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"
- Indirect:
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)
