• MYTH 1: A person who talks about committing Suicide, won’t actually do it.
    FACT 1: About 80% of persons who commit suicide express their intentions to one and often more than one person.

  • MYTH 2: Suicide usually occurs without warning. 
    FACT 2:  A person planning suicide usually gives clues although in some cases, suicidal intent is carefully concealed.

  • MYTH 3: A suicidal person fully intends to die. 
    FACT 3: Most suicidal people feel ambivalent toward death and arrange an attempted suicide in the hope that someone will intervene.

  • MYTH 4: If a person attempts suicide once, he or she remains at constant risk for suicide throughout life. 
    FACT 4:  Suicidal intentions are often limited to a specific period of time, especially if help is sought and received. Person is at highest risk to repeat suicide in the 1st year following the act. Help can be effective. 

  • MYTH 5: If a person shows improvement after a suicidal crisis, the risk has passed. 
    FACT 5:  Most suicides occur within three months or so after the onset of improvement, when the person has the energy to act on intentions.

  • MYTH 6: Suicide occurs most often among the very rich and the very poor. 
    FACT 6:  Suicide occurs in equal proportions among persons of all socioeconomic levels. 

  • MYTH 7:  Families can pass on a predisposition to suicidal behavior.
    FACT 7:  Suicide is not an inherited trait, but an individual characteristic resulting from a combination of variables. One of which is positive family history.

  • MYTH 8: All suicidal persons are mentally ill, and only a psychotic person will commit suicide.
    FACT 8:  Studies indicate that 95% suicidal persons have mental illness.