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Suicide Warning Signs

The more warning signs, the greater the risk of suicide.

• Talking about wanting to die
• Looking for ways to kill oneself
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
• Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
• Talking about being a burden to others
• Abusing alcohol or drugs
• Acting anxious, agitated, or reckless
• Having trouble sleeping
• Withdrawing or feeling isolated
• Having extreme mood swings
• Giving away belongings, including treasured objects

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2019/09/teen-suicide

Suicide Prevention Resources

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

American Association of Suicidology

Increased Risk Groups

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Suicide Prevention Resource Center

What Foster Parents Can Do to Prevent Suicide

Survivor Experiences

As many as one third of the people in Kentucky, suffer devastating and long lasting emotional trauma when a family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor or classmate dies as a result of suicide.

This is not just a Kentucky problem, but a national one. Each year nearly 30,000 people in the United States die by suicide. The devastated family and friends they leave behind are known as “survivors.” There are millions of survivors who are trying to cope with this heartbreaking loss.

Survivors often experience a wide range of grief reactions, including some or all of the following:

• Shock is a common immediate reaction.
  You may feel numb or disoriented, and may have trouble concentrating.
• Symptoms of depression, including disturbed sleep, loss of appetite intense sadness, and lack of energy.
• Anger towards the deceased, another family member, a therapist, or yourself.
• Relief, particularly if the suicide followed a long and difficult mental illness.
• Guilt, including thinking, “If only I had.…”

These feelings usually diminish over time, as you develop your ability to cope and begin to heal.

Just as people can die of heart disease or cancer, people can die as a consequence of mental illness. Ninety percent of all people who die by suicide have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death (most often depression or bipolar disorder).

Suicide is almost always complicated, resulting from a combination of painful suffering, desperate hopelessness, and underlying psychiatric illness.