Home Contents Search Feedback Ask Alice! About This Site
Characteristics

Up ] [ Characteristics ] Myths ] Assessment ]

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.

 


Up ] [ Characteristics ] Myths ] Assessment ]

Home ] Contents ] Search ] Feedback ] Ask Alice! ] About This Site ]
Send an e- mail to webmaster@alicebaland.com with questions or comments about this web site. Tell me how I can make this a better website for you!
This page was last modified: January 28, 2003.


The information contained at this site is not a substitute for your physician or therapist. It is intended for educational purposes only - not as a guide to self-diagnosis. A proper diagnosis and assessment must be performed by a mental health professional trained in each area.