A team of Toronto researchers examined nearly 300 suicide notes. Here's what they found



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According to a study by Canadian researchers, impotence, the fight against mental illness and blame are common themes to suicide notes, which recommend to health professionals to target these problems in treatment programs and prevention.

The research, published this week in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, sought to find patterns of thinking that contribute to suicide and make recommendations to target these regimens.

"We know a lot about suicidal experiences, but it is very rare to be able to enter a single window on the state of mind of people who commit suicide," said Dr. Juveria Zaheer, co-author of the study and clinician-scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health.

The study, conducted by researchers at CAMH and the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, examined 290 suicide notes that were later reduced to 36 notes that explicitly referred to mental illness and mental health care.

notes

The notes came from cases of suicide that occurred between 2003 and 2009 and were reported to the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, according to the study.

Mental Illness Was Often P – Dr. Zainab Furqan

Nearly 90% of people who commit suicide have been diagnosed with mental illness, said Zaheer

. Zainab Furqan, who also co-wrote the study, said the research aimed to explore how mental illness and mental health care were described by those who died by suicide.

Although the study acknowledged that people describe their mental illness differently, it found that feelings of helplessness were commonly expressed in the notes. In terms of treatment, others wrote that they were angry that they could not make any progress in treating their condition.

Describing a battle against mental illness was also a recurring theme in the notes, according to the study.

Mental illness has often been portrayed as an adversary or an enemy that you fight, "Furqan said. "We found that it consumed a lot of mental energy and they used words like" exhaustion "and" fatigue "to describe this battle."

The study also indicated that in more than half of the suicide notes examined, despair was mentioned with reference to previous treatment of mental illness. People have also often blamed themselves for not responding positively to treatments, according to the study.

"You Are Not Your Disease"

Zaheer stated that the themes found in the notes can help formulate recommendations for treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy that addresses negative thinking and negative opinions of the future. should also help the patient to balance his point of view and his mental illness.

"So, do not separate themselves completely from their mental illness, but also do not take mental illness as their identity
," she said.

Furqan and Zaheer said that they wanted the study to be "optimistic" but they recognize that it is difficult for people who suffer from depression to feel this.

"If we could say something to people who are suffering, it is keeping this thread of hope because there are treatments that can be effective and can work," said Zaheer . "You are not your illness."

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