TW: suicide
September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. This is an important day for so many reasons. It is impossible to sum up what suicide prevention is and means in just a few words. It is not just talking.
Suicide prevention is everything from:
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accessible mental health care and other health services
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people feeling comfortable to have difficult conversations
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peer support and community
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housing, employment and financial support
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tackling racism and discrimination
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training for educators, managers, healthcare workers etc
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good trauma-informed care, domestic violence and alcohol/drug addiction recovery services
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neurodivergent affirming care
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considering the impact of loneliness, loss and bereavement (especially amongst older people)
and there will be a whole range of other things I have missed.
For me, suicide prevention meant my neurodivergence being recognised and supported, accessing mental health treatment for my OCD, anxiety and depression, community and peer support, a supportive family/friend network, and finding something which gave me a purpose. It meant stepping away from the medical model at times, but also acknowledging the benefits of medication and certain diagnoses. It meant unlearning a tonne of negative beliefs I held about myself (and which do still come and go at times), and learning about me – who I am, what I like to do, what makes me happy, and how I can manage the hard times. It meant accepting that I can have thoughts and simultaneously not want to act on them, but also that sometimes I need support in managing them too.
The statistics around autism and suicide are sad. Autistic people are significantly more likely to die by suicide than the general population – research suggests 7 times more likely, with up to 35% of autistic people considering suicide and 25% attempting suicide (Autistica; Kirby et al., 2019; Newell et al., 2023). Autistic children are 28 times more likely to think about or attempt suicide (Autistica). Research found evidence of elevated autistic traits in 41% of people who had died by suicide (Cassidy et al., 2022).
Similar can be seen in ADHD research. Adults with ADHD have been found to be 5 times more likely than those without ADHD to have attempted suicide (Fuller-Thomson et al., 2020). The same study found that 23.5% of women with ADHD have attempted suicide compared to 3.3% of women without ADHD.
Why are Autistic & ADHD people more at risk of suicide? Every situation/individual is different, but reasons may include: lack of recognition or support of neurodivergence, facing ableism / discrimination, impulsivity, being more likely to have experienced trauma, effects of masking, loneliness, hyper-focusing on thoughts, co-occurring conditions such as anxiety, and feelings of worthlessness or lack of belonging. You might like to read my blog post ‘Autism and Mental Health: Why do so many autistic people struggle?’.
Some things I would like anyone reading this to know:
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The future holds an infinite number of possibilities. It might seem terrifying, but so many good memories are waiting to be made.
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You won’t feel like this forever. Our emotions fluctuate. Our perspective on situations shift. Our thoughts come and go. No matter how long you feel you have been ‘stuck’, there is always hope, as long as you are here.
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You are not a failure. Everyone is on their own timeline in life, with their own end goals. Comparing yourself to others doesn’t help, because everyone’s lives are too different to compare and we only see a portion of other people’s lives.
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You WILL be okay. You can cope with far more than you think you can.
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Future you is grateful you keep fighting and is rooting for you.
