Saturday, October 28, 2006
Making Sense of Suicide
I haven't made an effort to count all the books I have about suicide but I know I have a lot of them. I am the type of person who tries to learn as much as I can about something in order to deal with it.
Some of the books are written by people who lost a loved one to suicide. I can understand why a person would write a book and tell their story. Making sense of Suicide, An in-depth Look at why people kill themselves, by David Lester, PhD is one book I have. Lester indicates that every 45 seconds someone attempts it and every 16.9 minutes, someone succeeds.
It is hard to believe that in a land of plenty, so many feel so empty. But in suicide it is perception not reality that counts. It is not how much you have but how much you think you have that counts, when choosing life or death.
Lester does a good job of looking at suicide from all angles. If you are wondering why, regarding your loved one, he can provide some answers about the different theories and factors. He does an excellent job of discussing risk factors.
Risk factors: It takes awhile to get to a point in one's life where you begin to ask and understand about risk factors. The pain has to subside some before one reaches this point. I'm not sure everyone approaches understanding suicide from a desire to understand the context, as much as people want to know why their loved one took their life. I haven't decided if these two things are the same thing.
I understand why my son Dennis took his life. I understand the risk factors that were in his life. That doesn't mean I understand why it happened, but I can live with both of these.
Some of the books are written by people who lost a loved one to suicide. I can understand why a person would write a book and tell their story. Making sense of Suicide, An in-depth Look at why people kill themselves, by David Lester, PhD is one book I have. Lester indicates that every 45 seconds someone attempts it and every 16.9 minutes, someone succeeds.
It is hard to believe that in a land of plenty, so many feel so empty. But in suicide it is perception not reality that counts. It is not how much you have but how much you think you have that counts, when choosing life or death.
Lester does a good job of looking at suicide from all angles. If you are wondering why, regarding your loved one, he can provide some answers about the different theories and factors. He does an excellent job of discussing risk factors.
Risk factors: It takes awhile to get to a point in one's life where you begin to ask and understand about risk factors. The pain has to subside some before one reaches this point. I'm not sure everyone approaches understanding suicide from a desire to understand the context, as much as people want to know why their loved one took their life. I haven't decided if these two things are the same thing.
I understand why my son Dennis took his life. I understand the risk factors that were in his life. That doesn't mean I understand why it happened, but I can live with both of these.
# posted by survivors story @ 3:14 AM 
