that suggest that someone will be more likely to commit suicide: If they have a family member who has committed suicide, feel depressed, and feel hopeless about the future, we know that said individual is at higher risk of committing suicide than if these factors were not present. Yet many of these same individuals do not actually commit suicide, which means that we cannot truly predict which individuals will or will not commit suicide.

According to the website www.suicide.org, there were 32,637 suicides in the year 2005, for example, in the Unites States. That is a high number. My guess is that most, if not all of these individuals, felt extremely isolated and hopeless prior to their respective suicides. As a therapist and psychologist, I want to let you know that there are resources available to help you or someone you know should they end up feeling that they cannot manage their lives any longer.

Here is a phone number to call that can be useful if you or someone you know feels suicidal: The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Ultimately, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so use this resource or pass it on if necessary.