Symptoms of Suicide? Please help!?

Question

I posted a question earlier about this but did not get much of a response. I'm worried about a friend of mine, I know she is depressed and have not seen much improvement with her within this past year. She feels worthless, ugly, and like she's not doing anything with her life. Merely a waste of time. She's 22, she's never had a boyfriend, and I'm worried she's never going to experience the things she deserves. I know she's feeling this way because she's told me. I've been depressed before, for about two years, and am finally pulling out of it, so I understand what she is going through. When I was depressed, I often thought about my death and how I could fake an "accident", but never seriously contemplated going through with any of it. Anyway, what I'm trying to ask is how can you differentiate when someone is depressed and when it's something more? I'm worried for my friend, I understand her helplessness and I feel like I am stronger than her so I'm worried. What are signs of someone who's suicidal? Please answer!

Answer 1

withdrawn from everything, sad, anger. If you think that she is going to hurt herself you need to tell someone even if hurts your friendship

Answer 2

You should seriously have a heart to heart talk to her. Cuz you went through the same things as your friend, so it shouldnt be hard helping her. I know you don't want to offend her but I think you should thats what a real friend would do.  

Answer 3

My best friend killed himself a few years ago. Some of the warning signs include:

-Always talking or thinking about death

-Clinical depression -- deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble sleeping and eating -- that gets worse

-Having a "death wish," tempting fate by taking risks that could lead to death such as driving fast or running red lights

-Losing interest in things one used to care about

-Making comments about being hopeless, helpless, or worthless

-Putting affairs in order, tying up loose ends, changing a will

-Saying things like "it would be better if I wasn't here" or "I want out"

-Sudden, unexpected switch from being very sad to being very calm or appearing to be happy

-Talking abut suicide or killing one's self

-Visiting or calling people to say goodbye

My friend practically screamed out to the world that he was going to do it so don’t asume that just because she tells somebody she won’t do it.

Answer 4

Someone threatening to hurt or kill him/herself, or talking of wanting to hurt or kill him/herself.

Someone looking for ways to kill him/herself by seeking access to firearms, available pills, or other means.

Someone talking or writing about death, dying or suicide, when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person.

Hopelessness

Rage, uncontrolled anger, seeking revenge

Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities, seemingly without thinking

Feeling trapped - like there's no way out

Increased alcohol or drug use

Withdrawing from friends, family and society

Anxiety, agitation, unable to sleep or sleeping all the time

Dramatic mood changes

No reason for living; no sense of purpose in life

I got these info from this site

http://www.suicidology.org/displaycommon...

Hope it helps. And I hope your friend will be okay.

Answer 5

A lot of people do not know if they have depression. Depression has become one of the major psychology problems in the developing countries. Depression can develop when we are living in a stress environment. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not realise that they have depression. Today, I would like to share with you the symptoms of depression.

“The movie is really not nice.” “The food is tasteless”. “It is not interesting at all, I would rather stay at home.” If the statement is familiar to you, you could be attacked by depression. A depressed person mood is usually dejected, gloomy and joyless. They feel the world is boring and meaningless. The world is colourless and the only colour in their mind is black and white.

Some of the depressed patients complaint they have low self-esteem and deep feelings of inadequacy. They have low confident level on themselves and towards other people. Am I good enough? Other people don’t like me! I’m not being welcome. These statements are common statements appear in their mind due to their low confident level.

When you realise that you frequently worries and frets, you might be attacked by depression. I have a lady patient who can go back home to check if she has turned of the tap, switched off the electricity, locked the door, closed the window for several times before they went out from their house. At first, she thought she was being forgetful but in reality, this was the initial symptoms to develop depression. Hence, early detection could prevent formation of depression.

Some participating in yahoo answer session, I realised that a lot of people had symptoms of self-derogatory during depression. They felt relief after hurting themselves. They were not sure the reasons they were doing so. If this problem is not rectified immediately, depression is developed and this would lead to suicidal case. Self-derogatory is a serious symptom that needs immediate attention.

A depressed patient engages in critical and judgmental attitude towards both self and others. They are not satisfied with the people next to them. No matter what they did, how well they try, the depressed patient always feels they are not right. My mother was undergone depression after my dad past away. When we bought her new mattress, she kept complaining the previous was soft and the new mattress was too hard and she couldn’t sleep at night. We brought her out for lunch, no matter which restaurant we went she felt the food was not delicious. The judgemental attitude would not be realised by them but people next to them would suffer from this personality.

Some of the depressed patient would be highly pessimistic and complaintive. During working with the depressed patients, I found that their world is full of sadness. They felt that the world was hopeless. They always labelled themselves with “bad luck”, “no hope” and other pessimistic words. Some of the aggressive patient would start to complaint. One of my friends received a letter from the patients with the statement, “You consultancy is not professional enough”. In fact, the patient did not even know the term professionalism in medical practices!

Experiences a great deal of guilt and regret is the last general symptoms of depression. Most of the suicidal cases are generally related to this feeling. These patients feel that nothing much they can do and the suicidal would be their last choice. When this idea becomes a core believe, they tend to suicide. When we realise this element appears among our friends, we have to remind them it is a symptom of depression.

As a psychotherapist, long term goals are set to brighten downcast mode, improve self-esteem and feeling of self-worth, decrease ruminative worry, enhance optimism, reduce feelings of guilt and remorse, reduce griping and complaining, facilitate positive interpersonal relationships and finally expand active problem solving, thereby decrease passive resignation.

Answer 6

Okay, I just went on google, trying to find a simple list but I couldn't find one.  Since I, myself, have had 3 serious attempts, I'll just tell you what I know from personal experience:

1) *Most Important*  If someone *mentions* suicide, not wanting to live, wishing they could die, etc., TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY.  A lot of ppl will simply say, "they want attn", which is STUPID.  Who the h**l wants that kind of attn?

2) If you notice any signs of self-mutilation, things may be serious

3) Isolation from others (very dangerous) (lack of friends)

4) Not eating as much/eating more, insomnia or sleeping too much

5) Listening to depressing music (esp about suicide or by an artist that killed him/herself), watching depressing movies, t.v., etc.

6) Low self esteem which appears to be drastically affecting the person

7) Acting out:  could include anything from drinking heavily to being more aggressive, to being more quiet/shy than normal

8) Drug or alcohol abuse (self medicating)

There are lots more but that's a good start.  Here's a link if you're interested:  

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/...

Also from another source (sorry didn't get the url):

Risk Factors for suicide include prior suicide attempt(s), family history of mental disorder or substance abuse, family history of suicide, family violence, physical or sexual abuse, keeping firearms in the home, incarceration, and exposure to the suicidal behavior of others.

Now about you, I'm concerned about you.  You should not be in this alone.  You need others helping you as well, as her support.  So pls consider that.

If there is *any* way to get her to call this suicide hotline, then she may be surprised at how much it helps to talk to a "volunteer" who wouldn't be there if they didn't care.  Nat'l Suicide Hotline:

800*784*2433.

(Just FYI, I have bipolar disorder along with a long list of other diagnoses.  And bipolar & anorexia, which I have both, have the highest success rate of any dx.)

I hope this helps.  But again, I am concerned for you.  If something happens to her, you are at risk for feeling "responsible" & you're NOT.  So get some support!

Answer 7

I have found that people who tell you they are going to commit suicide tend not to, because they are telling someone because they want help. If she's not mentioned it then perhaps you should bring it up in conversation- ask her what her opinion on it is.

Talking is the only way I can think of, but you can never really know what's going on in someones head.

Answer 8

Do they talk a lot about death, or the world would be better off without me, does she have access to a lot of drugs, being street drugs or medications, alcohol?? Does she ever talk about a plan???

One of the best indicators is impulsive choices, often times resulting in negative consequences (which often happen with impulsivity) see what kind of choices she is making, if alot of them are short term and self-destructive that could give you a good indication....

Ps---if you suspect she may hurt herself, ACT and act fast, I would much rather do something and worry if she gets mad or upset over you trying to help her than sit there and ask yourself what you could have done at her funeral....

Answer 9

Truthfully, when I read your title I thought to myself "The symptoms of suicide are pale skin, a lack of heartbeat and necrosis of the skin."

All humor aside, have you ever expressed to her how NOT-worthless NOT-ugly and NOT-pointless she is? Maybe you should show her somehow that she is a wonderful person and not deficient or below the required level for living.

To answer your main question, the truest and most dangerous sign you should look out for is when she starts to give away the things that are the most precious to her. I'm not saying every Christmas you should rush her off to the padded cell. However, if she ever offers you her deceased Grandmother's diamond ring because "It would look pretty with you", that would be the time for true concern. All of the other warning signs are generally within acceptable limits for sane people. Heck, according to most "suicide symptom lists" I'm not long for this world.