Introduction
Suicidal behaviour is a blanket term that covers a wide range of experiences, including thoughts, emotions, and actions centred around the pain and suffering of existence. They don’t always have to be directly linked to suicide. Gradually, however, they do lead to more concrete and specific behaviour focused on ending one’s life.
Since these behaviours are indirectly about suicide on many occasions, people don’t understand the gravity of them. Additionally, there is a stigma about mental health and suicide in general. This makes it more complicated for one to recognize that they need help and seek it.
This article will discuss the nature of suicidal behaviour, whether it is a mental disorder, and how to deal with it.
Is Suicidal Behaviour A Mental Disorder?
Essentially, suicidal behaviour isn’t a mental disorder in itself. However, it is a common symptom in many prevalent psychological disorders. Primarily, these behaviours show up in affective disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder.
Suicidal behaviour may also occur in psychosis, borderline personality disorder, or any other chronic health condition that reduces the quality of life.
Contrary to popular belief, suicidal behaviour isn’t a reflection of weak character or willpower. It is a trauma response and can happen to anyone if their nervous system is dysregulated for long enough.
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Do You Have Suicidal Behavior?
It can be a lonely and isolating process to have suicidal behaviour. It’s hard to understand and even harder to talk to others about it. Naturally, you may feel a fear of judgment. Possibly, you may not even have the words to articulate your experience.
Let’s look at some potential signs that you have suicidal behaviour. If you can relate to these, you might be suicidal.
Thoughts About Death or Escape
Have you been having existential thoughts lately? Are you wondering what the point of living is? While philosophical questions are an important part of anyone’s spiritual journey, they can become excessive.
Especially if you find yourself spending increasingly more time thinking of an escape. It doesn’t even have to be death, but just the end of your present circumstances.
A Tentative Plan
Sometimes, when you’re caught up in these thoughts, you start considering your options. Ways to end it quickly, painlessly perhaps?
Mental health professionals always check if you have a tentative plan to end your life when conducting a risk assessment—the more specific and detailed your plan, the more likely that you will follow through.
Self-Harm or Abuse
The most obvious sign of suicidal behaviour is self-harm. This can include, but is not limited to, cutting, hitting, tying up, or burning yourself. It can also be hair pulling, skin picking, or any other way of causing yourself pain.
Excessive abuse of substances and alcohol is also an indirect way of harming the self. Therefore, even that can be a sign of suicidal behaviour.
Prolonged Dissociation
It is important to understand that suicidal behaviour isn’t a product of willpower or anything else. Rather, it is an inevitable consequence of a physiological state that occurs when a person is under chronic stress.
Human bodies are wired to dissociate to minimize the pain of unavoidable danger. Dissociation is the body’s tendency to disconnect from consciousness to reduce pain perception. When dissociating, you no longer feel connected to your body.
Prolonged states of dissociation are bound to lead to suicidal thoughts due to the chemical changes taking place inside.
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How to Overcome Suicidal Behavior?
In this section, we will look at some of the things you can do to overcome suicidal behaviour. Regardless of which mental disorder you may or may not have, these tips can help anyone feeling suicidal.
Talk to Someone
Firstly, the most effective step to take when feeling suicidal is to talk to someone. Ideally, this should be a mental health professional. Nevertheless, if you cannot access one, speaking to an empathetic listener will do, too.
People have the wrong idea that talking about suicide will encourage it. In fact, the more one keeps such thoughts to themselves, the more likely they will act on them. Talking provides a release and allows a person to process their feelings better.
Get Professional Help
It is imperative to seek professional help eventually whenever suicidal behaviour is spotted. This is because no matter how empathetic a listener may be, without professional training, one may say the wrong thing.
Unfortunately, such errors may turn fatal because of the sensitivity of the issue. Hence, one should always seek help from a professional as soon as possible.
Plan Your Strategies in Advance
Usually, when suicidal behaviour is activated, it is very difficult to think of rational decisions. As a result, it is helpful to have a number of strategies planned out in advance for moments like this.
For example, you can print out a step-by-step emergency plan and place it in an accessible spot. The plan could include instructions for calling loved ones, breathing exercises, and grounding techniques.
Learn to Sit with Your Feelings
As physiological changes cause suicidal behaviour, there is an element of predictability to it. What goes up must come down similarly if you can train yourself to ride the wave. If you don’t act on the thoughts, with time, you are bound to return to a neutral state.
Understandably, this is easier said than done, as it requires one to sit with complex, painful feelings. Building your tolerance for emotional pain will help you reduce suicidal behaviour.
Move Your Body
As mentioned a few times before, suicidal behaviour is a consequence of a physiological state. It is a trauma response and is referred to as dorsal vagal activation. One effective way of deactivating this state and returning to a neutral one is to move the body.
This movement can be absolutely anything. For instance, you could try going for a run or a stroll. It could also be something simple like a dance session, some house chores, or even basic stretching.
Treatment of Suicidal Behavior
There are various approaches to the treatment of suicidal behaviour. In this section, we will explore some of these.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Earlier, people used to suggest cognitive behavioural therapy or dialectical behaviour therapy for people with suicidal behaviour and impulsivity. However, research shows that when you’re in a dissociative state of suicidal behaviour, it’s not possible to apply CBT.
Instead, a trauma-informed approach is required that uses somatic exercises to bring a person out of this state. This approach also psycho-educates the individual about these physiological states so that they feel more empowered to care for themselves.
Pharmacotherapy
If you’ve been struggling with suicidal behaviour for multiple years, it makes sense to get pharmaceutical support. Keep in mind that medicines are not the solution by themselves. It takes deep inner work to overcome suicidal tendencies.
Simultaneously, it can be very exhausting to keep those efforts up. Hence, taking medication can buttress your attempts to improve your mental health.
Expressive Arts Therapy
Lastly, someone with suicidal behaviour can benefit greatly from expressive arts therapy. These techniques require a person to give shape, form, or movement to subconscious feelings and needs.
Treatments like art therapy, psychodrama, puppet therapy, dance/movement therapy, etc., are a lot of fun. They give voice to your inner self and can be incredibly cathartic and healing.
Read more information about- Suicidial Idealation.
Conclusion
Suicidal behaviour is not just a suicide attempt. It also includes all the thoughts, feelings, and actions that lead up to it. For different people, this can look different. It may start as thinking of an escape from present circumstances and slowly progress to excessive substance abuse.
It is not a mental disorder in itself but a common symptom of many psychological disorders. Thankfully, there are several ways you can overcome suicidal behaviour and various treatments available as well! You can contact our experts at United We Care to learn more!
References
[1] S. T. Wilkinson et al., “Pharmacological and somatic treatment effects on suicide in adults: A systematic review and meta‐analysis,” Depression and Anxiety, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 100–112, Nov. 2021, doi: 10.1002/da.23222.
[2] A. C. Van Hoorn, “Could affect regulation via vagal nerve self-stimulation be a maintaining factor in non-suicidal self-harm?,” Medical Hypotheses, vol. 136, p. 109498, Mar. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2019.109498.
[3] E. Devlin, “Expressive therapies and suicidality in youth,” DigitalCommons@Lesley. https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/645/
