You can make a difference by knowing the warning signs. Although no one can predict with 100% accuracy who will attempt suicide, the following circumstances and signals may indicate a risk for suicide.

A person might have experienced:

• Recent break up of a significant relationship
• Failure in classes
• Death of someone . . especially if by suicide
• Loss of a job and overwhelming financial difficulties
• Losing "face“
• Fear of being a burden to others

A person might express:

• Hopelessness:
  • "I just don't see the point of going on“
  • "I wish my life was over“
• Feeling Trapped
  • "I don’t see anyway out of this"
• Threats about harming themselves
  • Indirect:
    • "I'm so tired of it all, I just can't go on“
    • "Being dead doesn’t sound all that bad to me“
    • "My family would be better off without me"
  • Direct:
    • "I wish I were dead“
    • "I'm going to end it all“
    • "I want to go to sleep and never wake up"

A person might exhibit:

• Decreased class attendance
• Increased drug/alcohol use
• Chronic lack of energy
• Withdrawing from others
• Reckless or out of control behavior
• Intense anger and aggression
• Self-injurious behavior (e.g. cutting)
• Abrupt changes in sleeping and eating
• Dramatic changes in mood (depression, extreme fearfulness)
• Putting personal affairs in order (e.g. giving away possessions)