In his 1920 book titled ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ Sigmund Freud, the father of modern Psychology, had clubbed all instincts into two major classes - life instincts and death instincts. He referred to ‘Eros’ as the life instinct or the drive to live and ‘Thanatos’ as the one dealing with death. Going by this, suicide is to be viewed as the death instinct or Thanatose that each person carries along in life. That is probably the reason behind the fact that most people would have thought about suicide at least in a flashing way, sometime or the other in life. But hardly anyone succumbs to it in real terms. Suicide happens despite Eros or the urge to live. Most suicides could have been avoided. Many people regret after losing someone closely connected to suicide – alas, this wouldn’t have happened had I understood her / him a bit better. Mark the word ‘understood’. Yes, deficiency in our understanding of suicide often scuttles us from doing something to prevent it. With this, the aim of this article is to provide a general awareness on suicide to the reader.

The warning signs of suicide

  1. Talking about killing oneself
  2. Appearing to be searching for ways to commit suicide
  3. Finding the person in any kind of hopeless or desperate situation and her / him talking about it, or someone finding out the hopelessness of the person’s plight
  4. Going through a sense of tremendous loss – like of a lover, close relative, finances,relationship, job etc.
  5. The person being in some kind of mental illness and making her / him suicidal
  6. The person expressing the feeling of becoming a burden on others
  7. Excessive use of intoxicants like drugs or alcohol
  8. Signs of depression and mood swings become evident in the person’s behaviour
  9. The person reduces or avoids food
  10. She/ he takes lesser interest in own appearance
  11. Major change in behaviour becomes evident, including in the person’s ‘connectedness’with others
  12. Showing inability to enjoy the available happiness and pleasures
  13. There is a history of attempted suicide by the person
  14. She/ he starts writing will, despite not having any immediate reason to prompt that
  15. The person exhibits excessive emotional issues
  16. Insomnia or sleeplessness for a few days
  17. The person appearing to be carrying major guilt or a strong sense of revenge
  18. Evidence of family history of suicide and violence
  19. The person has some unbearable and hopeless physical illness
  20. She/ he reduces communication with others

Suicide prevention

  1. The person carrying suicidal thoughts may reduce the risk of committing it by asking a few honest questions within – Is it the real end of everything? Can’t the situation improve eventually? Can I not take help from mental health professionals? Won’t I be able to see a different and better picture of the troubling situation after some time? Can’t I confide my issues in someone close to me? Is it really that the person who is hurting me immensely is so very important that I cannot move on without her / him ever in my life?
  2. Communication by others can help a lot. But every ‘other’ may not be able to understand the magnitude of the issues involved. Everyone will not be capable to deal with the state of mind of the person with a potentially disastrous state of mental health. So, the communicator approaching the person in a suicidal mindset has to be high on communication skills, logical thinking, emotional intelligence, empathy etc. Remember,- appropriate communication that gives hope is crucial in suicide prevention. 
  3. Keep away possible articles, including dangerous medicines like sleeping pills that can be used for committing suicide
  4. Seek help from a psychiatrist or a psychologist without any inhibition
  5. Ensure that medicines (if any) that the person is taking, especially for mental health conditions, are not stopped without the doctor’s advice. There are also some medicines that can induce suicidal ideation. Discussing about the continuation of such medicines with the Psychiatrist too is necessary.
  6. If the person’s behaviour appears to be changed for the worse, try to assess the possibility of the situation leading to suicide
  7. If there are professionally trained people in the community who can handle suicidal tendencies, do engage them to help the person in distress
  8. Understand suicidal behaviour as a mental illness and deal with it as such
  9. Any person who is affected by the suicide of someone close needs special attention, including in the assessment of her / his mental health

Suicide prevention is tough in India wherein the families and societies are paternalistically structured and mental health conditions including suicidal behaviour are scoffed at in most cases. That is the state of our mental health-care so far. Will the new generation of Indians deal with these differently?I don’t know. I am not sure yet!