The shocking suicide in May, 2024 of 30-year-old top golfer, Grayson Murray, stunned the golfing community. Diagnosed with social anxiety as a teenager, he battled distress for the rest of his life, perhaps not realizing that "social anxiety" is merely a description and not explanation for his unhappiness.
Suicide reflects complex motives deriving from early childhood during which one is made to feel worthless, a feeling that can resurrect during times of great stress. While almost all consider suicide at some point in their life, few do, the act being determined by whether suicidal intent (as contrasted with its mere thought) is present, the degree of self-control possessed, and if lethal means (as a gun or medication) are present. Though all such thoughts should be professionally investigated, the incidence of suicide when compared with its thought is like the proverbial needle in a haystack, which explains why suicide prevention programs tend to fail.
Because of the instinctive biological intent to live, when suicide does occur the use of alcohol or drugs is frequently involved.
Sadly, knowledge of child psychological development, which can prevent it early on, is minimal among doctors and the general public. One pediatrician, upon being told by his teenage patient that he was thinking of killing himself, responded, "You shouldn't talk like that. It upsets you mother." Nuff said.