Suicidal intentions

Description

Suicidal intent is dangerous when accompanied by depression or other mental illness, alcohol or narcotics, or suicidal plans. In such cases, it is mandatory to seek specialized help. Such intentions can be a symptom of a serious psychological disorder.

The critical distinction is between a person’s thoughts or attitudes about death and suicide in general and their current attitude toward suicide. When doctors hear from someone that they wish to die, they define these thoughts as suicidal and divide them into 2 categories:

• Suicidal intentions – they can be active and include an intention to deliberately cause one’s own death;
• Suicidal thoughts – can be passive and to express a desire for death, but without plans to achieve their death.

If a person has a real desire to die, in both forms of suicidal thoughts or intentions, they should seek medical attention immediately.

What are the symptoms?

• Depression – suicidal thoughts can occur if a person is in pain from this condition and can be easily noticed by the people around them.

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– those affected are described by most people as depressed, anxious and often change their mood.
– in children and adolescents, the condition manifests as irritability, and in mature and elderly people, it appears as sadness;
– the most depressed complain of sleep disturbances, which are expressed in the inability to fall asleep at all or cannot sleep at night;
– people who are depressed often feel in a hopeless situation or a helpless state.

They may not feel a sense of happiness, even when they are doing something that they used to enjoy.
– many of these people completely quickly or lose weight due to depression;
– they may have difficulty trying to hold their attention or concentrate.
– they may appear apathetic and even complain about it, that they are not well and depressed;
– depressed people are often burdened with a great sense of guilt. To an outsider, this feeling often seems unjustified, but the depressed person believes that the feeling is fully deserved.

• Addiction to alcohol or drugs – if a person suffers from such an addiction, it is very likely that suicidal thoughts will appear at some point. Alcohol and drug problems are usually the cause of negative events in a person’s life that can cause depression or severe abnormal mental agitation;
• Divorce, job loss, legal problems and financial difficulties are common with alcohol or drug addiction and can lead to suicidal thoughts.
• Mental Illness – suicidal thoughts take on a new meaning for someone with a diagnosis such as schizophrenia or someone who has engaged in self-mutilation or attempted suicide in the past.

Treatment in the presence of suicidal intentions

There is no single therapy that can be applied in such cases, the doctor judges at the moment whether mild sedation would work or whether hospitalization is necessary .

In some cases, the potential suicide is sent home with instructions to return if suicidal thoughts become persistent, symptoms of depression become apparent, or he feels unable to find a way out of certain situations and the only way to do that is suicide.

In such a case, the affected person is hospitalized and usually placed under 48-hour psychiatric supervision.

Medications used to treat anxiety disorders such as buspirone, clonazepam or lorazepam, antidepressants such as fluoxetine, sertraline, citalopram or venlafaxine may be given immediately in an attempt to relieve the symptoms of a person suffering from suicidal thoughts. And antipsychotics such as risperidone or aripiprazolecan be used to suppress feelings of anger and abnormal mental agitation.