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Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
Critical reading for parents, educators, and anyone wanting to understand the tragic epidemic of suicide— "a powerful book [that] will change people’s lives—and, doubtless, save a few" (Newsday).
The first major book in a quarter century on suicide—and its terrible pull on the young in particular—Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five.
From the author of the best-selling memoir, An Unquiet Mind—and an internationally acknowledged authority on depression—Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind.
The first major book in a quarter century on suicide—and its terrible pull on the young in particular—Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five.
From the author of the best-selling memoir, An Unquiet Mind—and an internationally acknowledged authority on depression—Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind.
448 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 1999
648 people are currently reading
18181 people want to read
About the author
Kay Redfield Jamison
35 books2,027 followersKay Redfield Jamison (born June 22, 1946) is an American clinical psychologist and writer who is one of the foremost experts on bipolar disorder. She is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is an Honorary Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.
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January 31, 2021
ظلمة تتهاوى..محاولة لفهم الانتحار.....كي ريدفيلد جاميسون
ترجمة: طلال العمري..هدى متبولي
انتهيت منه ولم ينتهي مني، كتاب عظيم وفارق وملهم بطريقة تعجز الكتابة عن وصفها، كتاب يخاطبنا جميعا، كل من شعر بوحدة أو حزن أو اكتئاب، وكل من فقد عزيز عليه بسبب تلك الأسباب سيجد في هذا الكتاب شرح لكل ما سبق، سيجد مؤانسة روحه ومشاركة آلامه، بطريقة علمية سلسة بسيطة، بقلم أستاذة علم نفس عظيمة كتبت هذا الكتاب لأجل صديقها العزيز المنتحر.
الكتاب في جو من المشاركة الوجدانية مرعب، كأنك قاعد في جلسة علاج نفسي ممتعة ومؤلمة، جرعة دواء متكاملة.
اقرأوه حيث ثقفتموه، ضعوه على لوائح أعظم الكتب، واجعلوه أولوية للاقتناء في أي فرصة ومناسبة.
ترجمة: طلال العمري..هدى متبولي
انتهيت منه ولم ينتهي مني، كتاب عظيم وفارق وملهم بطريقة تعجز الكتابة عن وصفها، كتاب يخاطبنا جميعا، كل من شعر بوحدة أو حزن أو اكتئاب، وكل من فقد عزيز عليه بسبب تلك الأسباب سيجد في هذا الكتاب شرح لكل ما سبق، سيجد مؤانسة روحه ومشاركة آلامه، بطريقة علمية سلسة بسيطة، بقلم أستاذة علم نفس عظيمة كتبت هذا الكتاب لأجل صديقها العزيز المنتحر.
الكتاب في جو من المشاركة الوجدانية مرعب، كأنك قاعد في جلسة علاج نفسي ممتعة ومؤلمة، جرعة دواء متكاملة.
اقرأوه حيث ثقفتموه، ضعوه على لوائح أعظم الكتب، واجعلوه أولوية للاقتناء في أي فرصة ومناسبة.
May 4, 2013
I'm reluctant to commit to "paper" the thoughts and feelings that Night Falls Fast evoked. It's - obviously - going to function as a triggering experience for many depressed people. And it will be very distressing for people who have either considered, romanticized, or settled on suicide. Chronicling my emotional engagement with the book here - going through all of that again - would be too exhausting. It's something, truth be told, I want to put behind me.
An important thing for sufferers of depression who are considering suicide is that they know they are not alone. Night Falls Fast all too often stresses how singular the suffering is, often how difficult it is to express and impossible to communicate. That is true. But it comes very subtly with the conclusion that, well, yes, it's incredibly isolating. As a depressed person, I felt more alone and "outside." It talks at length about how the proximity of pertinent or salient suicides will often lead to "suicide clusters" or imitative behavior, and yet here we have a book that discusses all facets of the crime. It may not condone the romanticization or the arguments by which suicides come to their resolutions, but it mentions them, and I can't imagine it would be less than frightening if those arguments sounded familiar to the reader. I am by no means saying Night Falls Fast is hypocritical, or doing the wrong thing. Just be careful.
To the book's detriment it spends a lot of time on inconclusive findings but still plants the seed of possibility-of-truth, which I think can mess with your head. The phrase "is x times more likely than" occurs more often than my brain can fitfully process. The statistics and neurological components are fine, but disorienting. People seeking some answers in Night Falls Fast will find a sobering amount of inconclusiveness and debate. Once again there are confusing roadblocks due to statistical methodologies and research ethics, and it once again comes down to ferreting out the "nurture" from the "nature," as it so often is with everything. Insofar as I've come to "understand suicide" from the book, well...I don't know. A lot of it has been illuminated, for better or for worse. For worse, possibly, depending on who you are. Just be careful.
The greatness of the book is in its framing of suicide as a public health problem, and its framing of firearms control as in conjunction with mental health. Nothing so elegantly links the gun control issue to mental health quite like the amount of people who murder themselves by blowing their own heads off. Suicide kills so, so, so many people. It is violent and impulsive more often than not, and guns help that along. Yet I don't remember suicide entering the gun control debate; we're mostly concerned with if they will kill others. Sadly, the odds are that, if you are shot with a gun, it's by your own hand. The best parts of this book - the Meriwether Lewis essay is excellent, by the by - are the ones that frame suicide as a public health problem and the product of a life-threatening illness. That is a new perspective for me: it can be an offshoot of a violent, impulsive culture. I find great comfort in relinquishing the total control of the depression sufferer of his or her own life. We have so little control of anything. See what kind of head-space this book can put you in? Just be careful.
Depressed people may find themselves empathizing with the self-condemned here, and not in the healthiest way. It gives some reports about the recovery of the living and the loved ones that will probably be more "encouraging" than not. If you want to kill yourself and the only thing holding you back is how it will hurt those around you, do not read this book. It gives hope to those left behind, but if you're thinking about leaving people behind, just be careful.
I would never kill myself. But in my copy of the book, there is a line that says suicide is a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." But I managed to write in the side, "But what if living is the problem?" Life is still temporary, of course. I don't think I've entered as dark a head-space. Sometimes looking to empathize and understand others and their actions will mess with your head more than is healthy. It's a good book, but for the love of Christ, be careful.
An important thing for sufferers of depression who are considering suicide is that they know they are not alone. Night Falls Fast all too often stresses how singular the suffering is, often how difficult it is to express and impossible to communicate. That is true. But it comes very subtly with the conclusion that, well, yes, it's incredibly isolating. As a depressed person, I felt more alone and "outside." It talks at length about how the proximity of pertinent or salient suicides will often lead to "suicide clusters" or imitative behavior, and yet here we have a book that discusses all facets of the crime. It may not condone the romanticization or the arguments by which suicides come to their resolutions, but it mentions them, and I can't imagine it would be less than frightening if those arguments sounded familiar to the reader. I am by no means saying Night Falls Fast is hypocritical, or doing the wrong thing. Just be careful.
To the book's detriment it spends a lot of time on inconclusive findings but still plants the seed of possibility-of-truth, which I think can mess with your head. The phrase "is x times more likely than" occurs more often than my brain can fitfully process. The statistics and neurological components are fine, but disorienting. People seeking some answers in Night Falls Fast will find a sobering amount of inconclusiveness and debate. Once again there are confusing roadblocks due to statistical methodologies and research ethics, and it once again comes down to ferreting out the "nurture" from the "nature," as it so often is with everything. Insofar as I've come to "understand suicide" from the book, well...I don't know. A lot of it has been illuminated, for better or for worse. For worse, possibly, depending on who you are. Just be careful.
The greatness of the book is in its framing of suicide as a public health problem, and its framing of firearms control as in conjunction with mental health. Nothing so elegantly links the gun control issue to mental health quite like the amount of people who murder themselves by blowing their own heads off. Suicide kills so, so, so many people. It is violent and impulsive more often than not, and guns help that along. Yet I don't remember suicide entering the gun control debate; we're mostly concerned with if they will kill others. Sadly, the odds are that, if you are shot with a gun, it's by your own hand. The best parts of this book - the Meriwether Lewis essay is excellent, by the by - are the ones that frame suicide as a public health problem and the product of a life-threatening illness. That is a new perspective for me: it can be an offshoot of a violent, impulsive culture. I find great comfort in relinquishing the total control of the depression sufferer of his or her own life. We have so little control of anything. See what kind of head-space this book can put you in? Just be careful.
Depressed people may find themselves empathizing with the self-condemned here, and not in the healthiest way. It gives some reports about the recovery of the living and the loved ones that will probably be more "encouraging" than not. If you want to kill yourself and the only thing holding you back is how it will hurt those around you, do not read this book. It gives hope to those left behind, but if you're thinking about leaving people behind, just be careful.
I would never kill myself. But in my copy of the book, there is a line that says suicide is a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." But I managed to write in the side, "But what if living is the problem?" Life is still temporary, of course. I don't think I've entered as dark a head-space. Sometimes looking to empathize and understand others and their actions will mess with your head more than is healthy. It's a good book, but for the love of Christ, be careful.
May 30, 2015
"Suicide is a particularly awful way to die: the mental suffering leading up to it is usually prolonged, intense, and unpalliated. There is no morphine equivalent to ease the acute pain, and death not uncommonly is violent and grisly. The suffering of the suicidal is private and inexpressible, leaving family members, friends, and colleagues to deal with an almost unfathomable kind of loss, as well as guilt. Suicide carries in its aftermath a level of confusion and devastation that is, for the most part, beyond description."
A gripping, masterful book about a topic shrouded in horror and sadness. Clinical psychologist and bestselling author of memoir An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison delves into the issue of suicide with precision and aplomb. She treats the subject with a fitting mixture of objective analysis and emotion, never forgetting her main goal: to illuminate the darkness surrounding suicide so that we can better understand and prevent it. Jamison shows her empathy for those left behind in this passage:
"All of what our colleague said was true, however. Suicide is awful beyond expression for those who have to spend their lives with its reality. No one who is parent or child, a brother or a sister, a friend, a doctor or a patient would say otherwise. Most would agree with him that it is, on the face of it, a selfish act; most have yelled in their hearts, if not out loud, 'How could you have done this to me?' All have asked themselves over and over again, and then a thousand times beyond, Why? What could I have done differently? Why?"
Just by writing this book Jamison acts as an inspiration, as she highlights how she, an attempt survivor, can benefit others as well as herself by contributing her time and knowledge to the topic of suicide. She examines multiple facets of suicide: its history, its connotations, its psychological implications, its biological underpinnings, and more. Redfield exhibits her research experience by going into specific detail within several areas, such as within the section about methods and through all of the well-known figures she includes, ranging from Meriwether Lewis to John Wilson. She incorporates personal letters and journals of those who have died by suicide, alongside statistics about suicide and ways to ensure the media portrays the issue with due sensitivity. A quote that stood out to me from the chapter about neurobiology and neuropathology:
"Alone, a single risk factor - either predisposing or precipitating - may only slightly increase the odds that an individual will kill himself. But some, such as a genetic or other biological predisposition, especially when coupled with a severe psychiatric disorder, are particularly ominous. When the threshold is set low from birth and the triggers kick in, the likelihood of suicide may become unstoppably high. A slight affront or loss may quickly create a flash point from a lethal mix of elements. It is as with fire: dry grass and high winds may remain, in themselves, only dangerous possibilities, elements of combustion. But if lightning falls across the grass, the chance of fire increases blindingly fast: it leaps from slim to given."
Overall, a difficult, thorough, and worthwhile read I would recommend to anyone interested in the topic of suicide and feels that they stand in a healthful place of mind to engage with the subject. Jamison treats the issue with the seriousness it deserves, as well as the empathy it requires. She emerges as a brave and fierce voice, an educated champion shedding light on the issue of mental health, a matter that touches us all.
A gripping, masterful book about a topic shrouded in horror and sadness. Clinical psychologist and bestselling author of memoir An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison delves into the issue of suicide with precision and aplomb. She treats the subject with a fitting mixture of objective analysis and emotion, never forgetting her main goal: to illuminate the darkness surrounding suicide so that we can better understand and prevent it. Jamison shows her empathy for those left behind in this passage:
"All of what our colleague said was true, however. Suicide is awful beyond expression for those who have to spend their lives with its reality. No one who is parent or child, a brother or a sister, a friend, a doctor or a patient would say otherwise. Most would agree with him that it is, on the face of it, a selfish act; most have yelled in their hearts, if not out loud, 'How could you have done this to me?' All have asked themselves over and over again, and then a thousand times beyond, Why? What could I have done differently? Why?"
Just by writing this book Jamison acts as an inspiration, as she highlights how she, an attempt survivor, can benefit others as well as herself by contributing her time and knowledge to the topic of suicide. She examines multiple facets of suicide: its history, its connotations, its psychological implications, its biological underpinnings, and more. Redfield exhibits her research experience by going into specific detail within several areas, such as within the section about methods and through all of the well-known figures she includes, ranging from Meriwether Lewis to John Wilson. She incorporates personal letters and journals of those who have died by suicide, alongside statistics about suicide and ways to ensure the media portrays the issue with due sensitivity. A quote that stood out to me from the chapter about neurobiology and neuropathology:
"Alone, a single risk factor - either predisposing or precipitating - may only slightly increase the odds that an individual will kill himself. But some, such as a genetic or other biological predisposition, especially when coupled with a severe psychiatric disorder, are particularly ominous. When the threshold is set low from birth and the triggers kick in, the likelihood of suicide may become unstoppably high. A slight affront or loss may quickly create a flash point from a lethal mix of elements. It is as with fire: dry grass and high winds may remain, in themselves, only dangerous possibilities, elements of combustion. But if lightning falls across the grass, the chance of fire increases blindingly fast: it leaps from slim to given."
Overall, a difficult, thorough, and worthwhile read I would recommend to anyone interested in the topic of suicide and feels that they stand in a healthful place of mind to engage with the subject. Jamison treats the issue with the seriousness it deserves, as well as the empathy it requires. She emerges as a brave and fierce voice, an educated champion shedding light on the issue of mental health, a matter that touches us all.
January 31, 2008
Jamison begins this excellent book by describing suicide in the same terms that one might describe a particularly awful disease: "Suicide is a particularly awful way to die: the mental suffering leading up to it is usually prolonged, intense, and unpalliated," she writes. "There is no morphine equivalent to ease the acute pain, and death not uncommonly is violent and grisly." This sets the tone for the book, which is unflinching and frequently painful to read, yet the author also infuses the information and narratives with a deep sense of compassion and understanding.
After reading William Styron's excellent Darkness Visible, I was struck with the way that many memoirs and other books on depression dance around the subject of suicide. Just about every depressive's memoir describes the author's bout of suicidal ideation or his or her suicide attempt, yet at the same time many books on depression seem to go out of their way to divorce suicide from depression and manic-depressive illness. There is a strong desire, it seems, to stress that not everyone who is depressive will attempt or commit suicide, and that not everyone who commits suicide is depressive or otherwise mentally ill. While this is true, it also muddies the very strong connection between mental illness and suicide, perhaps to the detriment of many.
Jamison seeks to remedy this by very strongly stating that suicide is indeed most common in people with mental illness, diagnosed or not, and backs up this claim with a great deal of research. She also explores research into when people are at their most vulnerable, which is sometimes surprising. For example, one of the most dangerous times in terms of suicide is the period directly after a patient has been released from the hospital. At first this seems counterintuitive, but it actually makes sense -- if someone has been hospitalized for depression or another mental illness, they have been in a fairly sheltered and safe environment. Upon release, however, not only is the patient suddenly confronted with the problem of picking up their life where they left off and dealing with practicalities like returning to work and daily life, but there is also an increased risk of medication noncompliance. Jamison also elaborates on one theory as to why some suicides seem to be provoked by the use of antidepressants: in many cases, when a person is deep in the throes of depression, they lack the energy and wherewithal to carry out suicide plans. Perversely, once the antidepressants begin to work, the patient starts to feel just well enough to carry out plans they had only considered before.
Jamison is also not afraid to bring a human element to the book. Interspersed with her clear reportage of scientific research into suicide are specific accounts of individuals who committed or attempted suicide -- including Jamison herself.
Overall, I feel like this is a cruicially important book. It's especially useful to those who have come into contact in some way with mental illness and suicide, but I think pretty much everyone could benefit from reading it and achieving greater understanding of this issue.
After reading William Styron's excellent Darkness Visible, I was struck with the way that many memoirs and other books on depression dance around the subject of suicide. Just about every depressive's memoir describes the author's bout of suicidal ideation or his or her suicide attempt, yet at the same time many books on depression seem to go out of their way to divorce suicide from depression and manic-depressive illness. There is a strong desire, it seems, to stress that not everyone who is depressive will attempt or commit suicide, and that not everyone who commits suicide is depressive or otherwise mentally ill. While this is true, it also muddies the very strong connection between mental illness and suicide, perhaps to the detriment of many.
Jamison seeks to remedy this by very strongly stating that suicide is indeed most common in people with mental illness, diagnosed or not, and backs up this claim with a great deal of research. She also explores research into when people are at their most vulnerable, which is sometimes surprising. For example, one of the most dangerous times in terms of suicide is the period directly after a patient has been released from the hospital. At first this seems counterintuitive, but it actually makes sense -- if someone has been hospitalized for depression or another mental illness, they have been in a fairly sheltered and safe environment. Upon release, however, not only is the patient suddenly confronted with the problem of picking up their life where they left off and dealing with practicalities like returning to work and daily life, but there is also an increased risk of medication noncompliance. Jamison also elaborates on one theory as to why some suicides seem to be provoked by the use of antidepressants: in many cases, when a person is deep in the throes of depression, they lack the energy and wherewithal to carry out suicide plans. Perversely, once the antidepressants begin to work, the patient starts to feel just well enough to carry out plans they had only considered before.
Jamison is also not afraid to bring a human element to the book. Interspersed with her clear reportage of scientific research into suicide are specific accounts of individuals who committed or attempted suicide -- including Jamison herself.
Overall, I feel like this is a cruicially important book. It's especially useful to those who have come into contact in some way with mental illness and suicide, but I think pretty much everyone could benefit from reading it and achieving greater understanding of this issue.
May 11, 2011
Lots of good information abounds in this book. I appreciated the mixture of clinical information and artistic commentary on the subject. But as a sibling of someone who committed suicide I am left with one question/concern. What of all those out there who are mentally ill and tending towards suicide who can not get help. What of the men who can not hold steady jobs, who are in and out of jail, who end up in half-way houses or on the street. What of the ill who have no health insurance, who can not afford to pay for medication, let alone physchiatrist and psychologist visits? Who is there to help them? It is all good to advocate help for those who can gain access to it, but what about the millions who have little or no access? They fall between the cracks and are found later, alone and dead. And I also wonder, can we really prevent suicide for someone who has lost hope?
August 18, 2019
يمر العالم بكهفي لكنه أبداً لا يراني.— راندال جاريل|السيدة في حديقة حيوانات واشنطن.-ص151
"الحزن لا يموت"—فان غوخ
الاكتئاب بمختلف أنماطه، اضطراب المزاج، الفصام، العصاب، ادمان الكحول والمخدرات، وغيرها من الأمراض النفسية- الذهاني�� والعقلية. وكذا الأمراض الجسدية المستعصية كالسرطان، الايدز، وأخرى. الشيخوخة، والوحدة، الاندفاع الاهتياج، الاحباط والعنف والألم العقلي، تقود الإنسان أحياناً، في مرحلة ما، حين يخسر معركته مع الداخل أو مع جحيمه الذاتي-ظلماته القابعة في دركات النفس إلى وضع حد لمعاناته أو لحياته عن طريق الانتحار.
كي ريدفيلد جاميسون حاولت ذاتها قتل نفسها مرة بعد صراعها لسنوات مع مرض الاكتئاب الهوسي ولكنها فشلت، وقادتها هذه المحاولة الفاشلة إلى طريق الحياة مرة أخرى، بل كانت سبباً في تعمقها في دراسة الامراض العقلية والانتحار. تحاول كي ريدفيلد جاميسون عبر هذا الكتاب الغني بالكثير من الأبحاث والدراسات والأرقام حول الانتحار قراءة عقلية المنتحر أو من عنده الاستعداد الجيني-البيولوجي أو النفسي لذلك، ومحاولة فهمه، سعياً منها على نشر الوعي الفردي والمجتمعي بضرورة مكافحة الانتحار والوقاية منه.
وعلى الرغم من وجود الكثير من الأسباب أو الأعراض أو بعض المؤشرات التحذيرية على امكانية اقدام انسان ما على فعل الانتحار، إلا أن التوقع المسبق وبشكل جازم على أنه دون غيره قادر أو يسعى إلى هذا الفعل، يظل في موضع غير المتوقع أو مجرد تكهنات، وتظل جميع الأبحاث والدراسات بمختلفها عاجزة أوقاصرة عن التنبؤ أو تقديم العلاج المناسب أو الفعال أو الوقاية الكافية لمنع فرد ما من انهاء حياته في الوقت المناسب، بهذه الصورة التراجيدية أو المأساوية.
ضم الكتاب عدد من رسائل المنتحرين للوقوف على دوافعهم أو تبيان شدة مرضهم النفسي-العقلي أو لأسباب أخرى.
وقدمت الكاتبة نماذج مختلفة لشخصيات عادية أو كان لها أثر في تاريخ مجتمعاتها أو على الأدب أو الطب أو في مختلف مناحي الحياة الأخرى، بغرض التوضيح للقارئ أن آفة الانتحار لا تستثني أحداً، وأن العقل الهادئ مليء بما لا يمكن توقعه أو تصوره. وأن النفس لا يمكن إدراكها كما يتصور البعض.
ان معركة الحياة أشرس من معركة الموت ذاته!
اقتباسات:
من رسالة انتحار
" الموت عندي اليوم،
كرائحة شجرة مر
كالجلوس تحت الشراع في يوم عاصف.
الموت عندي اليوم،
كرائحة زهرة لوتس
كالجلوس على ضفاف النشوة الثملة
أتوق للموت اليوم،
كما يتوق لبيته،
من قضى سنين طوالاً في الأسر." ص81-82
"الحادي والعشرون: نمت بشكل مريع. صليت في أسى، واستيقظت في اهتياج.
الثاني والعشرون: ليسامحني الرب. آمين.
نهاية
كفاكم إساءة لي في هذا العالم القاسي— لير."— من مذكرات الرسام البريطاني بينيامين هايدون. عانى من اكتئاب هوسي عنيف. ص87
"ولكن السؤال المطروح دائماً إذا ماكنت أرغب في تجنب هذه الكآبة…
هذه الأسابيع التسعة تدفع المرء للوثب في المياه العميقة… للقفز في البئر من دون حماية من هجوم الحقيقة."— فيرجينيا وولف. ص159
"اليد التي تثير زوبعة في حوض السباحة
وتثير الرمال المتحركة ثم تهيج الرياح العاصفة،
هي ذاتها التي تسحب شراع كفني."— ديلان توماس. ص175
"هناك عنف يكمن داخلي، حارٌ بشبه دماء الموت. أستطيع قتل نفسي أو حتى- أعلم ذلك الآن- قتل شخص آخر. يمكنني قتل أية امرأة أو جرح أي رجل. أعتقد بأنني أستطيع. كنت أضغط بشدة على أسناني لأسيطر على حركة يديّ لكنني حصلت على توهج نجوم دموية في رأسي كما كنت أحدق نحو فتاة جريئة. وتاق الدم للاندفاع نحوها وتمزيقها إلى أشلاء."— سيلفيا بلاث. ص 177
"الحزن لا يموت"—فان غوخ
الاكتئاب بمختلف أنماطه، اضطراب المزاج، الفصام، العصاب، ادمان الكحول والمخدرات، وغيرها من الأمراض النفسية- الذهاني�� والعقلية. وكذا الأمراض الجسدية المستعصية كالسرطان، الايدز، وأخرى. الشيخوخة، والوحدة، الاندفاع الاهتياج، الاحباط والعنف والألم العقلي، تقود الإنسان أحياناً، في مرحلة ما، حين يخسر معركته مع الداخل أو مع جحيمه الذاتي-ظلماته القابعة في دركات النفس إلى وضع حد لمعاناته أو لحياته عن طريق الانتحار.
كي ريدفيلد جاميسون حاولت ذاتها قتل نفسها مرة بعد صراعها لسنوات مع مرض الاكتئاب الهوسي ولكنها فشلت، وقادتها هذه المحاولة الفاشلة إلى طريق الحياة مرة أخرى، بل كانت سبباً في تعمقها في دراسة الامراض العقلية والانتحار. تحاول كي ريدفيلد جاميسون عبر هذا الكتاب الغني بالكثير من الأبحاث والدراسات والأرقام حول الانتحار قراءة عقلية المنتحر أو من عنده الاستعداد الجيني-البيولوجي أو النفسي لذلك، ومحاولة فهمه، سعياً منها على نشر الوعي الفردي والمجتمعي بضرورة مكافحة الانتحار والوقاية منه.
وعلى الرغم من وجود الكثير من الأسباب أو الأعراض أو بعض المؤشرات التحذيرية على امكانية اقدام انسان ما على فعل الانتحار، إلا أن التوقع المسبق وبشكل جازم على أنه دون غيره قادر أو يسعى إلى هذا الفعل، يظل في موضع غير المتوقع أو مجرد تكهنات، وتظل جميع الأبحاث والدراسات بمختلفها عاجزة أوقاصرة عن التنبؤ أو تقديم العلاج المناسب أو الفعال أو الوقاية الكافية لمنع فرد ما من انهاء حياته في الوقت المناسب، بهذه الصورة التراجيدية أو المأساوية.
ضم الكتاب عدد من رسائل المنتحرين للوقوف على دوافعهم أو تبيان شدة مرضهم النفسي-العقلي أو لأسباب أخرى.
وقدمت الكاتبة نماذج مختلفة لشخصيات عادية أو كان لها أثر في تاريخ مجتمعاتها أو على الأدب أو الطب أو في مختلف مناحي الحياة الأخرى، بغرض التوضيح للقارئ أن آفة الانتحار لا تستثني أحداً، وأن العقل الهادئ مليء بما لا يمكن توقعه أو تصوره. وأن النفس لا يمكن إدراكها كما يتصور البعض.
ان معركة الحياة أشرس من معركة الموت ذاته!
اقتباسات:
من رسالة انتحار
" الموت عندي اليوم،
كرائحة شجرة مر
كالجلوس تحت الشراع في يوم عاصف.
الموت عندي اليوم،
كرائحة زهرة لوتس
كالجلوس على ضفاف النشوة الثملة
أتوق للموت اليوم،
كما يتوق لبيته،
من قضى سنين طوالاً في الأسر." ص81-82
"الحادي والعشرون: نمت بشكل مريع. صليت في أسى، واستيقظت في اهتياج.
الثاني والعشرون: ليسامحني الرب. آمين.
نهاية
كفاكم إساءة لي في هذا العالم القاسي— لير."— من مذكرات الرسام البريطاني بينيامين هايدون. عانى من اكتئاب هوسي عنيف. ص87
"ولكن السؤال المطروح دائماً إذا ماكنت أرغب في تجنب هذه الكآبة…
هذه الأسابيع التسعة تدفع المرء للوثب في المياه العميقة… للقفز في البئر من دون حماية من هجوم الحقيقة."— فيرجينيا وولف. ص159
"اليد التي تثير زوبعة في حوض السباحة
وتثير الرمال المتحركة ثم تهيج الرياح العاصفة،
هي ذاتها التي تسحب شراع كفني."— ديلان توماس. ص175
"هناك عنف يكمن داخلي، حارٌ بشبه دماء الموت. أستطيع قتل نفسي أو حتى- أعلم ذلك الآن- قتل شخص آخر. يمكنني قتل أية امرأة أو جرح أي رجل. أعتقد بأنني أستطيع. كنت أضغط بشدة على أسناني لأسيطر على حركة يديّ لكنني حصلت على توهج نجوم دموية في رأسي كما كنت أحدق نحو فتاة جريئة. وتاق الدم للاندفاع نحوها وتمزيقها إلى أشلاء."— سيلفيا بلاث. ص 177
July 5, 2007
one of the best books i have seen on suicide, i should go back and read it once i finish the books i am working on now.
her prose is very accessible - i can't emphasize how important and rare this is in psychological writing - in that she doesn't get caught up in jargon or theory. she knows how to personalize the subject matter, and make it relevant.
the truth is, if you haven't had a suicidal impulse, then you know someone that has. this book does an excellent job of illustrating why that urge comes about, what stops some people, and what pushes some people over the edge (so to speak). there is so much about suicidology that we don't understand, but this is a great introduction to the subject, without completely depressing the reader or anything like that.
she also refrains from being condescending, something i appreciate very much. she does not claim to know everything, but what she does know, she wants to share because she wants to reduce the number of suicides in the world - an excellent reason to write a book, i think.
her prose is very accessible - i can't emphasize how important and rare this is in psychological writing - in that she doesn't get caught up in jargon or theory. she knows how to personalize the subject matter, and make it relevant.
the truth is, if you haven't had a suicidal impulse, then you know someone that has. this book does an excellent job of illustrating why that urge comes about, what stops some people, and what pushes some people over the edge (so to speak). there is so much about suicidology that we don't understand, but this is a great introduction to the subject, without completely depressing the reader or anything like that.
she also refrains from being condescending, something i appreciate very much. she does not claim to know everything, but what she does know, she wants to share because she wants to reduce the number of suicides in the world - an excellent reason to write a book, i think.
May 13, 2019
Wow. What a great book! I can’t tell you how much I learned just from reading this book alone! There were so many different subjects, all relating to suicide in one way or another, and from all different kinds of places, time periods, etc. it was actually surprisingly readable and interesting! I wanted to give it a chance, but I really didn’t think that I would eead the whole thing...but I did! It even touches on Lewis and Clark! I’ve truly learned so much from this text! This is probably one of the best non fiction books that I have ever read! Especially because of how “readable” it was. It almost didn’t even feel like nonfiction! Maybe I’m just weird and liked it so much because psychology and mental disorders and substance abuse and traumatic experiences are my field of study and area of employment, but I just can’t get over how well written it was!
April 21, 2015
4.5 stars.
I can't in good conscience review this book without first stating some very important qualifications (the actual review starts in the next paragraph). This book is NOT meant to provide therapeutic-type "understanding" to the acutely suicidal. If you are severely depressed or seriously suicidal, DO NOT read this book. If you know someone who is depressed or suicidal, DO NOT give them this book to read (though it may very well be helpful for you to read as a friend or caregiver). The frankness of its description of the suicidal mind is more likely to make depressive symptoms worse than otherwise, and while it doesn't romanticize suicide or provide a how-to manual in any sort of way, it would definitely put ideas into a suicidal person's mind that they would be better off not thinking about now. Those who have suffered depression, other mental illnesses, or suicidal episodes in the past may find a lot of value here (the author herself has bipolar disorder and has previously been suicidal, including attempting suicide). But they should exercise caution in reading it. Don't stick with it if it's making you feel worse.
My interest in suicide is both academic (I study psychology, and while it's not my research area, I find mental illness interesting) and personal (a good friend of mine killed himself when I was in college). Still, I was hesitant to commit to reading a whole long book about the subject. But Jamison's book came highly recommended, and I had also been impressed by the scholarly articles of hers I'd read.
NIGHT FALLS FAST is excellently written, but certainly not for the faint of heart. Jamison doesn't shy away at all from describing the despair felt by the suicidal person or the tragedy of suicide, and sometimes (though not overly often) includes grisly details. As a result, some sections, especially those containing personal stories, are harrowing and very difficult to read. The book's unflinching portrayal of the darkness of suicide is even more impressive given Jamison's own psychiatric history (she has bipolar disorder and has made at least one serious--near-fatal--suicide attempt). I have immense respect for her for turning her own personal struggles into an area of research and discussing them so matter-of-factly, but I imagine this probably made parts of writing this book extremely difficult. She is obviously very passionate about the subject, and about suicide prevention in particular. Her outrage that suicide is not more in the public consciousness and that more is not being done to prevent it (among other things, she takes issue with gun availability, some aspects of the psychiatric hospitalization process, media glorification of suicide, and "suicide awareness" programs that downplay the link between suicide and mental illness) is evident throughout the book.
The book's account of the then-current (it was published in 1999) science of suicide is impressively balanced and thorough, drawing from research on biological psychology, psychopharmacology, neuroscience, clinical psychiatry and psychology, and public health. The tone is not dry, but the reliance on statistics (while simultaneously not explaining important statistical concepts that come up multiple times) may be confusing for lay readers. I have also heard from some non-scientist readers that they found it frustrating that the book presents so many unanswered questions and unresolved debates, seeming not to want to "take a side." As a psychologist, I understand that this is because many (if not most) of the important scientific questions about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and care of the suicidal are still unanswered and thus accurately reflects the state of the science (and to a certain extent the sceience of medicine as a whole) but I recognize that non-scientists might find it off-putting.
Reading from a "someone I know committed suicide" perspective, while the chapter directly addressing issues faced by those left behind by suicide is relatively short, there is a fair amount of helpful (it helped me, anyway) information and insight in here, if one can stomach the subject matter as a whole (which is not a given--I know I wouldn't have been able to even a year or so ago). The book addresses many of the worries and "myths" about suicide that seem to most plague those left behind, such as that a single precipitating event caused the suicide or a single action on someone's part could have prevented it (at least in the long term), that most people who commit suicide are angry at loved ones or friends, that someone who's life is "going so well" wouldn't commit suicide, and similar, and backs them up with data and statistics. Some may find this information comforting. Personally, I even found learning that most people who commit suicide don't leave notes to be helpful. What the book makes clear again and again is that people who commit suicide don't address (at least not in the same way) the "rational" considerations about life prospects, affect on loved ones, and so on that so preoccupy those they leave behind. This is precisely because it is in the nature of their mental illness that they cannot do so. Though some may find it difficult to hear, I suspect others will find somewhat of a relief in this book's repeated because the emotional and mental state caused by their illness means they are incapable of doing so. Given that our society and the media emphasize individual events when discussing precipitants of suicide and thus the public perception leans this way, I think the emphasis on the sheer weight of "he / she was very sick" against any other considerations is helpful.
I can't in good conscience review this book without first stating some very important qualifications (the actual review starts in the next paragraph). This book is NOT meant to provide therapeutic-type "understanding" to the acutely suicidal. If you are severely depressed or seriously suicidal, DO NOT read this book. If you know someone who is depressed or suicidal, DO NOT give them this book to read (though it may very well be helpful for you to read as a friend or caregiver). The frankness of its description of the suicidal mind is more likely to make depressive symptoms worse than otherwise, and while it doesn't romanticize suicide or provide a how-to manual in any sort of way, it would definitely put ideas into a suicidal person's mind that they would be better off not thinking about now. Those who have suffered depression, other mental illnesses, or suicidal episodes in the past may find a lot of value here (the author herself has bipolar disorder and has previously been suicidal, including attempting suicide). But they should exercise caution in reading it. Don't stick with it if it's making you feel worse.
My interest in suicide is both academic (I study psychology, and while it's not my research area, I find mental illness interesting) and personal (a good friend of mine killed himself when I was in college). Still, I was hesitant to commit to reading a whole long book about the subject. But Jamison's book came highly recommended, and I had also been impressed by the scholarly articles of hers I'd read.
NIGHT FALLS FAST is excellently written, but certainly not for the faint of heart. Jamison doesn't shy away at all from describing the despair felt by the suicidal person or the tragedy of suicide, and sometimes (though not overly often) includes grisly details. As a result, some sections, especially those containing personal stories, are harrowing and very difficult to read. The book's unflinching portrayal of the darkness of suicide is even more impressive given Jamison's own psychiatric history (she has bipolar disorder and has made at least one serious--near-fatal--suicide attempt). I have immense respect for her for turning her own personal struggles into an area of research and discussing them so matter-of-factly, but I imagine this probably made parts of writing this book extremely difficult. She is obviously very passionate about the subject, and about suicide prevention in particular. Her outrage that suicide is not more in the public consciousness and that more is not being done to prevent it (among other things, she takes issue with gun availability, some aspects of the psychiatric hospitalization process, media glorification of suicide, and "suicide awareness" programs that downplay the link between suicide and mental illness) is evident throughout the book.
The book's account of the then-current (it was published in 1999) science of suicide is impressively balanced and thorough, drawing from research on biological psychology, psychopharmacology, neuroscience, clinical psychiatry and psychology, and public health. The tone is not dry, but the reliance on statistics (while simultaneously not explaining important statistical concepts that come up multiple times) may be confusing for lay readers. I have also heard from some non-scientist readers that they found it frustrating that the book presents so many unanswered questions and unresolved debates, seeming not to want to "take a side." As a psychologist, I understand that this is because many (if not most) of the important scientific questions about the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and care of the suicidal are still unanswered and thus accurately reflects the state of the science (and to a certain extent the sceience of medicine as a whole) but I recognize that non-scientists might find it off-putting.
Reading from a "someone I know committed suicide" perspective, while the chapter directly addressing issues faced by those left behind by suicide is relatively short, there is a fair amount of helpful (it helped me, anyway) information and insight in here, if one can stomach the subject matter as a whole (which is not a given--I know I wouldn't have been able to even a year or so ago). The book addresses many of the worries and "myths" about suicide that seem to most plague those left behind, such as that a single precipitating event caused the suicide or a single action on someone's part could have prevented it (at least in the long term), that most people who commit suicide are angry at loved ones or friends, that someone who's life is "going so well" wouldn't commit suicide, and similar, and backs them up with data and statistics. Some may find this information comforting. Personally, I even found learning that most people who commit suicide don't leave notes to be helpful. What the book makes clear again and again is that people who commit suicide don't address (at least not in the same way) the "rational" considerations about life prospects, affect on loved ones, and so on that so preoccupy those they leave behind. This is precisely because it is in the nature of their mental illness that they cannot do so. Though some may find it difficult to hear, I suspect others will find somewhat of a relief in this book's repeated because the emotional and mental state caused by their illness means they are incapable of doing so. Given that our society and the media emphasize individual events when discussing precipitants of suicide and thus the public perception leans this way, I think the emphasis on the sheer weight of "he / she was very sick" against any other considerations is helpful.
Read
April 19, 2024"Shortly before he killed himself, D.C. Council Chairman John Wilson spoke to the Mental Health Association about suicide and mental illness in the black community. 'Suicide,' he said, 'is the number one killer among young black people, but we call it gunfire. . . . We don't even like to talk about it. We've got to change the way America feels about depression.' He was right, as usual."
"A young chemist, before committing suicide, put it succinctly: 'The question of suicide and selfishness to close friends and relative is one that I can't answer or even given an opinion. It is obvious, however, that I have pondered it and decided I would hurt them less dead than alive.'"
If I could leave a quote from each chapter in my review, I would. Kay Redfield Jamison writes a non-fiction book on suicide with facts, emotion, and a haunting mood that matches the depths of a mind in its darkest place. The author has attempted suicide herself and she went to emotionally painful lengths to talk with many other suicidal people in order to get the serious impact of the issues of suicide on paper.
My father killed himself by hanging in November 2006 when I was 14 years old. I've talked with many others who have lost someone to suicide and their stories, reactions, feelings, and opinions on the subject have all been different from mine. Jamison covers it all from what I could see. I learned so much about many different mental health conditions (especially bipolar disorder and clinical depression,) about the difference in mourning between that of a spouse, child, sibling, parent, or friend left behind, about how media can help spread the contagion of suicide or help prevent it, about how we can all help ourselves, our loved ones, and even strangers who are suffering from any condition that puts them at a high risk for suicide.
This book was published in 1999 and I'm only just now reading it in 2019, but most of it is still very relevant and important. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to better understand an illness that currently ranks as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. I was concerned it would be boring and tedious to read with the amount of data, statistics, and facts that were in it, but the author adds in poetry and letters and essays and all kinds of other emotional factors that helped make this a great read and easy to understand.
"A young chemist, before committing suicide, put it succinctly: 'The question of suicide and selfishness to close friends and relative is one that I can't answer or even given an opinion. It is obvious, however, that I have pondered it and decided I would hurt them less dead than alive.'"
If I could leave a quote from each chapter in my review, I would. Kay Redfield Jamison writes a non-fiction book on suicide with facts, emotion, and a haunting mood that matches the depths of a mind in its darkest place. The author has attempted suicide herself and she went to emotionally painful lengths to talk with many other suicidal people in order to get the serious impact of the issues of suicide on paper.
My father killed himself by hanging in November 2006 when I was 14 years old. I've talked with many others who have lost someone to suicide and their stories, reactions, feelings, and opinions on the subject have all been different from mine. Jamison covers it all from what I could see. I learned so much about many different mental health conditions (especially bipolar disorder and clinical depression,) about the difference in mourning between that of a spouse, child, sibling, parent, or friend left behind, about how media can help spread the contagion of suicide or help prevent it, about how we can all help ourselves, our loved ones, and even strangers who are suffering from any condition that puts them at a high risk for suicide.
This book was published in 1999 and I'm only just now reading it in 2019, but most of it is still very relevant and important. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to better understand an illness that currently ranks as the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. I was concerned it would be boring and tedious to read with the amount of data, statistics, and facts that were in it, but the author adds in poetry and letters and essays and all kinds of other emotional factors that helped make this a great read and easy to understand.
January 3, 2010
Suicide, both the completed act and ideation of, is a subject that I've had to deal with much more than I'd care to. I made the mistake of reading this book while on a bus back to college and what I remember most of the experience is how embarrassing it was to be sitting next to a stranger, making a deeply personal connection with a book and crying without restraint.
But, if you think of all of the smart, creative, generous people whose lives have been cut short by depression culminating in suicide, it's impossible not to be sad. This book tells the stories of some of those people; the chapter on Meriwether Lewis (one half of Lewis and Clark) is particularly affecting. If the historical and sociological facts Jamison presents don't touch you, the personal accounts will.
Often considered a taboo subject, suicide is something that needs to be talked about so that more people can be discouraged from doing it. The understanding (or maybe just the empathy) that this book gives is essential. So while I felt embarrassed about crying on the bus, I'm not embarrassed to have read this book in public.
But, if you think of all of the smart, creative, generous people whose lives have been cut short by depression culminating in suicide, it's impossible not to be sad. This book tells the stories of some of those people; the chapter on Meriwether Lewis (one half of Lewis and Clark) is particularly affecting. If the historical and sociological facts Jamison presents don't touch you, the personal accounts will.
Often considered a taboo subject, suicide is something that needs to be talked about so that more people can be discouraged from doing it. The understanding (or maybe just the empathy) that this book gives is essential. So while I felt embarrassed about crying on the bus, I'm not embarrassed to have read this book in public.
March 1, 2014
In the epilogue, Kay Redfield Jamison writes, "I was naive to underestimate how disturbing it would be to write this book." I bet. It was disturbing to read, too. I love good nonfiction, and this is it: beautiful structure, sentences that I wish I could write, clarity, poetry. Breathtaking. On the other hand, the subject matter is a horror: suicide, which is an ugly and gritty reality that cannot be made pretty or ok. I loved this book, but it was definitely disorienting in its attention to such a frightening subject.
May 7, 2008
If you have ever been close to someone who has completed suicide, please consider reading this book. This is the definitive book on suicide and examines the topic through many different lenses (personal, psychological, sociological, historical, legal etc) with expertise and care. Dr. Kay Jamison, who is the world's leading expert on bipolar disorder, and is also a multiple suicide attempt survivor herself, does an excellent job at examining the subject in an easily accessible manner.
I read this book about 2 years after a close friend completed suicide, and found that it helped me understand some things better, and helped to process the event. It's packed with information that really challenges you to think and look at the issue through a different angle/perspective. I think this book would also be helpful for people who are just in the wake of processing a recent suicide. It provides information that is comforting (although that may sound odd) for those who have recently lost someone, but also helps people finally process a suicide years after the fact.
If you ever have a chance to go hear Jamison speak, do so! She is a marvelous speaker and does and incredible job at explaining very clinical topics with passion and empathy. That combination of qualities is pretty rare in the field.
I read this book about 2 years after a close friend completed suicide, and found that it helped me understand some things better, and helped to process the event. It's packed with information that really challenges you to think and look at the issue through a different angle/perspective. I think this book would also be helpful for people who are just in the wake of processing a recent suicide. It provides information that is comforting (although that may sound odd) for those who have recently lost someone, but also helps people finally process a suicide years after the fact.
If you ever have a chance to go hear Jamison speak, do so! She is a marvelous speaker and does and incredible job at explaining very clinical topics with passion and empathy. That combination of qualities is pretty rare in the field.
April 24, 2023
What to say, what to say... It started out great and progressively depreciated.
This is one of the top suicide nonfiction books on Goodreads, despite being so outdated. This is telling of how little is published about suicide as a topic. Against the backdrop of a stream of positive psychology and self help bestsellers, I understand that this topic doesn't call to a wide demographic. But still, there should be clear, well researched books on this topic, available to the public. There are academic papers on suicide and depression, so the research on this is alive an well and one could write a pop science book about it. Maybe this is better (I'm not sure because I haven't read it yet): Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves
Pros
When I started reading I enjoyed the statistics on different facets of suicide, like the average length of a suicide note, how suicidal people often see a doctor in the month before their suicide, that summer is the season when numbers of suicides peaks. The documentation of people's suicidal journals and suicide notes was one of the strengths of the book (to see the insider view of suicide and not the outsider medicalization of it.) There was a study in which students were instructed to write "fake suicide notes" and when compared to real suicide notes, it was found that fake ones are more poetic, descriptive and emotional. Real suicide notes are shorter, straight to the point, often concerned with practical matters like what to do with one's belongings or sorry for the mess.
Cons
The general statistics are very interesting, but there are not many deep dives in to the process as it occurs. No exploration into which symptoms start first, which circumstances and mental states are associated with suicide. I remember reading somewhere on a website that the emotions most often reported by people before suicide are: feeling isolated, hopeless, feeling trapped and feeling like a burden. The book didn't look into this, though it seems that this is what is most important to know. If one of your friends is suicidal, you probably would want to notice how they describe their feelings about life.
The final chapters were the most disappointing: under-researched, highly opinion-based and totally outdated. It claims that there are no long lasting effects of a parent's suicide on a child, when most recent trauma research shows that death of a parent during childhood is highly correlated with depression in adulthood. This book is old, so the research is outdated. Now we know that death of parents (including suicide) affects people in long lasting ways.
The final chapter just keep repeating that suicidal people cannot keep their pain to themselves, so it reaches their friends and families. The author admits that she herself was suicidal once, and unfortunately it seems that this colored the final chapters, making it very opinion based and judgmental. There is little said about the people who commit suicide without sharing their pain with others, i.e the people who show "no signs" before their suicide (I use quote marks because I think often there are signs and people miss them). The author seems to be projecting her own guilt-ridden experiences onto all suicidal people.
However the biggest weakness is the author's inability to acknowledge the complexity of the factors associated with suicide. This book treats the disease model of suicide as if it is the only model (it's not). The repeated message is, "suicide is a result of mental disease. Medicate the disease and prevent the suicide." Suicide is far more complex than this message suggests, so by the end of the book I was surprised at how little this book really dived into the causes and circumstances of suicide (for instance: genetic underpinnings, the stress model of suicide, physical health, aging, psychosocial factors like poverty/social status/religion/stigmatized minorities, the role of trauma, the role of social support).
There is a blurb about how when the media reports on suicide, it is often followed by a wave of copy-cat suicides, as if people get an extra burst of motivation when they see that someone has done what they wish to do. Similarly, when teenagers read about the symptoms of suicide and realize they identify with them, this may have a backfire effect, because they see it as confirmation that people in their position have no way out. The mention of these phenomena suggest that a suicidal mindset is not just a disease that needs medication. Clearly psychosocial and cognitive factors are part of it.
"Understanding Suicide" is right in the title, but the book did not deliver.
TLDR:
Strengths: Interesting statistics, insider accounts of the experience.
Weaknesses: Considers only the disease model of suicide, not very nuanced or very deep exploration, some parts are colored with personal opinion rather than research.
This is one of the top suicide nonfiction books on Goodreads, despite being so outdated. This is telling of how little is published about suicide as a topic. Against the backdrop of a stream of positive psychology and self help bestsellers, I understand that this topic doesn't call to a wide demographic. But still, there should be clear, well researched books on this topic, available to the public. There are academic papers on suicide and depression, so the research on this is alive an well and one could write a pop science book about it. Maybe this is better (I'm not sure because I haven't read it yet): Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves
Pros
When I started reading I enjoyed the statistics on different facets of suicide, like the average length of a suicide note, how suicidal people often see a doctor in the month before their suicide, that summer is the season when numbers of suicides peaks. The documentation of people's suicidal journals and suicide notes was one of the strengths of the book (to see the insider view of suicide and not the outsider medicalization of it.) There was a study in which students were instructed to write "fake suicide notes" and when compared to real suicide notes, it was found that fake ones are more poetic, descriptive and emotional. Real suicide notes are shorter, straight to the point, often concerned with practical matters like what to do with one's belongings or sorry for the mess.
Cons
The general statistics are very interesting, but there are not many deep dives in to the process as it occurs. No exploration into which symptoms start first, which circumstances and mental states are associated with suicide. I remember reading somewhere on a website that the emotions most often reported by people before suicide are: feeling isolated, hopeless, feeling trapped and feeling like a burden. The book didn't look into this, though it seems that this is what is most important to know. If one of your friends is suicidal, you probably would want to notice how they describe their feelings about life.
The final chapters were the most disappointing: under-researched, highly opinion-based and totally outdated. It claims that there are no long lasting effects of a parent's suicide on a child, when most recent trauma research shows that death of a parent during childhood is highly correlated with depression in adulthood. This book is old, so the research is outdated. Now we know that death of parents (including suicide) affects people in long lasting ways.
The final chapter just keep repeating that suicidal people cannot keep their pain to themselves, so it reaches their friends and families. The author admits that she herself was suicidal once, and unfortunately it seems that this colored the final chapters, making it very opinion based and judgmental. There is little said about the people who commit suicide without sharing their pain with others, i.e the people who show "no signs" before their suicide (I use quote marks because I think often there are signs and people miss them). The author seems to be projecting her own guilt-ridden experiences onto all suicidal people.
However the biggest weakness is the author's inability to acknowledge the complexity of the factors associated with suicide. This book treats the disease model of suicide as if it is the only model (it's not). The repeated message is, "suicide is a result of mental disease. Medicate the disease and prevent the suicide." Suicide is far more complex than this message suggests, so by the end of the book I was surprised at how little this book really dived into the causes and circumstances of suicide (for instance: genetic underpinnings, the stress model of suicide, physical health, aging, psychosocial factors like poverty/social status/religion/stigmatized minorities, the role of trauma, the role of social support).
There is a blurb about how when the media reports on suicide, it is often followed by a wave of copy-cat suicides, as if people get an extra burst of motivation when they see that someone has done what they wish to do. Similarly, when teenagers read about the symptoms of suicide and realize they identify with them, this may have a backfire effect, because they see it as confirmation that people in their position have no way out. The mention of these phenomena suggest that a suicidal mindset is not just a disease that needs medication. Clearly psychosocial and cognitive factors are part of it.
"Understanding Suicide" is right in the title, but the book did not deliver.
TLDR:
Strengths: Interesting statistics, insider accounts of the experience.
Weaknesses: Considers only the disease model of suicide, not very nuanced or very deep exploration, some parts are colored with personal opinion rather than research.
January 8, 2021
كتاب عميق و حزين لمحاولة فهم الإنتحار .. "انظر للأحياء ، احبهم، وتماسك"
August 26, 2021
الكتاب ده مثير جدا للاهتمام ومحفز جدا على الحديث.
الاكتئاب والامراض النفسية عموما الي هي السبب الأهم والأكبر للأنتحار بلا اي وعي حقيقي في مجتمعنا ومع ذلك هي ترند، وفي كتب كتير جدا مؤخرا بتتكلم عنها لكنها كتب سطحية وساذجة وأحيان كتير بيبقى ضررها أكتر بكتير من نفعها.
ومن هنا تبدأ أهمية الكتاب ده، ده مش كتاب سطحي- خصوصا لغير المتخصصين- ده كتاب جيد جدا ومتعوب فيه متعوب في كتابته ومتعوب في ترجمته وبيعرض معلومات علمية ومعاها قصص حقيقية بشكل سلس وجميل.
شخصيا الكتاب علم معايا وهو أحد الكتب الي بتبقى دايما في الذاكرة وتتقري مرة بعد مرة، كتاب ميتقريش مرة واحدة وواثق ان كل مرة هيظهرلي جوانب مشوفتهاش فيه، يمكن طبعا بحكم دراستي في معلومات كتير كنت عارفها بس الكتاب كان لسه قادر يقدملي جديد ويوريني الموضوع من ناحية المريض مش بس من ناحية الطب الجاف.
انا بتمنى ان ترجمة كتب زي ده تكتر واننا نشوف اهتمام بكتب محترمة ومتعوب فيها زي ده كتير وان مجال الطب النفسي يتحول الاهتمام بيه من ترند واستهلاك على الفاضي لثقاقة حقيقة واتمنى ده كله طبعا يتم بسعر للكتب ارخص من ده شوية 😂
واحد من اهم قراءات السنة الي بصراحة رغم ضغط الكلية فيها قراءات ممتازة
الاكتئاب والامراض النفسية عموما الي هي السبب الأهم والأكبر للأنتحار بلا اي وعي حقيقي في مجتمعنا ومع ذلك هي ترند، وفي كتب كتير جدا مؤخرا بتتكلم عنها لكنها كتب سطحية وساذجة وأحيان كتير بيبقى ضررها أكتر بكتير من نفعها.
ومن هنا تبدأ أهمية الكتاب ده، ده مش كتاب سطحي- خصوصا لغير المتخصصين- ده كتاب جيد جدا ومتعوب فيه متعوب في كتابته ومتعوب في ترجمته وبيعرض معلومات علمية ومعاها قصص حقيقية بشكل سلس وجميل.
شخصيا الكتاب علم معايا وهو أحد الكتب الي بتبقى دايما في الذاكرة وتتقري مرة بعد مرة، كتاب ميتقريش مرة واحدة وواثق ان كل مرة هيظهرلي جوانب مشوفتهاش فيه، يمكن طبعا بحكم دراستي في معلومات كتير كنت عارفها بس الكتاب كان لسه قادر يقدملي جديد ويوريني الموضوع من ناحية المريض مش بس من ناحية الطب الجاف.
انا بتمنى ان ترجمة كتب زي ده تكتر واننا نشوف اهتمام بكتب محترمة ومتعوب فيها زي ده كتير وان مجال الطب النفسي يتحول الاهتمام بيه من ترند واستهلاك على الفاضي لثقاقة حقيقة واتمنى ده كله طبعا يتم بسعر للكتب ارخص من ده شوية 😂
واحد من اهم قراءات السنة الي بصراحة رغم ضغط الكلية فيها قراءات ممتازة
June 22, 2021
ظلمة تتهاوى-محاولة لفهم الانتحار - أحد كتب د. كي ريدفيلد جاميسون. يتسم بذكر العديد من الدراسات والقصص الواقعية وأحداث منتحرين وذويهم. من الكتب الثقيلة التي لم يكن من السهل إنهاؤه. فقراءة معاناة ورسائل لأناس كان الانتحار نهاية مأساوية لمعاناتهم لم يكن بالأمر الخفيف على النفس.كان الكتاب بطريقة سرده أشبه بقراءة بحث دكتوراة أو ما شابه عن موضوع الانتحار.
كان للكاتبة نفسها محاولة انتحارية جراء ماعانته من ألم نفسي وذكرت في مقدمة كتابها أنه كان ثمة حاجز بين تجربتها الشخصية والتعبير عنها علناً، وأن هناك حاجز ذو وجود مطلق غير قابل للنقاش حتى أن تظاهرها بالعافية كان مقنعاً بشكل مخيف.
وتقول .. إذا لم يكن الشخص الذي اختبر الهاوية هو الأقدر على إنقاذ من يقف على حافتها، فمن عساه يكون؟
كتب وليام كاوبار - شاعر انكليزي بعد محاولته الانتحار - أنا في قبر من لحم ودم مدفون فوق الأرض.
كان يعاقب المنتحر قديما بالحرمان من إقامة شعائر جنائزية ولم يكن الانتحار فعلا يمكن تبريره. كما أن اليهود كانوا يحثون على عدم ارتداء ملابس الحداد على من يتوفى منتحرا ويتحتم عليهم دفن المنتحر في مكان منعزل من مقابرهم. وكانت بعض قبائل الفنلنديون يدفنون المنتحرين بملابسهم على بطونهم. تغيرت المواقف من المنتحرين بمرور الزمن وأصبح ينظر لها كقضية معقدة لا يمكن التعامل معها باختزال.
محاولة الانتحار الفاشلة هي أخطر مؤشر لاحتمالية وقوع الانتحار.
إن معظم حوادث الانتحار يمكن الوقاية منها لكن الفجوة بين ما نعرفه وما نقوم به تكتظ بجثث المنتحرين. إن المعاناة التي يواجهها من يقدم على الانتحار تكون خاصة وغير قابلة للتعبير، فهو يقتل نفسه ويخلف وراءه عائلته وأصدقاءه وزملاءه ليختبروا نمطاً غير قابل للشرح من الخسارة، فضلا عن الشعور الحاد بالذنب، وما يخلف ذلك كله من الارتباك والتلف.
تصف الكاتبة الانتحار بأنه أقرب لأن يكون حصاد تراكم لدوافع غير معروفة وعوامل نفسية معقدة وظروف غامضة متغلغلة بعمق إلى حقوق العيش ومخاوفه ويأسه.
المرض العقلي يكاد يكون له وجَد في كل من أقدم على الانتحار.
أي حالات وفاة ناجمة عن ممارسة لعبة الروليت الروسي توثق تلقائياً على أنها انتحار.
تتسم العلاقة بين محاولات الانتحار والانتحار الفعلي بكثير من الضبابية، فهناك نسبة تقديرية بأن كل حالة انتحار فعلية يسبقها نحو من ١٠-٢٥ محاولة.
يصف أحد المنتحرين نفسه بقوله "أشعر بأني لا أملك شيئاً أطمح إليه.. كلما أمعنت النظر فيما مضى من حياتي فإن كل ما يمكنني أن أراه هو الكثير من الفشل."
كل أسلوب للانتحار هو - وبطريقة خاصة- غارق في خصوصيته وشنيع. ولا سبيل لمعرفته. لابد أن الانتحار قد بدا لمرتكبه الخيار الأخير والأفضل من بين الخيارات السيئة، وأن أي محاولة من الناجي لرسم خريطة لهذا المرفأ الأخير من الحياة، لم تستطع إلا أن تتمخض عن رسم تخطيطي، ناقص بجنون.
واحد من كل أربعة منتحرين تركوا خلفهم رسائل انتحار.
الإشارات والرسائل الأخيرة قد تعني أشياء كثيرة، والحياة متى ما أزهقت لا يمكن لها أن تعود.
معظم الرسائل لييت مكتوبة بشكل درامي وبعض المنتحرين يقتبسون من كلام الآخرين.
في مذكرات سيزار بافيز في آخر سنة من حياته الغارقة في ألم لا محدود يقول "ها هو إيقاع المعاناة قد بدأ، في كل غسق ينقبض قلبي حتى يحل الليل" ثم لاحقا وليس قبل وقت طويل من قتل نفسه كتب " والآن، حتى الصباحات صارت ملأى بالألم."
المنتحرون من الفئة العمرية الصغيرة كانوا بشكل متكرر يحاولون التخفيف عن والديهم وإخوتهم من أن يشعروا بالذنب.. ففتاة في عمر العشرين كتبت" لا أحد يقع عليه اللوم لقيامي بهذا الأمر فبط أني لم أستطع أبداً التصالح مع الحياة نفسها. "
رسالة أخرى لامرأة عانت قبل انتحارها تقول "أتمنى أن بإمكاني شرح الأمر بحيث يستطيع فهمه شخص ما.. أنا خائفة وهو الأمر الذي لا أستطيع وصفه بالكلمات. هناك فقط هذا اليأس الثقيل الغامر، الخوف من كل شيء. الخوف من الحياة. داخلي فارغ إلى درجة الخدر. يبدو الأمر وكما أن شيئاً ما قد مات داخلي. كياني كله بدا كأنه ينسحب إلى ذلك الخواء منذ شهور. إيذاء عائلتي كان أسوأ ما في الأمر إطلاقا ً. لا أستطيع أن أقاوم أكثر. أتمنى أن باستطاعتي الاختفاء من غير إيلام أي أحد. أنا آسفة. "
كتب أحد الكتاب اليابانيين رايوانوزوك" بالطبع لا أريد أن أموت، لكن البقاء على قيدالحياة موجع. "
قرار الانتحار راجع في معظمه إلى كيفية النظر إلى الأحداث، ومعظم الأذهان حين تكون صحيحة لا تنظر إلى أي حدث على أنه مدمر بما يكفي ليسوغ النتحار. الضغط والألم نسبيان وذاتيان جداً في تجربتهما وتقييمهما. في الحقيقة بعض الناس يترعرعون على الضغوط ويتيهون من غيرها.
الأشخاص حين يكونون مكتئبين يفكرون بطريقة أبطأ ويتشتت انتباههم بسهولة أكبر ويرهقون من المهام الإدراكية بشكل أسرع. الانتحاريون أقل قدرة على توليد حلول محتملة حين تحضرهم سلسلة من المشكلات التي تحتاج إلى حل. الخيارات التي يتصورونها تضيق على نحو خطر. لا يمكن بالنسبة لهم أن ينفصل المستقبل عن الحاضر والحاضر مؤلم بما لا ينفع معه العزاء
الحالة الوحيدة التي تناهض الانتحار هي الحمل ففي فترة الحملوخلال السنة الأولى بعده يوجد انخفاض بمعدل ٣-٨ أضعاف في خطر الانتحار.
يصف أحدهم حاله قائلا ً ". كنت عاجزا عن إبداء أي انفعال إلا كوني عاجزا عن الانفعال."
ويقول آخر " شعرت كأنني شخص يركب حصانا ًبريا بسوط ضعيف، لا يجرؤ على استخدام القوة معه، ولكنه يسمح له بالجري في مساره، متبعا ً الخط الأقل مقاومة".
تبدو حالة المنتحرين طبيعية لأطبائهم وأفراد أسرهم في الساعات الأخيرة قبل الانتحار.
هناك تأثير جيني واضح على الانتحار والسلوكيات الانتحارية.
بعض الحيوانات قد تلجأ إلى إيذاء نفسها عند الاحتجاز أو النقل إلى بيئات جديدة.
كتب جوزيف كونراد بأن الانتحار هو نتاج إرهاق الذهن.
هناك هيمنة ذكورية في حالات الانتحار في أغلب بلدان العالم.
ربط البعض السلوك العدواني والانتحاري بنسب سيروتونين منخفضة في الجسم
مهما كانت حالتنا الذهنية فهي تلون الأحداث. ~ميريويذر لويس.
يكمن معظم أسباب الانتحار في الطبيعة الإنسانية المهيئة وفي القابلية الجينية، وفي
العديد من الأمراض النفسية الشديدة وفي الضغط النفسي الحاد. الاهتمام بسبب واحد
فقط من هذه الأسباب على حساب الأسباب الأخرى من الأرجح ألا يكفي ليبقي الانتحار
بعيداء بإمكان التشخيص الخاطئ أو سوء معالجة مرض نفسي قاتل محتمل، أو التهوين
من خطر للانتحار، أن تكون لها تبعات مأساوية، وهذا غالبا ما يحصل.
من النصائح المقدمة من إحدى الجمعيات لمن يعرف أحد في خطر الإقدام على الانتحار : أن تأخذ صديقك على محمل الجد، أن تبق هادئا ولا تتخاذل، ألا تتعامل مع الأزمة بمفردك، أن تتصل بالطبيب النفسي للشخص وتعبر عن قلقك بإعطاء أمثلة واضحة لما يجعلك تعتقد أن صديقك على وشك الانتحار أن تستمع بانتباه وتبقِ اتصالا بصريا وتسأل أسئله مباشرة في محاولة أن تعرف إن ن كان لديه خطة واضحة للانتحار. أن تقر بمشاعر الشخص وتكن متعطافاً ولا تحاول إصدار الأحكام عايه. طمئنه. لا تقدم وعودا بالحفاظ على السرية. لا تترك الشخص وحده.
كمجتمع نحن لا نحب أن نتحدث عن الانتحار. ~ديفيد ساتشر
يقول أرنولد تويبني "هناك طرفان للمعاناة التي يسببها الموت، في قسمة هذه المعاناة يأخذ الشخص الذي على قيد الحياة الجزء الأكبر من المعاناة."
الانتحار هو موت لا يشبه أي موت آخر. بينما يجب على الأشخاص الذين يتركهم المنتحر خلفه لمصارعة عواقب انتحاره مواجهة الألم الذي لا يشبه أي ألم.
كان للكاتبة نفسها محاولة انتحارية جراء ماعانته من ألم نفسي وذكرت في مقدمة كتابها أنه كان ثمة حاجز بين تجربتها الشخصية والتعبير عنها علناً، وأن هناك حاجز ذو وجود مطلق غير قابل للنقاش حتى أن تظاهرها بالعافية كان مقنعاً بشكل مخيف.
وتقول .. إذا لم يكن الشخص الذي اختبر الهاوية هو الأقدر على إنقاذ من يقف على حافتها، فمن عساه يكون؟
كتب وليام كاوبار - شاعر انكليزي بعد محاولته الانتحار - أنا في قبر من لحم ودم مدفون فوق الأرض.
كان يعاقب المنتحر قديما بالحرمان من إقامة شعائر جنائزية ولم يكن الانتحار فعلا يمكن تبريره. كما أن اليهود كانوا يحثون على عدم ارتداء ملابس الحداد على من يتوفى منتحرا ويتحتم عليهم دفن المنتحر في مكان منعزل من مقابرهم. وكانت بعض قبائل الفنلنديون يدفنون المنتحرين بملابسهم على بطونهم. تغيرت المواقف من المنتحرين بمرور الزمن وأصبح ينظر لها كقضية معقدة لا يمكن التعامل معها باختزال.
محاولة الانتحار الفاشلة هي أخطر مؤشر لاحتمالية وقوع الانتحار.
إن معظم حوادث الانتحار يمكن الوقاية منها لكن الفجوة بين ما نعرفه وما نقوم به تكتظ بجثث المنتحرين. إن المعاناة التي يواجهها من يقدم على الانتحار تكون خاصة وغير قابلة للتعبير، فهو يقتل نفسه ويخلف وراءه عائلته وأصدقاءه وزملاءه ليختبروا نمطاً غير قابل للشرح من الخسارة، فضلا عن الشعور الحاد بالذنب، وما يخلف ذلك كله من الارتباك والتلف.
تصف الكاتبة الانتحار بأنه أقرب لأن يكون حصاد تراكم لدوافع غير معروفة وعوامل نفسية معقدة وظروف غامضة متغلغلة بعمق إلى حقوق العيش ومخاوفه ويأسه.
المرض العقلي يكاد يكون له وجَد في كل من أقدم على الانتحار.
أي حالات وفاة ناجمة عن ممارسة لعبة الروليت الروسي توثق تلقائياً على أنها انتحار.
تتسم العلاقة بين محاولات الانتحار والانتحار الفعلي بكثير من الضبابية، فهناك نسبة تقديرية بأن كل حالة انتحار فعلية يسبقها نحو من ١٠-٢٥ محاولة.
يصف أحد المنتحرين نفسه بقوله "أشعر بأني لا أملك شيئاً أطمح إليه.. كلما أمعنت النظر فيما مضى من حياتي فإن كل ما يمكنني أن أراه هو الكثير من الفشل."
كل أسلوب للانتحار هو - وبطريقة خاصة- غارق في خصوصيته وشنيع. ولا سبيل لمعرفته. لابد أن الانتحار قد بدا لمرتكبه الخيار الأخير والأفضل من بين الخيارات السيئة، وأن أي محاولة من الناجي لرسم خريطة لهذا المرفأ الأخير من الحياة، لم تستطع إلا أن تتمخض عن رسم تخطيطي، ناقص بجنون.
واحد من كل أربعة منتحرين تركوا خلفهم رسائل انتحار.
الإشارات والرسائل الأخيرة قد تعني أشياء كثيرة، والحياة متى ما أزهقت لا يمكن لها أن تعود.
معظم الرسائل لييت مكتوبة بشكل درامي وبعض المنتحرين يقتبسون من كلام الآخرين.
في مذكرات سيزار بافيز في آخر سنة من حياته الغارقة في ألم لا محدود يقول "ها هو إيقاع المعاناة قد بدأ، في كل غسق ينقبض قلبي حتى يحل الليل" ثم لاحقا وليس قبل وقت طويل من قتل نفسه كتب " والآن، حتى الصباحات صارت ملأى بالألم."
المنتحرون من الفئة العمرية الصغيرة كانوا بشكل متكرر يحاولون التخفيف عن والديهم وإخوتهم من أن يشعروا بالذنب.. ففتاة في عمر العشرين كتبت" لا أحد يقع عليه اللوم لقيامي بهذا الأمر فبط أني لم أستطع أبداً التصالح مع الحياة نفسها. "
رسالة أخرى لامرأة عانت قبل انتحارها تقول "أتمنى أن بإمكاني شرح الأمر بحيث يستطيع فهمه شخص ما.. أنا خائفة وهو الأمر الذي لا أستطيع وصفه بالكلمات. هناك فقط هذا اليأس الثقيل الغامر، الخوف من كل شيء. الخوف من الحياة. داخلي فارغ إلى درجة الخدر. يبدو الأمر وكما أن شيئاً ما قد مات داخلي. كياني كله بدا كأنه ينسحب إلى ذلك الخواء منذ شهور. إيذاء عائلتي كان أسوأ ما في الأمر إطلاقا ً. لا أستطيع أن أقاوم أكثر. أتمنى أن باستطاعتي الاختفاء من غير إيلام أي أحد. أنا آسفة. "
كتب أحد الكتاب اليابانيين رايوانوزوك" بالطبع لا أريد أن أموت، لكن البقاء على قيدالحياة موجع. "
قرار الانتحار راجع في معظمه إلى كيفية النظر إلى الأحداث، ومعظم الأذهان حين تكون صحيحة لا تنظر إلى أي حدث على أنه مدمر بما يكفي ليسوغ النتحار. الضغط والألم نسبيان وذاتيان جداً في تجربتهما وتقييمهما. في الحقيقة بعض الناس يترعرعون على الضغوط ويتيهون من غيرها.
الأشخاص حين يكونون مكتئبين يفكرون بطريقة أبطأ ويتشتت انتباههم بسهولة أكبر ويرهقون من المهام الإدراكية بشكل أسرع. الانتحاريون أقل قدرة على توليد حلول محتملة حين تحضرهم سلسلة من المشكلات التي تحتاج إلى حل. الخيارات التي يتصورونها تضيق على نحو خطر. لا يمكن بالنسبة لهم أن ينفصل المستقبل عن الحاضر والحاضر مؤلم بما لا ينفع معه العزاء
الحالة الوحيدة التي تناهض الانتحار هي الحمل ففي فترة الحملوخلال السنة الأولى بعده يوجد انخفاض بمعدل ٣-٨ أضعاف في خطر الانتحار.
يصف أحدهم حاله قائلا ً ". كنت عاجزا عن إبداء أي انفعال إلا كوني عاجزا عن الانفعال."
ويقول آخر " شعرت كأنني شخص يركب حصانا ًبريا بسوط ضعيف، لا يجرؤ على استخدام القوة معه، ولكنه يسمح له بالجري في مساره، متبعا ً الخط الأقل مقاومة".
تبدو حالة المنتحرين طبيعية لأطبائهم وأفراد أسرهم في الساعات الأخيرة قبل الانتحار.
هناك تأثير جيني واضح على الانتحار والسلوكيات الانتحارية.
بعض الحيوانات قد تلجأ إلى إيذاء نفسها عند الاحتجاز أو النقل إلى بيئات جديدة.
كتب جوزيف كونراد بأن الانتحار هو نتاج إرهاق الذهن.
هناك هيمنة ذكورية في حالات الانتحار في أغلب بلدان العالم.
ربط البعض السلوك العدواني والانتحاري بنسب سيروتونين منخفضة في الجسم
مهما كانت حالتنا الذهنية فهي تلون الأحداث. ~ميريويذر لويس.
يكمن معظم أسباب الانتحار في الطبيعة الإنسانية المهيئة وفي القابلية الجينية، وفي
العديد من الأمراض النفسية الشديدة وفي الضغط النفسي الحاد. الاهتمام بسبب واحد
فقط من هذه الأسباب على حساب الأسباب الأخرى من الأرجح ألا يكفي ليبقي الانتحار
بعيداء بإمكان التشخيص الخاطئ أو سوء معالجة مرض نفسي قاتل محتمل، أو التهوين
من خطر للانتحار، أن تكون لها تبعات مأساوية، وهذا غالبا ما يحصل.
من النصائح المقدمة من إحدى الجمعيات لمن يعرف أحد في خطر الإقدام على الانتحار : أن تأخذ صديقك على محمل الجد، أن تبق هادئا ولا تتخاذل، ألا تتعامل مع الأزمة بمفردك، أن تتصل بالطبيب النفسي للشخص وتعبر عن قلقك بإعطاء أمثلة واضحة لما يجعلك تعتقد أن صديقك على وشك الانتحار أن تستمع بانتباه وتبقِ اتصالا بصريا وتسأل أسئله مباشرة في محاولة أن تعرف إن ن كان لديه خطة واضحة للانتحار. أن تقر بمشاعر الشخص وتكن متعطافاً ولا تحاول إصدار الأحكام عايه. طمئنه. لا تقدم وعودا بالحفاظ على السرية. لا تترك الشخص وحده.
كمجتمع نحن لا نحب أن نتحدث عن الانتحار. ~ديفيد ساتشر
يقول أرنولد تويبني "هناك طرفان للمعاناة التي يسببها الموت، في قسمة هذه المعاناة يأخذ الشخص الذي على قيد الحياة الجزء الأكبر من المعاناة."
الانتحار هو موت لا يشبه أي موت آخر. بينما يجب على الأشخاص الذين يتركهم المنتحر خلفه لمصارعة عواقب انتحاره مواجهة الألم الذي لا يشبه أي ألم.
October 22, 2022
ظلمة تتهاوى (محاولة لفهم الانتحار) – كاي ردفيلد جاميسون
الكتاب يتكون من ٢٩٣ صفحة تلاها ٧٢ صفحة من الهوامش والمراجع. بمجموع ٣٦٦ صفحة
نشر الكتاب عام ١٩٩٩م وترجم عام ٢٠١٩ م
تعريف بالمؤلفة:
كاي جاميسون حاصلة على الدكتوراه في علم النفسي السريري، وتعمل كأستاذة للطب النفسي في جامعة جونز هوبكنز. كاي متخصصة وخبيرة في ذهان الهوس الاكتئابي -اضطراب ثنائي القطبية-. حصلت على العديد من الجوائز العلمية وتعتبر شخصية بارزة في مجالها. ألفت مجموعة من الكتب منها ذهان الهوس الاكتئابي، وعقل غير هادئ، وممسوس بالجحيم- مرض الهوس الاكتئابي ومزاجه الفني.
الكتاب أشبه ما يكون ببحث علمي -مدعم بأكثر من ٥٠٠ مرجع. بالإضافة لمجموعة من التجارب الإنسانية لفهم أعمق للانتحار. الكتاب مقسم أربعة اجزاء، يندرج تحتها مجموعة من الفصول بمجموع ١٠ فصول. تضمن الجزء الأول مدخلا انسانيًا وتاريخياً للانتحار، تلاه فهم أعمق للانتحار بطبيعته النفسية والمرضية. في جزئه الثالث شرحت مسببات الانتحار البيولوجية. وانهت جزأه الاخير بطرق علاجه الدوائية وغير الدوائية.
الجزء الأول:
الانتحار ليس بالجديد، فالكثير من الشعوب القديمة أقدم أفرادها على سلب أرواحهم. لكنها اختلفت في تقبله:
- فمنها من تقبل الانتحار كونه تضحية ايثارية بالنفس كالأسكيمو والإسكندنافيتين والهنود الحمر. بل وحثوا عليه بين كبار السن والمرضى.
- وهناك من تقبله في حالات معينة كحفظ للشرف. فهو فعل لابد منه تجنبًا للأسر في العرف اليوناني.
- وآخرون اتفقوا على تجريمه كالرومانيين وجميع الديانات السماوية.
كذلك اختلفوا في التعامل من المنتحر:
- فمنهم من تجنب لمسه كي لا تصيبهم اللعنة التي أصابته كالفنلنديين.
- ومنهم من حرمه من مراسم الدفن فرموه في الانهار والغابات كالفرنسيين والنرويجيين.
- أما في القانون الروماني يحظر توريث ممتلكات وتركة المنتحر.
الانتحار ظل مجرمًا بالقانون إلى أن نشأت نظرة تعاطف تجاه المنتحر، كونه مختل عقليًا ومجنون في القرن الثامن والتاسع عشر. لكن تجريمه امتد لأبعد من ذلك في بعض البلدان: فبقي مجرمًا في انجلترا وويلز إلى عام ١٩٦١م، وكذلك في ايرلندا إلى عام ١٩٩٣م.
ما هو جديد حقًا! هو التزايد المرعب في أعداد المنتحرين بين الشباب، حيث زادت الأعداد ٣٠٠٪ خلال الـ٤٥ سنة الماضية. وإن تمعنّا بشكل أدق في الإحصائيات، سنجد أن ٢٠٪ من طلبة الثانوية العامة في الولايات المتحدة فكر ولو مره بالانتحار، من بينهم ١٠٪ من أقدم على ذلك، ومن بين هؤلاء الثلث تقريبًا من انتهى بهم الحال في حالة طبية خطيرة نتيجة محاولاتهم للانتحار.
بل المرعب من ذلك هو تزايد النسب في الأطفال ما بين عمري ١٠ – و٢٤عاما، حيث زادت النسب ١٢٠٪ ما بين عامي ١٩٨٠ و١٩٩٢م. ويعزى ذلك لعدة أسباب بحسب دراسة أمريكية-فنلندية:
- تدخين الأمهات الحوامل يزيد فرص إنجاب أطفال عنيفين، ومندفعين، بل ومدمنين.
- كذلك الأطفال الخدج الذين لم يكتمل نموهم، فيما مضى كانوا يتوفون، هم الان يعيشون لفترة أطول نتيجة التطور الطبي لكن من الممكن ان تكون اجهزتهم العصبية أكثر ضعفًا.
- نجاح الادوية النفسية مؤخرا مكن الزواج والانجاب للمرضي النفسيين. الذين ينجبون اطفال يعانون من الاكتئاب والاكتئاب الهوسى والفصام.
- كذلك انخفض متوسط سن البلوغ مما جعل الأطفال ذو السن الصغيرة أكثر عرضه لفتره اطول من اعراض الاكتئاب.
الجزء الثاني:
في الجزء الثاني تطرقت الكاتبة لسيكولوجية الانتحار. لطالما كانت أكثر ما يبين حالة المنتحر النفسية هي تلك الرسائل التي يعدونها قبل اقدامهم على عملية الانتحار، غالبًا ما تبين الحالة الذهنية المشتتة للمنتحر، والنظرة السلبية لظروف الحياة، وهذا ينبع من أعمق درجات الاكتئاب التي يمر بها المنتحر. إن اغلب ما يسبب سيل الأفكار الانتحارية هو الاكتئاب الحاد، أو الفصام والهلوسة العقلية. اقتبس رسالتين تصف الحالة الذهنية لمنتحرين عانوا من الاكتئاب:
- يقول راندل جريل في وصفه للآثار التراكمية لاكتئابه لزوجته: (الأمر غريب جدا.. يبدو كم ان الجينات خطفنني بعيدا وخلقن حطبة مكاني). إحساس ان يكون الشخص مجرد ظل او قشرة نفسه إحساس راسخ باليأس.
- تقول فيرجينيا وولف في رسالة لزوجها قبل انتحارها عن معاناتها من نوبات الهوس والاكتئاب (ينتابني إحساس اكيد انني اجن مره أخرى، اشعر باننا لا نستطيع ان نخوض مره أخرى في هذه الأوقات الصعبة. لن اتعافى هذه المرة. بدأت بسماع الأصوات ولا أستطيع التركيز. لذا سأفعل ما يبدو انه أفضل ما يفعل).
أما الفصام فيظهر على شكل هلوسة سمعية وبصرية. وتصور ما هو غير موجود.
- تصف الطبيبة كارول نورث التي عانت الهلاوس والاوهام الفصامية وهي في جناح هادئ في المستشفى (استلقيت بلا حراك علي سجادة أرضية بلاستيكية لساعات، حتى أصبحت اطرافي متجمدة. من عدم الحراك... أصدرت البالوعة في وسط أرضية خرسانية أصوات خشنة وضحكات غريبة ودعتني بأسماء كريهة تردد صداها ذهابا وإيابا بين الجدان ذات البلاط الأخضر الداكان عدة مرات قبل ان تذوب في جدار ما. ظهرت وجوه مضحكة بشكل متقطع في الجانب الاخر من نافذة الباب لمراقبتي. وزواحف خلف الزجاج في حديقة الحيوان. واعتقدت في البداية ان تلك الأوجه تعود للمساعدين الذين يعودون لفحصي؛ ثم اعتقدت انهم ربما كانوا حقا الوجوه التي تطلق علي تلك أسماء كريهة. وتساءلت في ما بعد اذا ما كانت تلك الوجوة موجودة حقا ام انها مجرد منتج آخر لعقلي المضطرب)
أما عن الأسباب فقد يعزو البعض الانتحار لظروف اجتماعية واقتصادية. لكن صعوبات الحياة قد تعجل الانتحار لكنها ليست سببه الرئيسي.
- اقتباس من كتابthe savage god: a study of suicide لالفاريز: (أعذار الانتحار غالبا سببيه. في أحسن الاحتمالات، فهي تخفف إحساس الناجين بالذنب، وتهدئ الاذهان المنظمة وتشجع علماء الاجتماع وبحوثهم اللامتناهية في سبيل الوصول لتصنيفات ونظريات مقنعة. انها في الحقيقة مثل حادثة همشيه تافهة تشعل حرب شعواء. ان الدوافع الحقيقة التي تحمل شخصا على التخلص من حياته هي في مكان اخر؛ فهي تنتمي لعالمه الداخلي، جانحة، متناقضة، ملتوية، معقدة كمتاهة. وعلى الاغلب عصية على الابصار).
من هنا يتوضح ان السبب الرئيسي للانتحار وسلوكياته هي معاناه داخلية من دراجات قاسية من الاكتئاب او الفصام و حالات مرضيه عقليه ونفسيه. وليست أسباب وظروف خارجية.
طرق الانتحار وان اختلفت، تتفق جميعها في اصرار الشخص واقدامه التام على قتل نفسه؛ حيث يميلوا لاختيار أنسب الطرق وأكثرها فعالية، وإن مال بعضهم لمراعاة مشاعر عائلته وجعل انتحاره أقل دموية.
الجزء الثالث:
تطرق الجزء الثالث للانتحار بشكل بيولوجي: حيث اثبتت أكثر من دراسة أن الانتحار وسلوكياته ومسبباته من امراض نفسيه تتناقل وراثيًا بين افراد العائلة، وان لم تظهر بشكل مباشر على أجيال متتالية.
إن عدد كثير من الهرمونات والنواقل العصبية لها دور كبير في ضبط تقلبات المزاج، إلا أن السيروتونين يعتبر أهم النواقل العصبية ذات الدور الأبرز في السلوكيات الانتحارية في حال انخفض مستواها عن الطبيعي. لذلك تعتبر أدوية مثبطات استرداد السيروتونين الانتقائي (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) أهم الادوية الحديثة التي توصف لمرضى الاكتئاب لرفع مستويات السيروتونين.
- تمت العديد من الدراسات على القردة والفئران لتحديد آثار مستويات السيروتونين المرتفعة والمنخفضة.
o قياس مستويات السيروتونين تتم عبر تحليل لعينات البول لدراسة مستويات حمض خماسي هيدروكسي اندول اسيتيك – المختصر ب 5-HIAA الناتج من تحلل السيروتونين في الجهاز العصبي المركزي).
o لوحظ عنة مستويات منخفضه منه تنخرط القردة والفئران في حالات من السلوكيات العنيفة، والاندفاعية، والأكثر عدوانية. ولوحظ العكس عند مستويات عالية منه.
وهناك دراسات أخرى ربطت مستويات الاوميغا-٣ والاحماض الدهنية الأساسية العالية بشكل مهم في تحسين أداء السيروتونين. كذلك كثرة زيادة استهلاك المجتمعات للدهون المشبعة زاد من سواء الحال. والمقارنة أجريت على المجتمعات المستهلكة بكثرة للأسماك مثل اليابان وتايوان. حيث كانت معدلات الاكتئاب قليلة عندما تكون تغذية الافراد تحوي مستويات عالية من الاوميغا-٣ والاحماض الدهنية الأساسية ومستويات قليلة من الدهون المشبعة.
تطرقت الكاتبة كذلك للأنماط الموسمية للانتحار، وفي اي الفصول تكثر الحالات.
الجزء الرابع:
تتنوع الأدوية لعلاج الانتحار وسلوكياته، لكن "الليثيوم" هو أكثرها فعالية بالرغم من اعراضه الجانبية المزعجة، واختلاف فعاليته على البعض. هناك أيضًا عدة من مضادات الاكتئاب التي لها دور كبير في تحسين الحالة الذهنية للمريض وإبعاده عن وحول الأفكار الانتحارية كمثبطات استرداد السيروتونين الانتقائي كما هو مذكور في آخر أجزاء الكتاب.
تقول الكاتبة البريطانية موراغ كويت عن دور الطبيب الذي أنقذ حياتها بعد معاناة من الذهان المتكرر " أن تجلس بهدوء في غرفة الكشف لتتحدث مع أحدهم؛ لن يظهر للعامة كعمل بطولي أو درامي. لكن في الطب، ثمة العديد من الطرق المختلفة لإنقاذ الحياة. هذه الطريقة واحدة منها"
وختمت كاي كتابها بشطر شعري، من قصيدة “استياء” للشاعر دوغلاس دون:
“انظر للأحياء، أحبهم، وتماسك”.
الكتاب يتكون من ٢٩٣ صفحة تلاها ٧٢ صفحة من الهوامش والمراجع. بمجموع ٣٦٦ صفحة
نشر الكتاب عام ١٩٩٩م وترجم عام ٢٠١٩ م
تعريف بالمؤلفة:
كاي جاميسون حاصلة على الدكتوراه في علم النفسي السريري، وتعمل كأستاذة للطب النفسي في جامعة جونز هوبكنز. كاي متخصصة وخبيرة في ذهان الهوس الاكتئابي -اضطراب ثنائي القطبية-. حصلت على العديد من الجوائز العلمية وتعتبر شخصية بارزة في مجالها. ألفت مجموعة من الكتب منها ذهان الهوس الاكتئابي، وعقل غير هادئ، وممسوس بالجحيم- مرض الهوس الاكتئابي ومزاجه الفني.
الكتاب أشبه ما يكون ببحث علمي -مدعم بأكثر من ٥٠٠ مرجع. بالإضافة لمجموعة من التجارب الإنسانية لفهم أعمق للانتحار. الكتاب مقسم أربعة اجزاء، يندرج تحتها مجموعة من الفصول بمجموع ١٠ فصول. تضمن الجزء الأول مدخلا انسانيًا وتاريخياً للانتحار، تلاه فهم أعمق للانتحار بطبيعته النفسية والمرضية. في جزئه الثالث شرحت مسببات الانتحار البيولوجية. وانهت جزأه الاخير بطرق علاجه الدوائية وغير الدوائية.
الجزء الأول:
الانتحار ليس بالجديد، فالكثير من الشعوب القديمة أقدم أفرادها على سلب أرواحهم. لكنها اختلفت في تقبله:
- فمنها من تقبل الانتحار كونه تضحية ايثارية بالنفس كالأسكيمو والإسكندنافيتين والهنود الحمر. بل وحثوا عليه بين كبار السن والمرضى.
- وهناك من تقبله في حالات معينة كحفظ للشرف. فهو فعل لابد منه تجنبًا للأسر في العرف اليوناني.
- وآخرون اتفقوا على تجريمه كالرومانيين وجميع الديانات السماوية.
كذلك اختلفوا في التعامل من المنتحر:
- فمنهم من تجنب لمسه كي لا تصيبهم اللعنة التي أصابته كالفنلنديين.
- ومنهم من حرمه من مراسم الدفن فرموه في الانهار والغابات كالفرنسيين والنرويجيين.
- أما في القانون الروماني يحظر توريث ممتلكات وتركة المنتحر.
الانتحار ظل مجرمًا بالقانون إلى أن نشأت نظرة تعاطف تجاه المنتحر، كونه مختل عقليًا ومجنون في القرن الثامن والتاسع عشر. لكن تجريمه امتد لأبعد من ذلك في بعض البلدان: فبقي مجرمًا في انجلترا وويلز إلى عام ١٩٦١م، وكذلك في ايرلندا إلى عام ١٩٩٣م.
ما هو جديد حقًا! هو التزايد المرعب في أعداد المنتحرين بين الشباب، حيث زادت الأعداد ٣٠٠٪ خلال الـ٤٥ سنة الماضية. وإن تمعنّا بشكل أدق في الإحصائيات، سنجد أن ٢٠٪ من طلبة الثانوية العامة في الولايات المتحدة فكر ولو مره بالانتحار، من بينهم ١٠٪ من أقدم على ذلك، ومن بين هؤلاء الثلث تقريبًا من انتهى بهم الحال في حالة طبية خطيرة نتيجة محاولاتهم للانتحار.
بل المرعب من ذلك هو تزايد النسب في الأطفال ما بين عمري ١٠ – و٢٤عاما، حيث زادت النسب ١٢٠٪ ما بين عامي ١٩٨٠ و١٩٩٢م. ويعزى ذلك لعدة أسباب بحسب دراسة أمريكية-فنلندية:
- تدخين الأمهات الحوامل يزيد فرص إنجاب أطفال عنيفين، ومندفعين، بل ومدمنين.
- كذلك الأطفال الخدج الذين لم يكتمل نموهم، فيما مضى كانوا يتوفون، هم الان يعيشون لفترة أطول نتيجة التطور الطبي لكن من الممكن ان تكون اجهزتهم العصبية أكثر ضعفًا.
- نجاح الادوية النفسية مؤخرا مكن الزواج والانجاب للمرضي النفسيين. الذين ينجبون اطفال يعانون من الاكتئاب والاكتئاب الهوسى والفصام.
- كذلك انخفض متوسط سن البلوغ مما جعل الأطفال ذو السن الصغيرة أكثر عرضه لفتره اطول من اعراض الاكتئاب.
الجزء الثاني:
في الجزء الثاني تطرقت الكاتبة لسيكولوجية الانتحار. لطالما كانت أكثر ما يبين حالة المنتحر النفسية هي تلك الرسائل التي يعدونها قبل اقدامهم على عملية الانتحار، غالبًا ما تبين الحالة الذهنية المشتتة للمنتحر، والنظرة السلبية لظروف الحياة، وهذا ينبع من أعمق درجات الاكتئاب التي يمر بها المنتحر. إن اغلب ما يسبب سيل الأفكار الانتحارية هو الاكتئاب الحاد، أو الفصام والهلوسة العقلية. اقتبس رسالتين تصف الحالة الذهنية لمنتحرين عانوا من الاكتئاب:
- يقول راندل جريل في وصفه للآثار التراكمية لاكتئابه لزوجته: (الأمر غريب جدا.. يبدو كم ان الجينات خطفنني بعيدا وخلقن حطبة مكاني). إحساس ان يكون الشخص مجرد ظل او قشرة نفسه إحساس راسخ باليأس.
- تقول فيرجينيا وولف في رسالة لزوجها قبل انتحارها عن معاناتها من نوبات الهوس والاكتئاب (ينتابني إحساس اكيد انني اجن مره أخرى، اشعر باننا لا نستطيع ان نخوض مره أخرى في هذه الأوقات الصعبة. لن اتعافى هذه المرة. بدأت بسماع الأصوات ولا أستطيع التركيز. لذا سأفعل ما يبدو انه أفضل ما يفعل).
أما الفصام فيظهر على شكل هلوسة سمعية وبصرية. وتصور ما هو غير موجود.
- تصف الطبيبة كارول نورث التي عانت الهلاوس والاوهام الفصامية وهي في جناح هادئ في المستشفى (استلقيت بلا حراك علي سجادة أرضية بلاستيكية لساعات، حتى أصبحت اطرافي متجمدة. من عدم الحراك... أصدرت البالوعة في وسط أرضية خرسانية أصوات خشنة وضحكات غريبة ودعتني بأسماء كريهة تردد صداها ذهابا وإيابا بين الجدان ذات البلاط الأخضر الداكان عدة مرات قبل ان تذوب في جدار ما. ظهرت وجوه مضحكة بشكل متقطع في الجانب الاخر من نافذة الباب لمراقبتي. وزواحف خلف الزجاج في حديقة الحيوان. واعتقدت في البداية ان تلك الأوجه تعود للمساعدين الذين يعودون لفحصي؛ ثم اعتقدت انهم ربما كانوا حقا الوجوه التي تطلق علي تلك أسماء كريهة. وتساءلت في ما بعد اذا ما كانت تلك الوجوة موجودة حقا ام انها مجرد منتج آخر لعقلي المضطرب)
أما عن الأسباب فقد يعزو البعض الانتحار لظروف اجتماعية واقتصادية. لكن صعوبات الحياة قد تعجل الانتحار لكنها ليست سببه الرئيسي.
- اقتباس من كتابthe savage god: a study of suicide لالفاريز: (أعذار الانتحار غالبا سببيه. في أحسن الاحتمالات، فهي تخفف إحساس الناجين بالذنب، وتهدئ الاذهان المنظمة وتشجع علماء الاجتماع وبحوثهم اللامتناهية في سبيل الوصول لتصنيفات ونظريات مقنعة. انها في الحقيقة مثل حادثة همشيه تافهة تشعل حرب شعواء. ان الدوافع الحقيقة التي تحمل شخصا على التخلص من حياته هي في مكان اخر؛ فهي تنتمي لعالمه الداخلي، جانحة، متناقضة، ملتوية، معقدة كمتاهة. وعلى الاغلب عصية على الابصار).
من هنا يتوضح ان السبب الرئيسي للانتحار وسلوكياته هي معاناه داخلية من دراجات قاسية من الاكتئاب او الفصام و حالات مرضيه عقليه ونفسيه. وليست أسباب وظروف خارجية.
طرق الانتحار وان اختلفت، تتفق جميعها في اصرار الشخص واقدامه التام على قتل نفسه؛ حيث يميلوا لاختيار أنسب الطرق وأكثرها فعالية، وإن مال بعضهم لمراعاة مشاعر عائلته وجعل انتحاره أقل دموية.
الجزء الثالث:
تطرق الجزء الثالث للانتحار بشكل بيولوجي: حيث اثبتت أكثر من دراسة أن الانتحار وسلوكياته ومسبباته من امراض نفسيه تتناقل وراثيًا بين افراد العائلة، وان لم تظهر بشكل مباشر على أجيال متتالية.
إن عدد كثير من الهرمونات والنواقل العصبية لها دور كبير في ضبط تقلبات المزاج، إلا أن السيروتونين يعتبر أهم النواقل العصبية ذات الدور الأبرز في السلوكيات الانتحارية في حال انخفض مستواها عن الطبيعي. لذلك تعتبر أدوية مثبطات استرداد السيروتونين الانتقائي (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) أهم الادوية الحديثة التي توصف لمرضى الاكتئاب لرفع مستويات السيروتونين.
- تمت العديد من الدراسات على القردة والفئران لتحديد آثار مستويات السيروتونين المرتفعة والمنخفضة.
o قياس مستويات السيروتونين تتم عبر تحليل لعينات البول لدراسة مستويات حمض خماسي هيدروكسي اندول اسيتيك – المختصر ب 5-HIAA الناتج من تحلل السيروتونين في الجهاز العصبي المركزي).
o لوحظ عنة مستويات منخفضه منه تنخرط القردة والفئران في حالات من السلوكيات العنيفة، والاندفاعية، والأكثر عدوانية. ولوحظ العكس عند مستويات عالية منه.
وهناك دراسات أخرى ربطت مستويات الاوميغا-٣ والاحماض الدهنية الأساسية العالية بشكل مهم في تحسين أداء السيروتونين. كذلك كثرة زيادة استهلاك المجتمعات للدهون المشبعة زاد من سواء الحال. والمقارنة أجريت على المجتمعات المستهلكة بكثرة للأسماك مثل اليابان وتايوان. حيث كانت معدلات الاكتئاب قليلة عندما تكون تغذية الافراد تحوي مستويات عالية من الاوميغا-٣ والاحماض الدهنية الأساسية ومستويات قليلة من الدهون المشبعة.
تطرقت الكاتبة كذلك للأنماط الموسمية للانتحار، وفي اي الفصول تكثر الحالات.
الجزء الرابع:
تتنوع الأدوية لعلاج الانتحار وسلوكياته، لكن "الليثيوم" هو أكثرها فعالية بالرغم من اعراضه الجانبية المزعجة، واختلاف فعاليته على البعض. هناك أيضًا عدة من مضادات الاكتئاب التي لها دور كبير في تحسين الحالة الذهنية للمريض وإبعاده عن وحول الأفكار الانتحارية كمثبطات استرداد السيروتونين الانتقائي كما هو مذكور في آخر أجزاء الكتاب.
تقول الكاتبة البريطانية موراغ كويت عن دور الطبيب الذي أنقذ حياتها بعد معاناة من الذهان المتكرر " أن تجلس بهدوء في غرفة الكشف لتتحدث مع أحدهم؛ لن يظهر للعامة كعمل بطولي أو درامي. لكن في الطب، ثمة العديد من الطرق المختلفة لإنقاذ الحياة. هذه الطريقة واحدة منها"
وختمت كاي كتابها بشطر شعري، من قصيدة “استياء” للشاعر دوغلاس دون:
“انظر للأحياء، أحبهم، وتماسك”.
October 2, 2013
expertly examining a difficult subject The applicability of this book to my life is not appropriate. This book is far too academic for my CURRENT taste. I would have chewed this one up in seconds in graduate school, but alas that was two years ago and reading this just brought about stress. THAT SAID, its amazing, well written, well researched, and carefully constructed. It is by far the best book on suicide, and the most approachable that I have EVER read. it's a shame graduate school did not force us to read this one.
the book is finely tuned. Each chapter has numerous vignettes which support, lead into, or develop each chapter. the chapters are well researched (really, really well) and easily understood. My only recommendation is that burn out can be quite high if read front to cover as one would read a novel. the content is unforgiving, raw, and very easily conveyed. Study after study is explored with personal reflection (if one has read her previous books you may get a faint echo of unquiet mind). My mind, however was not quiet while reading this and is still spinning; very very fast. there is A TON of information in this book; enough so that i must purchase a copy and highlight the hell out of it.
there is information in here for anyone; clients, change agents, allies, etc!
read with caution, however for both its content is unforgiving and will, even if you have no experience with suicide, stir you and cause an overwhelming urge to scream/cry/put the book down wide eyed... or just go take a long cold shower. (i did all of the above, twice).
i enjoyed the first 150 pages the most, as they felt more personable.... and then my attention was then pulled back in during the discussion of the brain, diet, etc. Bite this one off in sections, and take your time. weave it in and out with another book, because it will consume you.
Oh and onward to one complaint. I would have enjoyed this book more if it was mirrored with something else. perhaps it it wasnt fully focused on suicide, but i really have NO idea what i would pair it with. All i know is that im exhausted and going for a long, long walk through the city.
Post notes: i actually re-read portions (particularly those related to treatment)—since my brain was fried, my emotions jagged and non-existent, and my body physically tired, from reading this—and i have to say, that revisiting these sections was rewarding.
the book is finely tuned. Each chapter has numerous vignettes which support, lead into, or develop each chapter. the chapters are well researched (really, really well) and easily understood. My only recommendation is that burn out can be quite high if read front to cover as one would read a novel. the content is unforgiving, raw, and very easily conveyed. Study after study is explored with personal reflection (if one has read her previous books you may get a faint echo of unquiet mind). My mind, however was not quiet while reading this and is still spinning; very very fast. there is A TON of information in this book; enough so that i must purchase a copy and highlight the hell out of it.
there is information in here for anyone; clients, change agents, allies, etc!
read with caution, however for both its content is unforgiving and will, even if you have no experience with suicide, stir you and cause an overwhelming urge to scream/cry/put the book down wide eyed... or just go take a long cold shower. (i did all of the above, twice).
i enjoyed the first 150 pages the most, as they felt more personable.... and then my attention was then pulled back in during the discussion of the brain, diet, etc. Bite this one off in sections, and take your time. weave it in and out with another book, because it will consume you.
Oh and onward to one complaint. I would have enjoyed this book more if it was mirrored with something else. perhaps it it wasnt fully focused on suicide, but i really have NO idea what i would pair it with. All i know is that im exhausted and going for a long, long walk through the city.
Post notes: i actually re-read portions (particularly those related to treatment)—since my brain was fried, my emotions jagged and non-existent, and my body physically tired, from reading this—and i have to say, that revisiting these sections was rewarding.
April 21, 2025
“Suicide is a death like no other, and those who are left behind to struggle with it must confront a pain like no other”.
This book told it all straight up and it widened my eyes and healed a little bit of my heart. The final line says “oh mother, mother, why did you do it?” Leaving the reader to understand that the author who has decades of research can’t fully make sense of this act and those left behind can’t either. The hardest part for me is the debilitating confusion that follows suicide and hearing this helped me not get so stuck on the why and find peace in that I will never fully understand the why.
“You’d never be the same, but the world went on and you went with it. It was not mother only that died… the child in your heart died then, the bairn that believed the hills were made for its play, every road set fair with its warning post, hands ready to snatch you back from the brink of danger when the play grew over rough. That died, the quiet corpse of your childhood”
Words do not begin to express the hope the knowledge of the plan of salvation brings me in a situation that feels so dark and hopeless. I’ve had so many sacred experiences where I know Lauren is watching over me and guiding me on my path. Lo I love ya you’re the bestest friend I’ve ever had and keep sending me sighs that you’re around ok?
This book told it all straight up and it widened my eyes and healed a little bit of my heart. The final line says “oh mother, mother, why did you do it?” Leaving the reader to understand that the author who has decades of research can’t fully make sense of this act and those left behind can’t either. The hardest part for me is the debilitating confusion that follows suicide and hearing this helped me not get so stuck on the why and find peace in that I will never fully understand the why.
“You’d never be the same, but the world went on and you went with it. It was not mother only that died… the child in your heart died then, the bairn that believed the hills were made for its play, every road set fair with its warning post, hands ready to snatch you back from the brink of danger when the play grew over rough. That died, the quiet corpse of your childhood”
Words do not begin to express the hope the knowledge of the plan of salvation brings me in a situation that feels so dark and hopeless. I’ve had so many sacred experiences where I know Lauren is watching over me and guiding me on my path. Lo I love ya you’re the bestest friend I’ve ever had and keep sending me sighs that you’re around ok?
April 3, 2016
İnsan psikolojisi üzerine farkındalık yaratabilecek bir eser. Uzun süre elimde sürünmeseydi daha verimli bir okuma olabilirdi yine de hayatının belli bir döneminde psikolojik bir rahatsızlık yaşamış olanlar, intiharın nedenini nasılını, toplum üzerindeki etkilerini nasıl önlenebileceğini öğrenmek anlamak isteyenler için değerli ve yararlı bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum.
November 28, 2023
Audible version.
I got it out of curiosity and its high ratings and popularity. It did not disappoint, with a balance of study cases as well as scientific support on arguments.
Due to heavy topic, I advise approaching it with an open, curious and non-prejudicial/judgmental mind.
It suceeded at educating me in-depth about the topic, from multiple perspectives. I've never had anybody in my life that I knew commit suicide, so to me it's a taboo; however, I have always had a worry at the back of my head that perhaps my mother (who most likely has undiagnosed BPD) could perhaps choose this ending.
Because it was so long and comprehensive, I don't think I'll approach another book material on the topic in a while.
I got it out of curiosity and its high ratings and popularity. It did not disappoint, with a balance of study cases as well as scientific support on arguments.
Due to heavy topic, I advise approaching it with an open, curious and non-prejudicial/judgmental mind.
It suceeded at educating me in-depth about the topic, from multiple perspectives. I've never had anybody in my life that I knew commit suicide, so to me it's a taboo; however, I have always had a worry at the back of my head that perhaps my mother (who most likely has undiagnosed BPD) could perhaps choose this ending.
Because it was so long and comprehensive, I don't think I'll approach another book material on the topic in a while.
January 10, 2009
This was one of the books that helped me out of a very dangerous frame of mind. Reading about other people in despair helped me realize I was stronger than I thought, that things could get better, and that I could seek help if I needed it.
June 18, 2019
This is a really difficult book to read. Jamison offers a unique perspective on mental illness and suicide- both as a psychiatrist and someone suffering from mental illness. Parts of this book are harrowing.
August 31, 2020
Letter to the author:
Dear Dr. Jamison,
In early July I lost my son to suicide. This was the second suicide in my family, because in 2013 his father, my ex husband of just a few weeks post divorce killed himself four days before what would have been our 28th wedding anniversary. The first suicide was a huge blow to our family and both my son and I together attended the same suicide bereavement group program at the Wendt Center in Washington DC. Sadly, I did not find Night Falls Fast back in 2013. I was subject to suicide prevention propaganda which served to confuse me and supported struggle with guilt this day.
Immediately after my son’s death I desperately searched for books about suicide. I took three weeks bereavement leave. I was desperate to soften the assault of my thoughts and the pain in my body. I could not talk to my family because I wanted to keep my guilt and shame to myself. I only talked to a few others who lost their children or sibling to suicide.
The day after this horrific event, I found Night Falls Fast on audible and began listening to it. Your book became my bible. I listened and relistened your book many times over. I listened intermittently at night when I could not sleep. I listened in the yearly morning and throughout the day. Night Falls Fast became my bereavement bible. Some chapters were analogous to my experience in describing mental illness and its effect on the family. Each day I reread sections of this book and it helps quiet my anxiety, because most days it hurts to breathe. Grief comes in waves, and some days the waves are tsunami in magnitude.
I suggested your book to the bereavement group which I will join in early September. Many support programs have a book, their program’s bible like the big book used in the twelve-step program. I feel that Night Falls Fast is the big book for the bereaved. You somehow captured and summarized the suicide survivor’s experience. Your writing is compassionate, informative and humble. You must have enormous empathy and understating to have written such a book.
I came to many realizations by listening to your book. I completely disagree with the suicide prevention groups circulating statement that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. From my limited experience mental illness is a permanent problem and a disease which consumes many and releases few. No one can will another person to continue living. Forcing a person into treatment and medication is a mixed bag. My ex-husband killed himself three days after his last hospital stay. Thus far there is no magic pill which can restore a mentally ill person to the person they were before the illness came upon them. And perhaps the most difficult pill to swallow, for the people closest to the mentally ill and the medical practitioners. It seems the mentally ill know this truth better than any caregiver or medical expert.
At this point in my new life as a mother of a dead child and an ex-wife of a dead husband, I have ill feelings about existing suicide prevention. I read things online which claim that there is such a thing as prevention, but the numbers don’t lie, they are going up, this is not an indication of prevention, rather it’s an indication of failure among existing suicide prevention programs. How can anyone claim they are preventing suicide? How do they quantify how many suicides they prevented? I can use the same counting method to count how many completed suicides who were participants in at least one suicide prevention organization. I can also build a linear regression model that shows that the rising suicide rates are highly correlated with the number of suicide prevention programs. This of course is bad statistics, and I use this example to show how absurd suicide prevention claims can be twisted into misinformation.
When I read about prevention, I feel despair, because the writers suggest that suicide is preventable if only we find the right psychiatrist, the right therapist, intervene early, endure the trial and error of the correct combination of medication and let’s not forget the main ingredient of this failure of a recipe, the suicidal individual with a serious sometimes undiagnosed existing mental illness who is willing to undertake this challenge and is also willing to try anything and everything to stay alive where the end result is often a diminished life with a shortened life span. Really?
People who complete suicide do not fall into the above category. Many people after being discharged from involuntary hospitalization toss their prescriptions and head to the nearest hardware store to buy rope. My husband did just that. Mentally ill people who are suicidal hide their intention to kill themselves. They exhaust the people closest to them and inject hopelessness and helplessness in the person who is helping them the most, in my case, I the wife, partner, ex-wife and parent.
We who witness our loved ones decline into the abyss empathize with the afflicted. We need help too; we are drained by our loved one’s illness and afflicted by their melancholia. Furthermore, suicide prevention implies that we the parents, partners and close friends have control over the suicided person's choices. Believing we have such power over life and death is hubris. My husband’s psychiatrist who is well respected in his field and worked in several psyche wards in Bethesda and DC, argued for releasing my husband, and even said he will take it upon himself to monitor him once he is released. I am not blaming this doctor; he most likely has untreated mental illness himself manifesting as delusions of grandeur. Yet, he is representative of the practicing mental health practitioners.
People who write about suicide prevention cause a lot of pain for suicide survivors. Many of the writings are arrogant and thoughtless. Suicide prevention literature may cause the bereaved to contemplate suicide and push them to attempt in taking their own life, because the last thing we need to hear is that suicide is preventable, which means I as a parent failed in every aspect of parenting, and maybe even caused the suicide or at the very least aided my child in completing the suicide. Even more so if there were more than one suicide in the family. My husband killed himself, I should have known better. Shame on me!
I am sure that one hundred years from now, many of the drugs and theories about suicide prevention will be looked upon as we now look upon the medical practitioners who used leeches. True, leeches help with gangrene, but not so much with mental abnormalities. Medical quackery is alive and well, even in the most respected institutions. There is no escaping this reality. No one is exempt from suicide, not the rich, not the educated, not the experts, not the medical practitioners and their progeny.
Surviving a suicide is a most humbling experience. This reminds us of how truly helpless we are in influencing our children's decisions, let alone an adult child’s decision and even more ludacris to believe we can convince a stranger to choose life. This erroneous belief diminishes the many forces at work on the suicidal person's decisions and circumstances. And sets one up for failure to believe they have such power. Not only is this wrong, it is downright dangerous.
More books should be written to support the survivors of suicide. Statistics tell us that suicide survivors are at a greater risk of suicide. After all, my son was a suicide survivor. After his father killed himself my son attended bereavement groups and even bereavement therapy. He participated in the suicide walk to raise funds and awareness. Suicide prevention is a joke. Since your book was published in 1999, the suicide rate increased by more than 30%. Suicide prevention organizations exploit grieving people and cause damage to their diminished self-esteem by implying that their loved one could have been saved if they were better educated in understanding suicide. I for one would rather throw money in the river than give it to a suicide prevention organization. Anyone claiming they can prevent suicide is delusional.
It is a fact that suicide rates are going up. This needs to be addressed when talking about suicide prevention or treatment options for mental illness including depression. There is much erroneous information on evaluating if someone is suicidal. Asking people to evaluate someone for suicide risk is like asking to evaluate someone for cancer without doing any tests. It is easy to claim suicide prevention saves lives because this is a number which cannot be accurately represented and often misrepresented by controlled studies. I read somewhere that suicidal people are not aloud to participate in studies, clearly, they are a liability for the the sponsors. Until the suicide rate becomes steady or declines no one can claim suicide prevention programs affect the actual suicide rate.
Lastly, suicide prevention groups are proliferating an insensitive and erroneous statement, ‘Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem’. This ridiculous anti suicide motto adds insult to injury and diminishes the mentally ill person's dignity. Mental illness is a permanent problem and the unfortunate individuals who are afflicted with this disease know this as the truth. Most mental illness is incurable and often not easily manageable. Many individuals live impaired shortened lives, tolerate toxic medication side effects, and suffer abuse and demoralization. Given a healthy person was told the truth about serious mental illness and asked if they would want to live with mental illness, I am sure many people would answer NO and would choose death rather than live with a debilitating disease. Mental illness does not cause stupidity and for some people the illness itself is an enlightenment and a heightened state of awareness. It is no doubt that the suicide rate is higher for individuals who were involuntarily hospitalized. There is no telling which scenario will cause a person to kill themselves. Involuntary hospitalization or not, that is the question. Popular mental health literature claims that in theory, most everyone can get better if they just follow the program and are given the best treatment, by the best doctors, in the best hospitals, and prescribed the most advanced medication. Let me say this again, when you wrote this book in 1999 you said the suicide rate was 30, 000 twenty years later its 48,000. The numbers don't lie. How much faith should one put in the last two decades of medical advances in mental health...how many lives were saved in the last 20 years? I say none or zero!
Everyone working in mental health should be fired. They are incompetent dangerous ego-maniacal degree holding individuals who claim to help when in fact they are not. Statistics show that they know nothing and their prescribed treatments are disastrous failures.
Thank you so much for writing this book and please know that your writing brings comfort and solace to people like me during their darkest time.
Dear Dr. Jamison,
In early July I lost my son to suicide. This was the second suicide in my family, because in 2013 his father, my ex husband of just a few weeks post divorce killed himself four days before what would have been our 28th wedding anniversary. The first suicide was a huge blow to our family and both my son and I together attended the same suicide bereavement group program at the Wendt Center in Washington DC. Sadly, I did not find Night Falls Fast back in 2013. I was subject to suicide prevention propaganda which served to confuse me and supported struggle with guilt this day.
Immediately after my son’s death I desperately searched for books about suicide. I took three weeks bereavement leave. I was desperate to soften the assault of my thoughts and the pain in my body. I could not talk to my family because I wanted to keep my guilt and shame to myself. I only talked to a few others who lost their children or sibling to suicide.
The day after this horrific event, I found Night Falls Fast on audible and began listening to it. Your book became my bible. I listened and relistened your book many times over. I listened intermittently at night when I could not sleep. I listened in the yearly morning and throughout the day. Night Falls Fast became my bereavement bible. Some chapters were analogous to my experience in describing mental illness and its effect on the family. Each day I reread sections of this book and it helps quiet my anxiety, because most days it hurts to breathe. Grief comes in waves, and some days the waves are tsunami in magnitude.
I suggested your book to the bereavement group which I will join in early September. Many support programs have a book, their program’s bible like the big book used in the twelve-step program. I feel that Night Falls Fast is the big book for the bereaved. You somehow captured and summarized the suicide survivor’s experience. Your writing is compassionate, informative and humble. You must have enormous empathy and understating to have written such a book.
I came to many realizations by listening to your book. I completely disagree with the suicide prevention groups circulating statement that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. From my limited experience mental illness is a permanent problem and a disease which consumes many and releases few. No one can will another person to continue living. Forcing a person into treatment and medication is a mixed bag. My ex-husband killed himself three days after his last hospital stay. Thus far there is no magic pill which can restore a mentally ill person to the person they were before the illness came upon them. And perhaps the most difficult pill to swallow, for the people closest to the mentally ill and the medical practitioners. It seems the mentally ill know this truth better than any caregiver or medical expert.
At this point in my new life as a mother of a dead child and an ex-wife of a dead husband, I have ill feelings about existing suicide prevention. I read things online which claim that there is such a thing as prevention, but the numbers don’t lie, they are going up, this is not an indication of prevention, rather it’s an indication of failure among existing suicide prevention programs. How can anyone claim they are preventing suicide? How do they quantify how many suicides they prevented? I can use the same counting method to count how many completed suicides who were participants in at least one suicide prevention organization. I can also build a linear regression model that shows that the rising suicide rates are highly correlated with the number of suicide prevention programs. This of course is bad statistics, and I use this example to show how absurd suicide prevention claims can be twisted into misinformation.
When I read about prevention, I feel despair, because the writers suggest that suicide is preventable if only we find the right psychiatrist, the right therapist, intervene early, endure the trial and error of the correct combination of medication and let’s not forget the main ingredient of this failure of a recipe, the suicidal individual with a serious sometimes undiagnosed existing mental illness who is willing to undertake this challenge and is also willing to try anything and everything to stay alive where the end result is often a diminished life with a shortened life span. Really?
People who complete suicide do not fall into the above category. Many people after being discharged from involuntary hospitalization toss their prescriptions and head to the nearest hardware store to buy rope. My husband did just that. Mentally ill people who are suicidal hide their intention to kill themselves. They exhaust the people closest to them and inject hopelessness and helplessness in the person who is helping them the most, in my case, I the wife, partner, ex-wife and parent.
We who witness our loved ones decline into the abyss empathize with the afflicted. We need help too; we are drained by our loved one’s illness and afflicted by their melancholia. Furthermore, suicide prevention implies that we the parents, partners and close friends have control over the suicided person's choices. Believing we have such power over life and death is hubris. My husband’s psychiatrist who is well respected in his field and worked in several psyche wards in Bethesda and DC, argued for releasing my husband, and even said he will take it upon himself to monitor him once he is released. I am not blaming this doctor; he most likely has untreated mental illness himself manifesting as delusions of grandeur. Yet, he is representative of the practicing mental health practitioners.
People who write about suicide prevention cause a lot of pain for suicide survivors. Many of the writings are arrogant and thoughtless. Suicide prevention literature may cause the bereaved to contemplate suicide and push them to attempt in taking their own life, because the last thing we need to hear is that suicide is preventable, which means I as a parent failed in every aspect of parenting, and maybe even caused the suicide or at the very least aided my child in completing the suicide. Even more so if there were more than one suicide in the family. My husband killed himself, I should have known better. Shame on me!
I am sure that one hundred years from now, many of the drugs and theories about suicide prevention will be looked upon as we now look upon the medical practitioners who used leeches. True, leeches help with gangrene, but not so much with mental abnormalities. Medical quackery is alive and well, even in the most respected institutions. There is no escaping this reality. No one is exempt from suicide, not the rich, not the educated, not the experts, not the medical practitioners and their progeny.
Surviving a suicide is a most humbling experience. This reminds us of how truly helpless we are in influencing our children's decisions, let alone an adult child’s decision and even more ludacris to believe we can convince a stranger to choose life. This erroneous belief diminishes the many forces at work on the suicidal person's decisions and circumstances. And sets one up for failure to believe they have such power. Not only is this wrong, it is downright dangerous.
More books should be written to support the survivors of suicide. Statistics tell us that suicide survivors are at a greater risk of suicide. After all, my son was a suicide survivor. After his father killed himself my son attended bereavement groups and even bereavement therapy. He participated in the suicide walk to raise funds and awareness. Suicide prevention is a joke. Since your book was published in 1999, the suicide rate increased by more than 30%. Suicide prevention organizations exploit grieving people and cause damage to their diminished self-esteem by implying that their loved one could have been saved if they were better educated in understanding suicide. I for one would rather throw money in the river than give it to a suicide prevention organization. Anyone claiming they can prevent suicide is delusional.
It is a fact that suicide rates are going up. This needs to be addressed when talking about suicide prevention or treatment options for mental illness including depression. There is much erroneous information on evaluating if someone is suicidal. Asking people to evaluate someone for suicide risk is like asking to evaluate someone for cancer without doing any tests. It is easy to claim suicide prevention saves lives because this is a number which cannot be accurately represented and often misrepresented by controlled studies. I read somewhere that suicidal people are not aloud to participate in studies, clearly, they are a liability for the the sponsors. Until the suicide rate becomes steady or declines no one can claim suicide prevention programs affect the actual suicide rate.
Lastly, suicide prevention groups are proliferating an insensitive and erroneous statement, ‘Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem’. This ridiculous anti suicide motto adds insult to injury and diminishes the mentally ill person's dignity. Mental illness is a permanent problem and the unfortunate individuals who are afflicted with this disease know this as the truth. Most mental illness is incurable and often not easily manageable. Many individuals live impaired shortened lives, tolerate toxic medication side effects, and suffer abuse and demoralization. Given a healthy person was told the truth about serious mental illness and asked if they would want to live with mental illness, I am sure many people would answer NO and would choose death rather than live with a debilitating disease. Mental illness does not cause stupidity and for some people the illness itself is an enlightenment and a heightened state of awareness. It is no doubt that the suicide rate is higher for individuals who were involuntarily hospitalized. There is no telling which scenario will cause a person to kill themselves. Involuntary hospitalization or not, that is the question. Popular mental health literature claims that in theory, most everyone can get better if they just follow the program and are given the best treatment, by the best doctors, in the best hospitals, and prescribed the most advanced medication. Let me say this again, when you wrote this book in 1999 you said the suicide rate was 30, 000 twenty years later its 48,000. The numbers don't lie. How much faith should one put in the last two decades of medical advances in mental health...how many lives were saved in the last 20 years? I say none or zero!
Everyone working in mental health should be fired. They are incompetent dangerous ego-maniacal degree holding individuals who claim to help when in fact they are not. Statistics show that they know nothing and their prescribed treatments are disastrous failures.
Thank you so much for writing this book and please know that your writing brings comfort and solace to people like me during their darkest time.
December 7, 2020
Kitabın əsas mövzusu intihardır. Tanıdığım, yada haqqında bir şeylər bildiyim insanların intiharı həmişə mənə qeyri-adi, həmdə bir o qədər başa düşülməz gəlib. İnsan əlbəttə bilir dünyanın hər yerində hər gün intihar edən insanlar var və mənə elə gəlirdi ki, onların da ölümü tanıdığım insanlarınkı kimi özünəməxsus şəkildədir. Amma kitabdakı statistikaları gördükcə adam fikirləşir ki, əslində heç biri qeyri-adi, başa düşülməz deyil, hətta çox asanlıqla əvvəlcədən təxmin etmək də mümkündür. Yəni qısacası statistikalar ölümləri bəsitləşdirir.
Amma bir tərəfdən də kitabda həm intihar etmiş yazarların, həmdə adi insanların intihara qədərki həyatları, hissləri, düşəncələri verilib. Bu hissələrdə isə insan tam əksinə bir-birindən nə qədər fərqləndiklərini görür.
Birdə kitabda intiharın növləri verilib. Əslində bəzilərinin qarşısını almaq üçün sadəcə azca diqqətli olmaq kifayət edərkən, bəzilərinin isə qarşısını almaq üçün vaxtında uzun müddətli addımlar atmaq lazımdır.
Ümumilikdə kitabdan müxtəlif nəticələr çıxarmaq mümkündür. İntihar etmiş yazarların hiss etdiklərini oxuyub qaza gəlib həyatın yaşamağa dəyər olmadığını düşünüb intihar da edə bilərsiz. Yada yazarın etdiyi kimi kimlərinsə bu vəziyyətə dur deməli olduğunu düşünüb, qolları sıvayıb araşdırmalar edib, bu mövzuda daha əvvəl atılmamış addımlar ata bilərsiz :)
Bu arada yazar manik- depressivdir, halüsinasiyalar görür və buna baxmayaraq bir psixoloq kimi fəaliyyətini, araşdırmalarını davam etdirib. Etdiyi şeyin əslində nə qədər çətin olduğunu görmək üçün günlük kimi yazdığı "durulmayan bir kafa" kitabını oxuya bilərsiz.
Amma bir tərəfdən də kitabda həm intihar etmiş yazarların, həmdə adi insanların intihara qədərki həyatları, hissləri, düşəncələri verilib. Bu hissələrdə isə insan tam əksinə bir-birindən nə qədər fərqləndiklərini görür.
Birdə kitabda intiharın növləri verilib. Əslində bəzilərinin qarşısını almaq üçün sadəcə azca diqqətli olmaq kifayət edərkən, bəzilərinin isə qarşısını almaq üçün vaxtında uzun müddətli addımlar atmaq lazımdır.
Ümumilikdə kitabdan müxtəlif nəticələr çıxarmaq mümkündür. İntihar etmiş yazarların hiss etdiklərini oxuyub qaza gəlib həyatın yaşamağa dəyər olmadığını düşünüb intihar da edə bilərsiz. Yada yazarın etdiyi kimi kimlərinsə bu vəziyyətə dur deməli olduğunu düşünüb, qolları sıvayıb araşdırmalar edib, bu mövzuda daha əvvəl atılmamış addımlar ata bilərsiz :)
Bu arada yazar manik- depressivdir, halüsinasiyalar görür və buna baxmayaraq bir psixoloq kimi fəaliyyətini, araşdırmalarını davam etdirib. Etdiyi şeyin əslində nə qədər çətin olduğunu görmək üçün günlük kimi yazdığı "durulmayan bir kafa" kitabını oxuya bilərsiz.
January 4, 2024
"Mostly, I have been impressed by how little value our society puts on saving the lives of those who are in such despair as to want to end them. It is a societal illusion that suicide is rare"
3.5 stars. This specific book will not be for everyone, but the topic itself is something everyone should look into, read and learn more about. Each case is highly individual and complex, and is not something most people will ever really understand. The destructive ways in which some have chosen to end their lives is truly harrowing and ultimately speaks to the catastrophic consequences of mental illness, especially when paired with alcohol and drug abuse.
Much of this book is science and research based and includes lots of data, statistics and figures. This, although important, is difficult for me to read. I just do not enjoy it (not that this book should be necessarily enjoyable). The personal anecdotes and stories, such as the chapter on Meriwether Lewis is what I prefer to read and that is typically where the information and the key points stick in my mind. Numbers and data is often just lost on me.
Jamison writes with passion, knowledge and personal experience. She does a great job of driving home the point that suicide is widely misunderstood and stigmatized. Historically, taking ones own life is seen as cowardice and sinful and the idea of it being a selfish act still exists today.
3.5 stars. This specific book will not be for everyone, but the topic itself is something everyone should look into, read and learn more about. Each case is highly individual and complex, and is not something most people will ever really understand. The destructive ways in which some have chosen to end their lives is truly harrowing and ultimately speaks to the catastrophic consequences of mental illness, especially when paired with alcohol and drug abuse.
Much of this book is science and research based and includes lots of data, statistics and figures. This, although important, is difficult for me to read. I just do not enjoy it (not that this book should be necessarily enjoyable). The personal anecdotes and stories, such as the chapter on Meriwether Lewis is what I prefer to read and that is typically where the information and the key points stick in my mind. Numbers and data is often just lost on me.
Jamison writes with passion, knowledge and personal experience. She does a great job of driving home the point that suicide is widely misunderstood and stigmatized. Historically, taking ones own life is seen as cowardice and sinful and the idea of it being a selfish act still exists today.
June 16, 2022
بينما كنت أتصفح عناوين الكتب لأقرر شراء بعضها، لفت نظري هذا العنوان فوضعته جانباً لأفكر في أمره، دون أن أنتبه لاسم الكاتب. وحالما انتبهت لاسم المؤلفة اشتريته على الفور، فمنذ أن قرأت مذكراتها الشخصية "عقل غير هادئ" قبل ثمانية أعوام، وأنا أتمنى أن يُترجم لها كتاب آخر للعربية، وتحققت أمنيتي هذا العام.
تمتلك الدكتورة جاميسون مقدرة مثيرة للإعجاب على تبسيط الأمور الطبية، وشرحها بسلاسة بحيث يفهمها القارئ العادي الذي لا يمتلك أي خلفية عن الموضوع.
أعتقد أن من حق قرائها الآن أن يطمعوا بترجمة المزيد من كتبها المفيدة والمثرية للمكتبة العربية.
تمتلك الدكتورة جاميسون مقدرة مثيرة للإعجاب على تبسيط الأمور الطبية، وشرحها بسلاسة بحيث يفهمها القارئ العادي الذي لا يمتلك أي خلفية عن الموضوع.
أعتقد أن من حق قرائها الآن أن يطمعوا بترجمة المزيد من كتبها المفيدة والمثرية للمكتبة العربية.
March 14, 2024
Gosh, what to even say. Both enlightening and frustrating in terms of depth of knowledge. There is still so very much to learn about this all too common and profound form of suffering. But bringing a taboo topic to the surface and talking about it definitely feels like a good start- and in this regard the author succeeds.
September 7, 2024
a heavy read but very important
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