Suicide Risks
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The way to asses suicide is to group it. It can be grouped into the following categories; self-rated suicide instruments, self-rated buffers against suicide, clinical-dated suicide instruments, special purpose scales and instruments focused on children and adolecents.
Mental health illness is defined as “wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors and can be manged with proper treatment such as psychotherapy so that the illness does not interefere with ones daily life activites such as work or persoanl relationship,” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2010). The National Institute for Mental Health has also stated that “Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a persons thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life,” (NAMI, 2012).
Mental Health disorders tdo not discrimiate against ones race, religion, creed or sex. Mental health disorder examples are common diseases as Depression, Bi-polar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder also known as OCD, ones with ancxiety or panic disorder, post-traumetic stress diorder which is trggered from a traumatizing event such as war or loosing a child or sexual assault or even someone dying. It also encompases Borderline Personality Diorder also known as BPD, (NAMI, 2012). The only way to truly become better is to seek the treatment based on their own individual needs and to participate in treatment.
There are multiple factors that place an individual at risk to develop mental illnesses. Some are inherited, some are learned and some show the early warning signs at childhood. If one has mentally ill parents it is more likely that the child of those parents will too become ill. “For example, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia tend to run in families. At this time, no type of genetic testing can tell you whether or not you will develop mental illnesses. Not enough is known about which gene variations contribute to them, or the degree to which other factors contribute,” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). Things that also contribute are deaths of loved ones such as a parents or sibling, abuses from childhood or even into adulthood with either loved ones or traumatic events such as rape or being held captive. Children that are raised by alcoholic parents can too be depressed as they are not in an emotional stable environment and tend to replicate what their parents do to escape reality therefore giving them a propensity to be alcoholics or substance abusers themselves. It was also noted that nutrition and diet could affects ones mental state. “If one does not sleep well for an extended period of time they not fully function and might look to an outlet of over the counter remedies of pills or alcohol to sleep and then it becomes a vicious cycle of sleeping and not sleeping and thinking one needs these things to sleep. The alcohol would deteriorate the brain cells causing more mental health and physical health problems over time,” (ALANON, 2013).
When a person has depression, mild or major, then abuses alcohol, they are at a higher risk for suicide whether it be attempting or succeeding at it,” (Jacob, 05 D). “When one who suffers from depression is under the influence they tend to exaggerate their depression and thefor have a higher rate to be more impulsive and alcohol is often detected in suicide methods such as driving a car or other type of moving vehicle or even overdosing,” (Jacob, 05 D).
Alcohol impairs judgment, which explains its association with painful suicide methods. There are several mental health disorders and different life experiences can put one at risk for suicide higher than the other. In a study that was performed on individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder as defined in the DSM III who were at a higher risk and less than normal risk to attempt suicide. “History of suicidal attempts and attempt characteristics were obtained by Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia interviews from 84 patients with borderline personality disorder and were related to severity of borderline pathology. Diagnostic comorbidity, and state and trait symptoms, and it also found that there were 61 patients with a lifetime history of suicide attempts (72.6%), with an average of 3.39 (SD = 2.87) attempts per patient.it found that the suicidal risks were found patients that had.
Suicidal behavior with borderline personality disorder include older age, prior suicide attempts, antisocial personality, impulsive actions, and depressive moods but not comorbid affective disorder, alcoholism, or drug use disorders,” (Soloff, 1995). “People who attempt suicide are more likely to complete it if they did not complete it the first time and is the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States, for young people ages fifteen to twenty-four it is the third leading cause of death and even children younger ages ten through fourteen are commiting suicide with todays pressures”, (Suicide Awarenes Voices of Education, 2012).
The risk factors that are associated with mental illness depend on ones personality and the individual them selves. Traits could include aggression, hostility, anxiety, extroversion, eating disorders and body image disorders, impulse controls problems. Genetics have a lot to do with how one handles social situations and how one was raised and taught to handle situations as well. Risk factors aslso include econmic availability and advantages