BY : Dr. KK Aggarwal
Never ignore any post of social media which suggests suicidal ideation. It’s a medical emergency. Never take it lightly. Not only on social media if someone calls you that I am feeling like committing suicide do not take it lightly.
Most patients with successful suicide will talk to someone minutes before they commit suicide. The commonest precipitating factor is that they are not been loved or cared by the society.
A 16-year-old girl has reportedly killed herself in Malaysia, after posting a poll on her Instagram account asking followers if she should die or not, and 69% of responders voting that she should.
The girl, who has not been named, posted the poll on the photo-sharing app with the message: “Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L”.
After most responders voted for “death”, she killed herself. Her death prompted a lawyer to suggest that those who voted for her to die could be guilty of abetting suicide.
In Feb Instagram announced that it will launch “sensitivity screens” to block images of self-harm. The move followed the death of British teenager Molly Russell, whose parents believe saw images of suicide and self-harm on the app before she took her own life in 2017, aged 14.
Suicidal Ideation
- Intentional self-injurious thoughts and behavior may be suicidal or non-suicidal
- The global suicide rate is 12 per 100,000 individuals, making suicide the 14thleading cause of global mortality.
- The suicide rate in the United States is more than 15 per 100,000 individuals, making suicide the 10thleading cause of death.
- Major risk factors for suicide include psychiatric disorders, hopelessness, and prior suicide attempts or threats.
- High impulsivity and alcohol or other substance abuse increases the risk that suicidal impulses will be carried out.
- Patients suspected to be at risk for suicide should be asked about suicidal ideation and intent, and, if present should be treated as an emergency
- WHO: 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation (thoughts) was approximately 2 percent and that the lifetime prevalence was 9 percent
- Among individuals with a lifetime history of suicidal ideation, the probability of ever making a plan is 33 percent, and the probability of ever making a suicide attempt is approximately 30 percent.
- Among individuals with a lifetime history of suicidal ideation and a plan, the probability of attempting suicide was approximately 55 percent; among ideators without a plan, the probability of attempting suicide was only 15 percent.
- 60 percent of the transitions from suicidal ideation to suicide plan, and from plan to suicide attempt, occurred in the first year after the onset of suicidal ideation.
- In the United States, the annual prevalence of suicidal ideation in adults is 4 percent
- More than 50 percent of individuals with suicidal thoughts do not receive mental health services.
- Suicide is influenced by a combination of feelings we have about ourselves and our future (internal affect) and feelings we have about others and the world around us (external affect).
- Recent life experiences can also precipitate
- Impulsive aggressive behavior is a risk factor for suicide
