Thoughts Progressing to the Point of Suicide

Reader’s Question

Is prefaring to be dead rather then alive, but not planning on taking any traumatic questions considered being suicidal?

–A.B.

Our Consulting Clinical Psychologist’s Reply

Actually, those thoughts are one step above having suicidal thoughts. When we become depressed, our brain torments us with a variety of horrible thoughts. They begin as discouraging thoughts, move to thoughts of death/dying, then end up with suicidal thoughts and eventually suicidal attempts.

The gradual list of thoughts goes something like this:

• You are a failure as a son, daughter, father, mother, friend, employee, college student, etc.
• You have become a burden to those who love you.
• People who love you would actually be better off if you were not around.
• You don’t want to die, but it would be OK with you if you did die
• You almost hope you are killed in an accident or develop a deadly disease
• You would be better off if you were dead
• (you fantasize about ways to kill yourself at this point — car into a tree, drowning, etc.)
• (you fantasize about what you should say in a letter to loved ones)
• You should probably kill yourself
• You may experiment with suicide gestures at this point
• You make a suicide attempt

With your current thoughts, you are already seriously depressed. Your appetite, sleep, concentration, and energy are disturbed. You are having explosive crying spells or outbursts. Your brain is going 150 kph and is digging up past bad memories to torment you.

Yes, this is the beginning of the downhill-to-suicide thought process. You should immediately seek mental health attention. The first stop might be a physician as your symptoms will respond very well to an antidepressant medication. You can tell by my listing that depression is well-known in the mental health community and it’s usually easy to treat…but you must get started as soon as possible. If you delay treatment, the other thoughts will follow.

You can also obtain information about depression on this website or on my website at www.drjoecarver.com.