Say someone wants to die by suicide so badly that they go to the Golden Gate Bridge to jump off. But then they are stopped from jumping. What happens to them afterward?
You might think that, once freed from the authority figures who prevented their suicide on the bridge, they still went on to by suicide. After all, they were intent on dying. It would be logical to assume that being prevented from jumping merely delayed their death.
Such an assumption would be wrong. In the 1970s, a researcher named Richard Seiden wanted to find out what happened to 515 people who came to the Golden Gate Bridge to die within the previous 35 years, but who were stopped by California Highway Patrol officers. He published the results in an article titled “Where Are They Now?: A Follow-up Study of Suicide Attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge.”
What Dr. Seiden found is a remarkable testament to the fact that a suicidal crisis is often – very often – temporary.
Of the 515 people whose attempt was interrupted, only 35 later died by suicide in the years to come. Taking into account suicides that might have been missed by researchers, Dr. Seiden stated that 90% of people who tried to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge did not go on to die by suicide.
Living After a Suicide Attempt: Other Research Findings
This research, though 35 years old, still holds true. Even though a prior suicide attempt dramatically increases the risk for future suicide, studies have demonstrated that most people who survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide:
- In a study out of Finland of 224 people who attempted suicide and were treated at a health care facility, 8% died by suicide within 12 years.
- Researchers in Sweden followed 34,219 people who were hospitalized following an act of intentional self-harm. During 3 to 9 years of follow-up, 3.5% died by suicide.
- One study followed 100 people who had survived a suicide attempt by overdose. At the end of the 37-year follow up, 13% had died by suicide. (This study’s mortality rate is higher than others, almost certainly because of the long follow-up period and the serious nature of the attempt, which warranted admission to a hospital.)
- Overall, a recent review of 177 research studies around the world found that 4% of people who survived intentionally hurting or poisoning themselves went on to die by suicide within 5 years.
Why Do Suicide Attempt Survivors Stay Alive?
There are different possible reasons why people who attempt suicide, or try to make such an attempt, might choose afterward to stay alive. The most intuitive reason is that suicidal crises are, by their nature, temporary. More often than not, the crisis passes.
Too, people who attempt suicide may receive the help they need afterwards. Friends and family may rally to their side. Therapists and doctors may help provide relief. The person’s reasons for dying may begin to fade.
Another possibility is that the instinct to live kicks in once someone comes close to dying. Until then, that instinct may have been obscured by depression, stress, hopelessness or despair.
The Instinct to Live after a Suicide Attempt
The story of Kevin Hines demonstrates the clarity that can finally appear when someone’s life is on the line. In 2000, he actually did jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Precious few people survive such a fall; the water about 200 feet below acts the same as concrete when a person lands on it at high speed.
Although severe depression led him to jump off the bridge, Kevin Hines has stated:
“The very second I let go, I knew I had made a big mistake.”
For Kevin Hines, the will to live kicked in immediately. He managed to turn himself upright in the few seconds it took for him to hit the water; this way, he did not land on his head. After he was rescued, he continued to live, and lives still, serving as a suicide prevention advocate at the national level.
Life and Death After a Suicide Attempt
Obviously, the will to live does not reassert itself in everyone who has tried to die. We cannot overlook that 10% of people who survive a suicide attempt do go on to die by suicide. And half of people who die by suicide had attempted suicide at least once previously.
The tragedy of suicide is indisputable. The ongoing survival of people who attempt suicide is not (always) inevitable.
Yet it gives me great hope that the vast majority of suicide attempt survivors remain just that – survivors. This is perhaps the best argument for preventing suicide. It is true that suicide sometimes defies even the best efforts to thwart it. But overall, the evidence is that prevention is not simply a temporary delay of death.
Suicide prevention can save lives. And for most of those whose lives were saved, life goes on for many more years to come.
© Copyright 2013 Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, All Rights Reserved. Written for www.speakingofsuicide.com. Photos purchased from Fotolia.com
Edited on April 26, 2017.
I lost my boyfriend to suicide two years ago and I have not been able to forgive myself. I saw the signs, the depression, his feelings of hopelessness, but somehow it’s easier to see the signs after it happens and not while you are in the throes of this emotional rollercoaster. I was so worried about him, but he refused to get help and he kept drinking. His father had died by suicide and even though I knew all of this, I couldn’t see the forest through the trees. Maybe I didn’t want to think he could actually do it. He had a gun in the house that he never used, was trying to sell, I didn’t even think of it during this time. How could I have been so stupid? For those who are thinking about suicide, I know what happens after you’re gone isn’t part of the thought process, but believe me, you might end your pain, but the trajectory of pain caused to others is also insurmountable. I died that day too.
Joan,
I am very sorry for your loss. It’s agonizing to lose someone you love to suicide, and you describe that agony very powerfully.
I’m wondering if you’ve seen the post “If Only”: Self-Blame After a Loved One’s Suicide. I think it could be helpful to you.
Also, on the Resources page, I list a number of websites and other resources for people who have lost someone to suicide. If you haven’t already joined a support group for other suicide loss survivors, that might help you; such groups are available in person and online.
There’s another post that might be helpful to you, too: “You Can’t Do Everything”: Limitations in Helping a Suicidal Person. I’m recommending this because of your sense that you could have stopped the suicide from happening if you hadn’t been “so stupid,” as you so painfully put it. But it’s possible there’s not more you could have done. He already had refused to get help or to stop drinking. He might also have refused to remove the gun from the home, too. It’s impossible to know but something to consider, in case you’re only considering the set of possibilities for which you blame yourself.
Good luck to you, Joan. This is a terribly hard process, and I hope that you’re able to get help and support from others.
Hi Joan. My name is Steven. I just read your post. I’m sorry to hear of your loss
I recently lost a good friend to suicide. She was struggling with depression for years. I tried to help her, I really did… Except I didn’t. I supported her desire to stop taking her medication. I warned her of the possible dangers of the physical response to discontinuance, not thinking of her emotional well being.
I blame myself 100% for her suicide.
Dealing with the guilt is the hardest thing I have ever dealt with. At times I hate myself.
That’s why I searched for answers …and I found this site.
I guess I have started to realize it’s not my fault…it’s no one’s fault when a loved one commits suicide. It happens.
I hope you can find peace within. I know how hard it is.
Peace be with you… Steven.
Steven,
Thank you for reaching out to Joan and offering your support. I love to see that in the Comments section; I find it beautiful when people can connect in this way and, even more, when someone can tell another person what they haven’t believed for themselves. I hope you believe your words here, or at least are beginning to. Thanks again.
What happens is if you dont kill yourself you spend the rest of your life being told you didnt mean it. People are stupid. They understand the battle with weight loss and a zillion other things but not suicide. Simply put unless you die the battle won or pain doesnt matter.
Anonymous,
I hate when people invalidate another person’s pain by suggesting a suicide attempt wasn’t a sincere result of suffering. It’s unfair.
You might be helped by connecting with other people who have attempted suicide and can understand not only what can lead a person to do that, but also what comes after. A good place to start is the Facebook group Live Through This. Also Live Through This’ website has beautiful portraits (photographic but also in prose) of people who survived a suicide attempt.
I love the analogy with weight loss. Even for people who passionately wish and perhaps even need (for health reasons) to lose weight, they do not always prevail. So it is with anything else, including suicidal thoughts.
Your pain matters. Your battle won matters. Don’t believe anyone who tells you differently.
As a person who has tried countless times to end my life, even shooting myself in the head, we are stuck living with yet another feeling of failure when we fail and continue suffering. At this point I feel like I’ll just maim myself or end up locked up for a minimum of six months( yes that’s happened to me). I’m afraid to try again and it just adds for anger, desperation, loss of control over my own life and guilt for those in my life who have to worry. I worry almost everyday that I’ll maim myself again and not die. It’s not always a change of mind when deciding not to jump it’s fear of failure
Hi Londa,
Yes I know this fear of failure as well. Have you read What’s In the Way Is the Way by Mary O’Malley? She attempted suicide three times and was in mental hospitals, etc. She “failed” at killing herself and learned a different process of questions to see her feelings. It may help,, Kind Regards,
Dayna
I am a suicide survivor from India. I tried by drinking mosquito poison. My failure as a person was responsible for my extreme step. I know you mean well, but I always feel I wished I never survived. Now I don’t know if I can fight it, but coping with failure and constant depression is impossible.
I mean how long can I go ahead.
Sadly, your post is being used by some commenters to justify the Golden Gate Bridge net boondoggle. Seiden’s study shows that those who encounter a personal, human intervention during the suicide attempt are less likely to end up dying of suicide (though he admits that another big percentage continue self-destructive behaviors–e.g., excessive drinking–that lead to an early “natural” death), but it says nothing about the efficacy of physical barriers. and the evidence around them is not good. In Toronto, the barrier at the Bloor Viaduct did not reduce the number of people who died of suicide by jumping in the city; it just moved them to other locations. The suicide barrier on the Sydney Harbour Bridge simply rerouted jumpers to a cliff popularly known as The Gap. The Golden Gate net project is like putting a bandaid on an ulcer.
ChiMaxx, thank you for writing and for raising important points in your comment. It gives me a good opportunity to dispel concerns that others may have, too.
You note that installation of a “suicide barrier” at the Bloor Viaduct in Toronto merely caused people to go to other locations in Toronto to die by suicide. In fact, the increase in suicides at other locations in Toronto did not make up for the dramatic decrease in suicides at the viaduct itself. You can read more about this at http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c4447.
Overall, a meta-analysis of numerous studies that looked at bridges’ suicide barriers found them to be effective. The article’s abstract states: ” Following the interventions, there was an 86% reduction in jumping suicides per year at the sites in question (95% CI 79% to 91%). There was a 44% increase in jumping suicides per year at nearby sites (95% CI 15% to 81%), but the net gain was a 28% reduction in all jumping suicides per year in the study cities (95% CI 13% to 40%).”
These findings are consistent with other studies that have looked at “method substitution,” which can occur when one suicide method is made unavailable and people substitute it with another. Generally, research into method substitution has found that blocking access to a suicide method results in fewer suicides overall, even when taking into consideration those suicides by people who found other ways to die. Simply put, means restriction saves lives.
I am hopeful that similar results will be found after the suicide barrier at the Golden Gate bridge is in place. If prior research is any indication, the barrier will save lives, even when taking into account people who go elsewhere to die by suicide. But, as you said, the problem is also bigger than a question of means. Suicide needs to be addressed from many angles, of which means restriction is only one.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comment.