Understanding Suicide's Complex Causes | Generated by AI
People commit suicide when the pain of living feels greater than the pain of dying, and they can no longer see any other workable solution. It is rarely one single cause but usually a convergence of multiple risk factors that overwhelm a person’s capacity to cope. Here are the most common and evidence-based reasons, drawn from decades of psychological autopsy studies, large epidemiological data, and clinical research:
- Mental illness (90+% of cases)
- Major depression (≈60% of suicides)
- Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, anorexia, substance-use disorders
- Untreated or undertreated illness dramatically raises risk; effective treatment dramatically lowers it.
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Unbearable psychological pain (“psychache”)
Edwin Shneidman, the founder of modern suicidology, argued the core driver is intense, unbearable emotional pain combined with the belief that it will never end and that death is the only escape. -
Hopelessness
The single best predictor of completed suicide is not depression itself but the conviction that things will never get better. Aaron Beck’s hopelessness scale outperforms almost every other variable. -
Feeling like a burden (“perceived burdensomeness”)
From Thomas Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide: people die by suicide when they feel (a) they are a burden on others and (b) they do not belong anywhere. These two cognitions + acquired capability (desensitization to pain and death) = lethal risk. -
Impulsivity + access to lethal means
Many suicides are impulsive acts during an acute crisis (minutes to hours). When highly lethal means (firearms, hanging, jumping, pesticides in rural areas) are immediately available, far more attempts become completions. - Acute life stressors acting as triggers
- Relationship breakdown, humiliation, financial catastrophe, legal problems, physical illness or chronic pain, bereavement, bullying, abuse, job loss
These rarely cause suicide by themselves but can be the “last straw” on top of underlying vulnerability.
- Relationship breakdown, humiliation, financial catastrophe, legal problems, physical illness or chronic pain, bereavement, bullying, abuse, job loss
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Neurobiological factors
Low serotonin metabolites in CSF, HPA-axis dysregulation, inflammation, chronic sleep disturbance, traumatic brain injury—all correlate with higher risk. -
Contagion and social learning
Media-glorified suicides, cluster suicides in schools or communities, detailed online content—exposure can implant or normalize the idea in vulnerable minds. -
Existential/spiritual crises
Loss of meaning, terminal illness, unbearable guilt or shame (especially in honor-based cultures), moral injury in soldiers/veterans. - Substance intoxication as a direct trigger
Alcohol is involved in roughly 30–50% of suicides; it disinhibits, worsens impulsivity, and intensifies despair.
In short
Most people who die by suicide have a treatable mental illness, feel hopelessly trapped in unbearable pain, believe they are a burden and don’t belong, and then encounter an acute crisis or intoxication state while having easy access to lethal means.
If you or someone you know is struggling, reach out immediately—crisis lines (e.g., 988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK, or local equivalents) are confidential and literally save lives. Suicide is often preventable when the factors above are interrupted early.