Does anyone have information on how common suicidal ideation is?

[ryanglander]

I was just wondering because it would make me feel better, it would make me feel "normal". Like what percent of all people feel suicidal sometime throughout their lifetime?

When I talked to me therapist about my problems, and told her I previously thought about suicide, after she made sure I was ok, she said those feelings were normal for someone with my experiences. I just find that comforting and disturbing at the same time, probably though makes me feel better.

And if its any consolation to anyone else I think most people feel suicidal throughout their lifetime, but does anyone have the statistics - of how people feel not what they actually do.

 

[aoeu]

Not many. In the US (highest incidence) major depressive episodes are found in 17% of the population at least once in their life. In Japan, it's 3%. So, the number of people having major depressive episodes is somewhere between 3 and 17% in developed countries, probably about 10%. Something like 60% of suicides are due to major depressive episodes...

I believe that suicidal ideation is rare among those having a major depressive episode. I don't believe that a one-off depressive episode will produce suicidal feelings... Personally, it took me about 8 months from depression -> suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation is the basic identifying factor for major depression to be considered severe, but unfortunately such stats are not available, but this does indicate that most depressed people do not have suicidal ideation.

I would guess that about 2-3% of the population of developed countries experiences somewhat serious suicidal ideation in their lifetime.

 

[max0718]

Hi ryanglander,

According to one study I found on the internet (could only read the abstract), aoeu is very close. The study said something like 2.3% of the subjects had suicide ideation sometime in their life. This study was done in Beijing. The abstract can be found at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a907921715~db=all~jumptype=rss . Another study shows something like 11% - http://ebmh.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/9/1/25?rss=1 .

Its hard to say what the actual percentage is, as it really depends on a lot of factors. But still, I do think there are a lot of people out there who suffer from suicidal ideation, but it definitely isn't as common as a normal major depressive episode.

Hope that helps.

Max

 

[ryanglander]

damn, I thought I heard somewhere that the majority of people will sometime through their life have a feeling of suicide. But I'm not sure where I heard that, and thus not sure of its accuracy.

Doesn't matter anyway, when I die I'm going to go whereever I'm going to go, I just thought if most people felt like I do, well God wouldn't send most people to hell would he?

Anyway its beeen nice talkin to you.