Many suicides are not impulsive

In 2001, scientists from the University of Houston studied 153 people who survived a suicide attempt. They found that 87 percent of these people thought about suicide for less than eight hours before taking action. For 70 percent, the suicide attempt occurred within an hour of making the decision. Even more astonishing, 24 percent said they had attempted suicide five minutes making the decision to commit suicide.(1) In other words, for most of the group, the interval between thinking about suicide and then committing suicide was only an hour, and for one in four people, almost no time passed between the suicidal impulse and the suicide attempt. .

Researchers in Australia interviewed people in the emergency room shortly after being admitted to hospital following a suicide attempt and came to a similar conclusion. Half of people said they thought about suicide for no more than 10 minutes before taking action, and another 16 percent said the period was less than 30 minutes.(2)

Studies like these lend credence to the belief that suicide is impulsive, but they have drawbacks. First, they rely on self-reports, which are often unreliable. If a person’s judgment is impaired due to a mental disorder, alcoholdrugs, intense mental pain, or even sleep deprivation, it is not always possible to accurately describe what one is thinking or feeling at any given moment. In the Australian study, 29 percent of participants said they had been drinking at the time of the attempt, and almost everyone in this subgroup – 93 percent – had a maximum of 10 minutes elapsed between the time they thought about suicide and the time they acted on it.

Second, the researchers did not delve into the participants’ backgrounds to find out whether they had previously considered suicide. An attempt that may have seemed like a spur-of-the-moment decision could have been the result of days, weeks, months, or even years. suicidal ideas and preliminary planning.

There are many examples in literature of fictional characters who violently commit suicide, the best example of which is Anna Karenina throwing herself in front of a train. However, as Thomas Joiner and other suicide researchers have noted, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and other writers use impulsivity for narrative effect when describing suicides, but this does not make literary suicides an accurate model.

“It just doesn’t work that way in the real world,” says Joiner, “otherwise there would be millions more suicides a year when people were looking at knives and trains and the like.”(3)

For some people – mainly teenagers – suicide may be impulsive,(4) but most people plan their death. They raise funds, set a date and location, and then put their plan into action.

“The idea that suicidal acts occur out of the blue undermines attempts to study, evaluate, treat and prevent them,” says Joiner. “Suicide is easily treatable and we owe it to the memory of those who have already died and those who will be at risk in the future to make it even greater.”(5)

If you or someone you love is considering suicide, seek help immediately. For 24-hour support, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. To find a therapist in your area, visit Psychology Today therapy directory.