People learn about suicide at a very young age. They already know about it, so our asking about it does not give them the idea. Where you worry you may be planting a seed, a large tree has already grown.
In case you have doubts, consider a research study conducted with adolescents. In this study, two groups of adolescents were given questionnaires about emotions, stress, and personal characteristics. One group had an additional set of questions asking about whether they were thinking of suicide or had attempted suicide. Two days later, the researchers administered questions about suicidal thoughts and attempts to both groups.
If indeed asking about suicidal thoughts planted the idea of suicide in the teenagers’ minds, we would expect the group that was asked the suicide-related questions to have higher rates of suicidal ideation than the group that was not asked. That did not happen. Both groups thought about suicide at the same rate.
Is Reading about Suicide Making You Suicidal?
You can answer this question yourself with a couple questions:
Were you thinking about attempting suicide when you started reading this column?
If not, are you now thinking of attempting suicide?
Most likely, no one who was not thinking of attempting suicide when they started reading this column is planning to do so now. (If for any reason you are thinking of attempting suicide, please call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or use one of the resources listed here.)
So please do keep in mind that asking about suicide does not give anybody the idea. They already got that idea long ago. Now the question is whether they reject the idea, or whether they are cultivating it as it grows ever more.
UPDATED May 5, 2014
Copyright 2013 Stacey Freedenthal
