Suicidal behaviour: Debunking myths and misconceptions

SUICIDE threats are often dismissed as attention-seeking, but an acclaimed suicidologist warns that there is no smoke without fire.

Professor Lourens Schlebusch, an international expert on suicide and an emeritus professor of behavioural medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, helped debunk some of the myths and misconceptions around suicide.

He said it was important to follow “suicidal behaviour”, as it was not just about suicide, thinking about suicide, or threatening to commit suicide.

“Suicidal behaviour in itself has many phases. From thinking about it to attempting it, to doing it, to a so-called power suicide, where the intention is not to die, but just to attract attention.

“But these are all problems. These are all different phases of suicidal behaviour to take into account.”

Schlebusch warned that many people that threatened suicide were just looking for attention and they would not do it.

He said that in the case of young people whose parents did not necessarily take them seriously, they might want to prove them wrong and go through with it. “Suicidal threats and feelings are usually associated with poor conflict resolution skills.

“They have conflict in their lives and are unable to resolve it, and if they have no way of resolving it and

they have no mature adult they can discuss it with or somebody they can trust, then they might go ahead.”

He cited four points:

Take the threat seriously and establish what the rationale behind it is. Establish if there is an inappropriate problem-solving skill. Find out what the underlying

problem is. For example, there are a lot of extended suicides, or murdersuicides, where there is a problem in a relationship and one partner kills the other and then themselves. Ask: Is there a psychological problem?

One of the most common links between suicidal behaviour, thinking about it and acting on it, is a psychological disorder, like depression. So establish if the person needs professional help.

The link between thinking about or threatening suicide and doing it was sometimes a sense of hopelessness, he said.

“Hopelessness is defined as negative expectations of the future. If you feel your situation is hopeless, that there is no way out and the only

solution is to take your own life. So, establish how intense the sense of hopelessness is.”

To those contemplating suicide, he said: “Look to the positive side and think problem-solving rather than problem-creating.

“There is always help to resolve a conflict or problem and one should look for the alternative and find someone they can discuss it with. ”