The following behaviors are associated with an increased risk of suicide:

• Intravenous drug use
• Non-suicidal self-injury or cutting
• A history of anorexia or other eating disorders
• Drug or alcohol use/abuse
• A history of combat or violence
• Viewing violent media

There are a number of behaviors which can prime a person towards suicidal tendencies. Psychologist Thomas E. Joiner, author of Why People Die By Suicide says “Past experience of any sort that will get you used to pain or injury or death has the potential to make you more and more fearless.” (Springen, 2010) In a paper on the subject, he and colleagues write that “engaging in painful and provocative experiences, including past suicide attempts, increases an individual’s acquired capability for self-harm.” (Van Orden et al., 2008) That is why things like cutting or eating disorders desensitize a person towards physical discomfort, and can increase a person’s propensity toward suicide. Cutting can also increase the risk because some cutters push the envelope too far, and may underestimate the risk of death.

Suicide & Substance Abuse

Any type of drug or alcohol abuse raises the risk of suicide several times over. This is because alcohol and drugs of all types increase impulsiveness and also mess with the brain’s emotional regulation system. So a person tends to develop more interpersonal and emotional problems, and regular drug or alcohol use not only provides plenty of opportunities where impulse control is low, but it numbs them as to the act and consequences of suicide. “They use alcohol as the lubricant that allows them to take action,” says Marvin Seppala, chief medical officer at Hazelden, a nonprofit addiction treatment program. (Springen, 2010)

Environmental risk factors for suicide

• Dysfunctional family settings
• A history of physical abuse, emotional abuse, or violent sexual abuse
• Having a close friend or relative who has committed suicide
• Media exposure to a suicide in the community
• Exposure to death
• Access to a firearm

Several factors in the environment can increase the risk that a person will commit suicide. One of the most powerful is the exposure to other suicides. Slaby & Garfinkel (1994, p. 148) write that “a common finding is that the individual who committed suicide knew someone else who had suffered self-inflicted death: A relative, a friend, or perhaps only someone whose story was told in the media.”

Other factors in the environment, such as access to a firearm, a history of being the recipient of violence, dysfunction in the home or exposure to death and dying (combat soldier, hospital worker, etc.) can also influence a person’s risk for suicide.