FEATURE
are involved, working both inside and outside nerve cells,” says an article on the website of the Harvard Medical School. It is “billions of chemical reactions that make up the dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life.” Harvard cites two handfuls of interacting chemicals that researchers are targeting, along with genetics, childhood factors, stressful events, social safety nets, weather, sleep patterns, and other medical issues. “With this level of complexity, you can see how two people might have similar symptoms of depression, but the problem on the inside, and therefore what treatments will work best, may be entirely different.”
usually happy is very sad, this is a warning sign. Alternatively, if someone is usually melancholic and is suddenly happy or peaceful, this may indicate that they’ve made the decision to take their life and are settled with their decision. If a person who really enjoys playing the piano suddenly doesn’t like it anymore and doesn’t get pleasure from it, this is also a warning sign.” Direct threats of suicide are warning signs. Talking about death or talking about wanting to die— so are those. “People don’t just joke about that for no reason,” says Ms. Grunau.
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SIGNS OF POTENTIAL SUICIDE Ms. Grunau, of Calgary’s Centre for Suicide
LINKS Mysterious Barricades Centre for Suicide Prevention Harvard Medical School—Causes of Depression
Prevention, confirms that there can be a wide variety of signs that someone is feeling suicidal. And the signs don’t necessarily align with our stereotypes. She says: “Any significant change in behaviour is a warning sign for suicide. If someone who is
An Inside Story Joel—who doesn’t want his actual name used—says that when he attempted suicide, he felt like his life was a dead end. “If someone says that life is boring, or not beautiful, or that they don’t know what to do with their future, that can be a sign,” he says. “A difficult event like a bankruptcy or a burnout can trigger a suicide attempt. Life can move from hard to unbearable quite quickly. It’s a question of resilience.” Addressing issues early is critical. Joel continues: “The problem with someone who has become willing to die by suicide is that by then, they are beyond the control of anyone. It’s a decision you make alone, and it becomes, well, irresistible. The pain inside is so big that nobody else can impeach it. We know that we’ll destroy family and friends but we still do it, just to explain how big the despair is. In my case, it was a tsunami of despair, no control, craziness.”
62 | PEG SPRING 2018
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