Alternatives To Suicide

Alternatives to Suicide: Beyond Risk and Toward a Life Worth Living demonstrates how fostering resilience and a desire for life can broaden and advance an understanding of suicide. The book summarizes the existing literature and outlines a new focus on the dynamic interplay of risk and resilience that leads to a life-focus approach to suicide prevention. It calls for a treatment approach that enhances the opportunity to collaboratively engage clients in discussion about their lives. Providing a new perspective on how to approach suicide prevention, the book also lays out key theories on resilience and the interplay of risk and protective factors. Finally, the book outlines how emerging technologies and advances in data-analytic sophistication using real-time monitoring of suicide dynamics are ushering the field of suicide research and prevention into a new and exciting era. Focuses on what attenuates the transition from thinking about suicide to attempting it Calls for a life-focus treatment approach as opposed to risk-aversion intervention techniques Demonstrates how fostering resilience can advance our understanding of pathways to suicide Discusses emerging technologies being used in current suicide research and prevention Outlines the differences between risk factors and risk correlates Covers real-time assessment of dynamic suicide risk

Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it. Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive. Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don't be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life. Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.

Suicide Prevention Contracting: The Pitfalls, Perils, and Seven Safer Alternatives demonstrates that suicide prevention contracting, a widely adopted but little-understood form of suicide prevention, is almost wholly counterproductive and potentially dangerous for both patients and the clinician attempting to assist them. Edwards and Goj make a compelling case for this alarming pronouncement and offer seven alternative procedures.

With recent studies using genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular and neurochemical approaches, a new era has begun in understanding pathophysiology of suicide. Emerging evidence suggests that neurobiological factors are not only critical in providing potential risk factors but also provide a promising approach to develop more effective treatment and prevention strategies. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide discusses the most recent findings in suicide neurobiology. Psychological, psychosocial, and cultural factors are important in determining the risk factors for suicide; however, they offer weak prediction and can be of little clinical use. Interestingly, cognitive characteristics are different among depressed suicidal and depressed nonsuicidal subjects, and could be involved in the development of suicidal behavior. The characterization of the neurobiological basis of suicide is in delineating the risk factors associated with suicide. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide focuses on how and why these neurobiological factors are crucial in the pathogenic mechanisms of suicidal behavior and how these findings can be transformed into potential therapeutic applications.

Every year, about 30,000 people die by suicide in the U.S., and some 650,000 receive emergency treatment after a suicide attempt. Often, those most at risk are the least able to access professional help. Reducing Suicide provides a blueprint for addressing this tragic and costly problem: how we can build an appropriate infrastructure, conduct needed research, and improve our ability to recognize suicide risk and effectively intervene. Rich in data, the book also strikes an intensely personal chord, featuring compelling quotes about people's experience with suicide. The book explores the factors that raise a person's risk of suicide: psychological and biological factors including substance abuse, the link between childhood trauma and later suicide, and the impact of family life, economic status, religion, and other social and cultural conditions. The authors review the effectiveness of existing interventions, including mental health practitioners' ability to assess suicide risk among patients. They present lessons learned from the Air Force suicide prevention program and other prevention initiatives. And they identify barriers to effective research and treatment. This new volume will be of special interest to policy makers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, and journalists working in the field of mental health.

Dr. Shneidman has written a groundbreaking work for every person who has ever thought about suicide or knows anybody who has contemplated it; the book brims with insight into the suicidal impulse and with helpful suggestions on how to counteract it.

Suicide is a leading cause of death globally and the second biggest cause of death in young people. Over 800,000 people commit suicide annually. While many approaches to suicide prevention have been proposed, the only ones to show even limited success are those at the grassroots level; involving everyone, from parents to teachers, health care providers and the community as a whole. This book explores both current and outdated perceptions of suicide and presents a number of novel approaches and tools to prevent suicide.

Years ago, terminally ill Jo Roman bravely brought the subject of suicide from the shadows into the clear white light of reason. The subject of the PBS documentary Choosing Suicide, she devoted the last months of her life to writing this moving plea for the right to decide the length of one's life span. Long out of print, Exit House is about living life on one's own terms. 8 pages of photographs.