Myth: Suicide is Never Decided Suddenly
The research around the degree to which someone makes an “impulsive” decision to die by suicide leaves a complicated picture with some clearly well-planned suicide attempts and deaths. However, research points equally to places where it appears that there was little or no prior thought. Finding truth requires understanding how our language doesn’t fully capture the complexities of our human experience.
Fact: Some Suicide Attempts are Planned
Few would argue that at least some percentage of suicide attempts and deaths are planned. One needs only to consider those who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco after having driven over the equally lethal Bay Bridge to see a degree of planning is involved in some deaths. (See “A Tale of two Bridges: Comparative Suicide Incidence on the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges.”)
Fact: Some Suicide Attempts are Unplanned
Some research indicates that suicide attempters often hadn’t considered suicide an hour before their attempt. (See “Characteristics of Impulsive Suicide Attempts and Attempters.”) Several studies put the number of people who considered it for an hour or less at around 70%. There are concerns of methodology and concerns that attempters are categorically different than those who die by suicide. While these concerns are valid, they serve to mediate the large number rather than eliminate the reality that some attempts are unplanned.
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The complicated nature of this myth requires that we examine work on impulsivity, fluid vulnerability, mental health engagement, unacceptable loss, and hope.
Impulsivity
Often, we call suicide attempts “impulsive.” However, there are problems when applying this term to suicide attempts. First, impulsivity is “acting without forethought.” However, the rate of suicidal ideation appears to be increasing. From Ramsay and Bagly’s survey in Calgary in 1985 indicating one in three people had considered suicide to the more recent survey (2021) of American high schools indicating that 28% of students had attempted suicide in the preceding year, the numbers are rising.
The question is whether prior suicidal ideation should be related to the attempt. Theories, like The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, lead to the conclusion that once you’ve developed a capacity for suicide by forming a plan or becoming comfortable with self-harm, you never lose it. The result is that the term “impulsive” becomes technically incorrect in a non-trivial number of suicide attempts. Klonsky and May’s Three-Step Theory explicitly acknowledges an ideation to action framework. They would say there’s always an ideation component, and the question simply becomes one of timing.
Fluid Vulnerability Theory
David Rudd proposed a Fluid Vulnerability Theory for suicide, which says that there’s a baseline risk but there are activating events that change the vulnerability. The nature of these temporary events changing risk implies that from the outside the decision to die by suicide comes suddenly.
Mental Health Engagement
Less than one-third of people who die by suicide had seen mental health provider in the preceding year. While not all engagement with the mental health care system is related to suicidal ideation, engagement with the mental health system with a concern about suicidal ideation can’t exceed the total engagement. Thus, we know that less than 33% of people who die by suicide were engaged with the mental healthcare system on the issue of suicide.
Unacceptable Loss
Daniel Capron proposed that there’s an unacceptable loss threshold; once someone has these kinds of losses, it creates a suicidal crisis that may lead to suicide. These thresholds may not be conscious – making them difficult but not impossible to detect by others. It’s quite possible that the threshold isn’t discovered until it’s crossed, and then the time-to-action becomes a challenge.
Hope
Ultimately, when someone is experiencing intense pain – either physical or psychological – hope keeps them from taking immediate action. Hope says that the pain is temporary and that good times can come again. Rick Snyder in The Psychology of Hope explains a framework for hope that includes willpower and waypower. Roy Baumeister and John Tierney wrote extensively about Willpower. Waypower, however, is Snyder’s way of explaining knowledge of how to change circumstances.
Coupled with the work of Richard Lazarus in Emotion and Adaptation, we can view both willpower and waypower as both internal and external. Thus, one can regain hope if someone else is willing to help and presumably knows the way.
Evidence
The evidence implies that some suicide deaths are planned. Other evidence implies that some suicide deaths are not planned – or at least not in a long-term sense.
In Support of the Myth
"Reconsidering the Link Between Impulsivity and Suicidal Behavior" (2014)
Argues for a better understanding of the relationship between impulsivity and suicidal behavior.
To Refute the Myth
"Characteristics of Impulsive Suicide Attempts and Attempters" (2001)
71% of attempters hadn’t considered it an hour before.
Explains that unacceptable losses may trigger suicidal crisis.
Unclear or Mixed Support
One-third of people have suicidal thoughts.
Learn more about suicide myths – and the truths behind them – by following the links below.