Quality of Life of Adults Who Have Attempted Suicide
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East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2020 Quality of Life of Adults Who Have Attempted Suicide Karen Hoefer East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Hoefer, Karen, "Quality of Life of Adults Who Have Attempted Suicide" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3684. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3684 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Quality of Life of Adults Who Have Attempted Suicide __________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Sociology __________________ by Karen Rhea Hoefer May 2020 __________________ Dr. Martha Copp, Co-Chair Dr. Candace Forbes Bright, Co-Chair Dr. Jon Ellis Keywords: Quality of Life, Adult Suicide, Reasons for Living, Suicide, Life Course ABSTRACT Quality of Life of Adults Who Have Attempted Suicide by Karen Rhea Hoefer This study focuses on the quality of life of suicide attempt survivors and the trajectories of their lives after their last attempt in the past two to ten years. Employing both a quantitative and qualitative approach but focusing largely on the qualitative data, I collected demographic data, gathered responses on an abbreviated Reasons for Living Inventory, and conducted open- ended phone interviews with 26 participants. The primary life course finding is that participants’ suicide attempts are often built on years of dealing with mental illness. The analysis also dispels many stereotypes associated with people who have attempted suicide. I explore patterns in participants’ reports of their experiences surrounding their attempt(s), the stigma they felt (largely internal), and how they tried to alleviate that stigma and speak openly about their experiences with suicide attempts and ideations. 2 DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my participants and others who struggle with passive and active suicidal ideations. I also dedicate this to those who struggle and fight with mental illness. “You can’t preach hell and damnation on someone who has been through this…you know they need love and attention and care. “ --An interviewee 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Candace Bright, Dr. Jon Ellis and Dr. Martha Copp. The brilliance collectively between the three would blind you and I was lucky enough to have them as my committee members. I also thank the ETSU School of Graduate Studies for awarding a Research Grant that enabled me to give the participants a token of appreciation for spending their valuable time speaking me with and doing the online portion of the study as well. I am grateful to Qualtrics genius Morgan Jones Kidd, who helped me create a professional-looking survey, and to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network for posting my study on their media outlets so that I could connect with more participants. Thank you to the friends that I hold near and dear to my heart for your emotional support through that which is graduate school. I am grateful to my brother Drew, who offered essential emotional support. And lastly, deep thanks go to my parents, especially my dad, as there is literally no way I could have made it through graduate school without him. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ 2 DEDICATION .................................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 8 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 10 Motivations for Suicide Attempts ..................................................................................... 10 History ............................................................................................................................... 11 The Differences in Adolescents and Adults ...................................................................... 15 Mental Illness and Causes of Suicide ................................................................................ 16 Stigma ............................................................................................................................... 18 Consumed by Suicide ........................................................................................................ 20 Myths about Suicide ......................................................................................................... 20 Gender .............................................................................................................................. 23 Methods of Suicide ........................................................................................................... 24 Resilience .......................................................................................................................... 25 Life Course Questions Used in Other Studies ................................................................... 26 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 27 4. REASONS FOR LIVING INVENTORY ............................................................................................ 31 5. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................ 40 5 Life Altering Events as Enabling Conditions ..................................................................... 40 Sexual Abuse and Assault ..................................................................................... 41 Mental Illness ........................................................................................................ 43 Grief and Loss ........................................................................................................ 46 Cumulative Factors ............................................................................................... 50 Dealing with the Aftermath .............................................................................................. 53 Experiencing Stigma .............................................................................................. 53 Undercounting/Mislabeling Suicide Attempts ..................................................... 57 Getting Help ...................................................................................................................... 60 Therapy ................................................................................................................. 60 Online Help and Self-Help Groups ........................................................................ 64 Medication ............................................................................................................ 68 Passive and Active Suicidal Ideation ..................................................................... 71 Making a Life ..................................................................................................................... 72 What Makes People Want to Live? ....................................................................... 74 Resilience and Persistence .................................................................................... 79 6. CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS .............................................................................................. 82 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 86 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................. 93 Appendix A: Interview Questions ..................................................................................... 93 Appendix B: Demographic Information ............................................................................ 99 VITA ............................................................................................................................................. 107 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the United States, suicide claims the lives of 47,000 people annually and is the 10th leading cause of death (NIMH 2017). In 2017, approximately 10.6 million adults reported having serious suicidal thoughts and 1.4 million people made non-fatal suicide attempts (NIMH 2017). This, of course, does not include all the suicides and suicide attempts that go unreported or are categorized incorrectly. Additionally, it is estimated that roughly one-third of the population have or will have suicidal