Why do students attempt suicide?
It is a well-known fact that a happy person does not attempt suicide. On the contrary, high levels of unhappiness increases person’s risk of suicidal ideation and actual suicide attempts. If we want to understand the reasons people consider or attempt suicide, we need to examine sources of unhappiness. What types of events, situations and relationships cause unhappiness?
There is an inborn human characteristic that drives people to want to be successful and happy throughout life. From a students’ perspective, students want to be successful in school. It can be said that being unsuccessful in social relationships, difficulty with sharing emotions, and academic failure are a few of the reasons for personal unhappiness in students.
If students’ are getting poor or failing grades in spite of how hard they are working and how motivated they are, the students will be more isolated. They may start to perseverate on their weaknesses rather than their strengths. Students may call themselves dumb, a failure, etc. Classmates may also imply that these students are lazy or not as smart as everyone else in the class, so the students’ own feeling is reinforced. Students will be less likely to continue to work hard, motivation will be decreased, and peer relationships will deteriorate. The students’ level of happiness declines.
All students have strengths and all students want teachers, parents, and friends to recognize those strengths. If students have difficulty with personal relationships and do not have at least one good friend, or perceives themselves as a loner with no peer group, students have no one to share those strengths with. Sharing things that we like to do and talking to other people is an important part of people’s happiness. When there is disconnectedness in these relationships, it increases the students’ sense of isolation and decreases motivation to reach out to others to create connections.
The ability to share emotions and feelings with others helps individuals to feel better about themselves and their situations. It allows them to establish relationships with others. Students may have skill deficits in communication or personal awareness that prevent them from clearly expressing their feelings. Students may have had bad experiences when they have shared their feelings with others. People may have ignored them, made light of their feelings, or even laughed at them. If students have difficulty with sharing emotions with others due to a lack of skills or because of past experiences they will be less motivated to participate in discussions and to take risks with peers and teachers. This also reinforces students feeling of unhappiness and isolation.
Human beings are not designed to be alone. Humans are social creatures and need to be part of a social group. When people are lonely and isolated suicidal ideation can creep into thoughts gradually and take hold. Depending on people’s personality and age group, one of the aforementioned issues is enough to make students feel cut off from others. To have problems with learning, relationships, and emotional sharing increases the student’s thoughts of suicide exponentially. It is imperative to recognize that thoughts or attempts of suicide are not the only manifestation of this state. Contemplating the hurting or killing of others can become part of the ideation. When looked at closely, many student perpetrators of school shootings have had these problems. Please note, this is not to say that every student that has these issues is going to become a school shooter. It is only one example of what can happen to students thinking and actions when impacted by these three factors. Most students in this situation will turn their pain inward and hurt themselves.
Schools must play a role in identifying students who are at risk for or are in this state of isolation. We have the tools to do this. It is called PREVENTIVE COUNSELING. The preventive counseling model is already an established method for schools to apply. It can be used to identify students at risk in any of the categories that have been discussed in this paper. When using preventive school counseling methods students relationships with peers, teachers, parents and other school personnel and their emotional wellbeing are all looked at. At the same time students’ academic standing is examined to identify potential problems. If a problem is identified in any one area an intervention can be put in place.
When designing interventions, the distinctive needs of individuals should be the foundation of instruction. Every student’s situation is different so every intervention should be unique. By analyzing the problem and identifying the source of the problem, solutions become easier to find.
Participation by the student in this process is central to its success. Preventative counseling is based on identifying and building student strengths. When students can see their own strengths, they can learn how to use those strong points to recognize problems. They do not feel victimized, helpless, or isolated. When students are part of the identification and solution to a problem their motivation is increased. By taking constructive action toward resolution of a problem students build positive self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities.
Early intervention prevents further deterioration in any of the other areas and improves a students’ state of wellbeing. By intervening early students’ motivation to be with others and their level of happiness can be maintained or increased before feelings of isolation and loneliness become pervasive. If students begin to contemplate suicide, they will have the skills necessary to talk to someone about how they are feeling before those thoughts become all consuming. When preventative counseling is used with all students in a school, everyone’s success and the entire school climate is improved. By focusing attention on academic progress, social relationships, and emotional wellbeing for all students from a strength-based model, we can significantly improve teachers, students, administrators, and parents sense of belonging across the entire school community.
Hasan Ugur, Ph.D., President, Academic Window
Rebecca Chadwick, M.Ed., Editor, Academic Window
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