2. "Suicide usually occurs without warning". The preceding statement show the falseness of this myth. There are often many warnings. The giving away of valued possessions also often precedes suicide.
3. "High suicide rates only occur in certain social classes". People of all social classes commit suicide.
4. "People of particular religions are less likely to kill themselves". The strong Catholic prohibition of suicide does not cause less Catholics to kill themselves than people of other religions. People of all religions commit suicide. There is no correlation between religion and suicide, or the absence of suicide.
5. "It is easy to find the motives for suicide". There is only a small understanding of why people kill themselves. It is often assumed that decreasing financial wealth precedes suicide but this is not borne out statistically.
6. "Everyone who kills them self was depressed beforehand". This myth is the main reason friends and relatives of suicidees often say the event was unexpected. Suicidees often send out many distress signals before reaching the stage of killing them self. Most people who commit suicide are not depressed at the time, many appearing calm, at peace with themselves and often comparatively happy, having made the decision to end their life. This may result from the thought that their problems will soon be resolved, but this is not so obvious as may seem and is probably not the whole story. Many suicidees consider them selves to be the problem (for everyone else).
7. "The terminally ill are unlikely to kill themselves". Knowledge of impending death does not preclude suicide. The wish to end their own suffering and that of their loved ones urges many terminally ill people to commit suicide.
8. "Suicide is an insane act". Most suicidal people are completely rational and fully in touch with reality.
9. "Suicide runs in families". This is not statistically proven.
10. "Suicide rates are affected by seasons, weather, sunspots, moon phases, days of the week, months of the year (etc.)". No statistical evidence exists to substantiate any of these myths.
11. "Making a person happier decreases their suicidal tendency". Not necessarily true unless the root of their problems has been alleviated. Plastic smiles do not help anyone. People who commit suicide often do so after their emotional spirits have begun to rise. This is particularly true in those who were depressed and suicidal. Suicide not infrequently follows (apparently) decreasing depression.
12. "People who commit suicide want to die". Suicidees are very often ambivalent about their deaths. The feeling most frequently expressed by suicidal people is: "I do NOT want to DIE; I cannot LIVE any more".
13. "The best way to deal with a suicidal person is to tell them to pull them self together and cheer up as things will get better". Such banal cliches encourage suicide. Many suicidal people are in their situation because they feel nobody else understands their problems. For another person to tell them "it can't be that bad" only serves to indicate that the speaker truly does not understand the severity of the causes of the suicidal feelings. If the speaker cared a little more, they would ask how they can help to ease the distress.
14. "The best thing to do with a suicidal person is tell them to go ahead and do it. They will soon change their mind!" Many people who express suicidal feelings and are told to "go ahead and do it" do so.
15. "People who kill themselves are selfish". Had all the people around the person shown more interest in the person's life beforehand, they may not have reached the stage of considering suicide. A moment's honest reflection shows the problem was probably that the rest of society was too selfish to care sufficiently.
16. "Suicidees don't care about those they leave behind". The statement above (15) usually applies. Many suicidees kill themselves because they want to stop being a problem for the people they leave behind.
1. Suicide is much more common in the "developed" world. It is almost unheard of in less developed areas.
2. Every two hours someone in the United Kingdom kills them self. This figure may be grossly underestimated; nobody knows how many supposed accidents were suicides.
3. Between two and three times as many men kill themselves as do women. Of those men who attempt suicide, three quarters kill themselves.
4. Three times as many women as men attempt suicide but do not die. One quarter of women who attempt suicide kill themselves.
5. Approximately half those people who commit suicide have made at least one previous attempt to do so.
6. Suicide knows no age barriers. Most suicides in the UK occur in the 75 - 84 year age group; suicide in children aged under 10 years is not uncommon.
7. Suicide occurs at all social and economic levels but is rather more common among professional people.
8. Suicide is the tenth most common cause of death among adults in the UK and is the second leading cause of death in people aged under 21.
9. The rates of suicide amongst adolescents and children is constantly increasing.
10. Suicide becomes more common as societies "advance".
The Samaritans - providing confidential emotional support to any person who is suicidal or despairing; and increasing public awareness of issues around suicide and depression. This service is provided 24 hours every day by trained volunteers. This link goes to the Samaritans' website.
Studying Suicide - John Hood-Williams, Department of Social Science, University of Greenwich
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