After the two deaths of people whom I knew during this past year, and watching all the destruction that's taking place around the world, with suicide bombings and raids, it makes me stop to think....is suicide truly preventable? Furthermore, what is it that 'clicks' in the minds and hearts of these people to cause them to actually want to take their own lives? I've known many people in my lifetime who have been successful at suicide...and many more who have attempted it. While my knowledge on mental and emotional illness is extensive, I am still not expert on the topic. I can definately see how someone's psychological state of health could cause them to slip into such a massively depressed state of consciousness that they would not know what they were doing...completely.
My predominant question, I suppose, above the many others I have, is this: Why. Why is the key. What is it within their minds that 'clicks off' (or on as the case may very well be) that causes them to slip so deeply into a depressed state of being? I have to think that there is both a psychological and a physical conditioning that takes place within the person's thought process. Similar to the physical side effects caused my emotional states. For example, when we laugh, our heart rate increases, our lungs expand to greater extents and our body's exert 'positive' biochemicals that have a good reaction with our systems. I'm curious to see if depression, to the suicidal extent, has similar warning signs. Those that lay beyond the already known physical symptoms of depression. For instance, does a person who is suicidal have "last minute warning signs" that are visible through body language, speech or involuntary physical behaviors? Do their eyes change? Is their breathing increased or decreased? Is there a sudden state of noticeable "calm" that washes over them? Does fear set in noticeably?
Has anyone ever truly studied something of such a horrific nature?
No comments:
Post a Comment