Survivors Are the Key, Part 2
In formal research terms, suicide attempt survivors are primary sources. We have lived through attempts at suicide and survived. There is no substitute for what we experience. Acts of suicide are deeply psychologically traumatizing. Your perception of reality has forever changed. This makes survivors the best source of experience for preventing suicide. Memories of what led to our attempts are seared into our minds.
A number of factors are known to lead to suicide. But only we can know, without bias, what they are. No one wants to experience something so mind-altering or feared. So if we survive, we possess a lasting emotional attachment to prevent what happened to us. Some of us become advocates who represent those who did not survive. Using my experience and that of two loss victims, I will show you how suicide prevention is possible.
There are a myriad of factors that can lead to suicide. Some of the most common are believed to be depression, substance use, and mental health. As I now know, my attempt in July 2003 occurred because I lacked accommodations for monotropism and employment. As a result, I failed to properly enter the workforce right after I graduated from college. The abrupt change from having a path to having none was too much.
These factors are long-term in nature. They also do not reflect what the tipping point was that caused it to happen. Instead, notice how those common factors all seem to be directed at the individual. They imply that we are always at fault. Do not be depressed. Do not do drugs. Seek help for your mental health. Just be happy. Smile. When we take a closer look, there is objective evidence to prove that specific triggers do exist.
My suicide attempt was also caused by repeated rejection from women. On the night that it happened, however, I was at a club when one woman’s rejection was unusually insensitive. I was dancing near her when she blurted out, “Ew!” and backed away. Her humiliating expression of disgust was the trigger that incited me to attempt suicide. Over time, repeated rejection from women led to it. But one cruel expression of disgust triggered it.
Had this not happened, my life would have turned out differently. Rejection could be considered mild compared to what is next. Some suicides involve what can be referred to in criminal justice as malice aforethought. This means the act of inflicting harm is intentional. The following are examples of suicide losses that I am familiar with. Ask yourself who is responsible for their behavior and what happened first.
In 2017, a high school student took his life. It was reported that he was bullied leading up to his attempt. He had sought help from the proper school officials. But they refused to act. As a result, he ended his life. In 2019, a businesswoman took her life. It was reported that she was repeatedly harassed at her place of business, leading up to her suicide. Society expects us to place the blame on the individual for taking their life.
A person is responsible for their behavior. If this is true, were the bullying and harassment intentional? Yes. The aggressors went out of their way with the intent of causing harm. They were responsible for their behavior. Then what? Now, ask yourself: Which came first? Was it suicide or bullying and harassment? Bullying and harassment. If they did not happen, would the victims still be alive today? The answer is yes.
A couple of years ago, I sat down and asked myself: Is suicide prevention truly possible? I had survived as many as five significant experiences with suicide. I had read countless stories of those who were lost before intervention occurred or had been neglected. I have an emotional attachment to preventing suicide because of the severe trauma I suffered through. So, I carefully examined these same facts objectively, as I have done here.
Preventing all suicides is logically impossible. I accepted this soon after I first started advocating for mental health. But the fact of the matter is that responsibility for behavior and the intent to cause harm remain unchanged. For such acts as bullying, harassment, or abuse, which, if repeated, will put an innocent person’s life at risk, I came to this conclusion. These are short-term triggers responsible for causing suicide.
No matter what combination of long-term factors leads to suicide, there are proven short-term factors that trigger it to occur. Some involve targeted and malicious behavior. Aggressors recklessly act without reasonable caution and knowingly put people at risk of death. Faulting us for being weak to abuse is neither logical nor fair. Yet, laws protect the targeted harassment of innocent people, which directly causes their deaths.
This is how to improve suicide prevention. Hold repeated aggression legally responsible for the intentional behavior that causes harm and suffering. By eliminating these short-term triggers, you will see the most definitive reduction in suicide rates. Rising suicide rates have been neglected for far too long. Accountability has been neglected for far too long. Neglect does not solve problems. Problem-solving solves problems.
Is there anything more that can be done to improve suicide prevention?
Concluded here in Fixing Stories of Survival, Part 3.
