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10 Common Characteristics of People Who Commit Suicide

By Alice Baland, MA, LPC, RD/LD

Situational Characteristics

• The common stimulus in suicide is unendurable psychological pain

• The common stressor in suicide is frustrated psychological needs

Cognitive Characteristics

• The common purpose of suicide is to seek solution

• The common goal of suicide of cessation of consciousness

• The common cognitive state in suicide is constriction

Affective Characteristics

• The common emotion in suicide is hopelessness—helplessness

• The common internal attitude toward suicide is ambivalence

Relational Characteristics

• The common interpersonal act in suicide is communication of intention

• The common action in suicide is egression (departure)

Serial Characteristic

• common consistency in suicide is with lifelong coping patterns. 

This list of characteristics points us toward what makes sense to the individual about to embark on suicide. It is not meant to suggest that all suicides are alike.

Copyright © 1999 Alice Baland. All Rights Reserved.