Anything that helps this situation is to be welcomed.

The mood change is probably caused by the person ‘giving up’, the person knows that there is no more suffering in death and relaxes, a lot of the anxiousness and worry probably dies the moment the person decides to go ahead with it.

A few years ago a friend of mine killed himself, he had being depressed for a long time, in the last few months he seemed peaceful and it looked like he had finally got it together, and then I got the phone call.

Anyone feeling suicidal please check out http://www.pieta.ie
Talk to someone.

why are people giving this doctor a hard time?? At least he’s looking into it and trying to understand the complex nature of suicide! its seems to b a case of you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t!!!!

Economic pressures responsible for many suicides over the past few years. Many people are afraid to open their post, answer the phone or go to the door. Before chasing debts creditors should stand back and try and conclude if the debtor is a cant pay or wont pay. This applies particularly to courts who are handing out judgements , revenue and banks etc. Many people who were never in debt are now and are suicidal. They are too embarrassed to discuss it with anybody and see no other way out. All those working in the debt recovery area should be obligated to attend courses on subjects such as this. I include in that people working for sheriffs who are going around the country terrorising people because of the particular powers they have to seize property etc. Their is an obligation on the authorities to act here. Lives can be saved.

This is an issue that needs far more attention. More people die by suicide each year in this country than in road fatalities. Both suicide and road deaths cause the deepest grief. However, suicide gets very sparse attention in comparison to road safety.

This man is committed to workable, practical steps to combat suicide and is to be commended. Approximately 12 people a week ( on average) take their own lives. Several friends of time have done so through the years and I aware of many other cases. It’s so sad that this is reaching epidemic proportions but it’s still the elephant in the room when it comes to govt policy and indeed wider society.

The RSA budget should be redirected towards suicide prevention considering 3 times more are taking their own lives

For aperson who once tried to commit suicide when I was 21 I think I know how it feels. I was bullied for years as i was a quiet person. I took criticism to heart and I was hypersensitive especially in stressful situations like going for a interview or any new situation. I struggled to feel the same as others. I never felt at ease or the same as my peers. I left secondary school because there were many reasons me and those who lived in the same area were discriminated against. The area I lived in was viewed as trouble. Even the teachers had no time to hear us. I remember being humiliated by a teacher in class and told to go to the back of the class. I felt miserable. I hated the school. I eventually dropped out. That feeling of not fitting on grew. It also fed into a fear I had growing all the time that I may be Gay. This terrified me. Where I grew up men were men and girls kept to themselves gender roles clearly defined. I heard the name Gay people were called and how they were viewed and i did not, could not cope being seen this way so it led me to try to kill myself. I woke up a few days later to hell. Everyone asking why did i do it. What was wrong with me and from then on I knew people looked at me like I was a psycho. I could see it in their faces. I struggled and kept going from day to day and that was 30 almost 30 years ago. I have come a long way but the strange this is it leaves a scar. It leaves a wound in you and whenever i hear someone died through suicide I can feel that wound again. There are many reasons people want to die. Stress and pressure from trying to live is a common reason as well as men who cannot face being gay because of homophobia and the stigma this will inflict on them. I have to admit sometimes the pressure of bills and mortgage on the dole pushes me to the limit and not for the last 2 year i see a psychiatrist because I fear falling into despair again. This government is hammering me and people like me into the ground with policies that are hardline and discriminatory. I worked all my life and paid taxes and PRSI and lost my job after 10 years struggling with a mental illness and I am afraid so much I will snap. I have been turned down for a basic benefit I am entitled to after all my years working and this is depressing me more than ever. I can understand why people kill themselves. I never say why, I know why. They are struggling to cope with who they are and how they should proceed. We live in a very uncaring world and many pick this up and see no consolation in others help. Just look at some of the comments here. It shows exactly some of the heartless attitudes that are out there. I hope and pray anyone contemplating suicide picks the phone up and just talk to anyone you feel comfortable with. Anyone.

Dr Harry Barry is a highly qualified mental health expert ( not just a GP). He is a researcher, author and dedicated to identifying the antecedents of suicide. Moreover he is also researching prevention, intervention and post vention . Thankfully we have people like Harry promoting awareness. Im still in shock at the second comment above. I know people are entitled to their opinions but thats down right nonsense….Pathetic

Two key points:
1/ the number of late night solo young man car accidents suggest a ongoing trend of suicide by car crash
2/ Coroners country wide need to be more forthcoming on the cause of deaths and stop bowing to family pressure to change suicide as a cause.
We will never understand the true depth of this quiet epidemic until the above two are factored in to the overall numbers

Sorry their should be there.

Alan, yup it’s not new to many of us but we now have a defined definite theory which gives it status in the mental health world. A defined theory is more likely to receive funding too so this can only be good. “Harry’s theory” can only be good and at least it is raising awareness.

This is incredible! Unbelieveable even! The most disturbing thing about this article is that this so called “Suicide Cocoon” theory is being touted as a new discovery or new concept. What Dr. Barry is referring to is a recognised and acknowledged stage at which a person reconciles themselves to taking their own life and was incorporated into the latest suicide intervention and prevention training such as the “Suicide ASIST” programme as far back as 2007. It is not Dr. Barry’s discovery! I’m quite shocked that those upon whom we rely to affect positive change and progress in this area are not even aware of the fundamentals in modern treatment and intervention. This is an appalling revelation and indicative of why the mental health services in this country are in such a diabolical state and continue to fail some of the most vulnerable in our society. Outrageous!

Jes Harry ,this is not new,it’s always been known that when a suicidal person gets in to a better mood that they have made up their minds . What needs to b answered is what can we do about it once it’s all recognised . There is very little u can do if someone is absolutely sure.what we do have to do as a society is make sure nobody is under such pressure that they are forced in this direction . Teaching people how to deal with such pressure should begin in schools.there has never been such pressure as there is on people now .people have to learn how to park worries and learn that ” this too will pass ” and keep busy, and it will . Any discussion on suicide is helpful tho.

Well done chris for being so honest and surviving the ills of being a sensitive child . School was terrible to sensitive people,we never learned that probably half the class felt the same but were better at covering it up and of course then it sticks with us into our adult lives . As for the problems we now face with unemployment etc.again lots of people with the same problem conceal it .the nervousness carries over from childhood and we do need more good psychologists that we don’t have to pay for if we really want to care for suicidal people .

@Michelle, I think that any initiative will be taken by voluntary groups and Support Organisations.
very little has ever been done by Government bodies.
I myself offered my services free of charge some time ago to anyone who needed it, but sadly very few took up my offer.

Suicide is often confused and associated with ” mental illness” they are not necessarily linked. Suicide is mostly event led nothing to do with long term “mental illness” . Think this may stop people from wanting to talk about it .if there was an article on “what made me stop being suicidal ” it may help others and get rid of the silent taboo .

Richard very few is fine.one or two to start is good .its not exactly something people are queueing up for but with time and hearing of even one success would encourage people. I would love to b the cause of someone just one person changing their mind.

This is NOT a new concept/theory…. This has been part of the suicide warning signs for years.

We need big big change in this country when it comes to mental health. It is not acceptable that we have so many suicides. It is utterly awful that so many of them are young. It is not as if we do not know what to do and what works. There is simply no excuse for not doing it – deep shame on this Government for touting the idea that they would cut €35 million they promised for community mental health services in order to plug the gap in HSE funding.

Approaching World Suicide Prevention Day on Monday and we have one (maybe more) teenage suicides a month in this country. This is horrific. A child has to wait a year and a half for a psychological assessment. That is tragic. What the hell are we thinking of? Mental Health Reform have asked the Government to implement A Vision for Change so that we can come out of the dark ages and have community based services that focus on the recovery model. http://www.mentalhealthreform.ie

Headstrong’s Jigsaw youth mental health projects work with young people in local communities in a wrap around way that involves the whole community and have a focus on promoting positive mental health for all of us, instead of the out of date approach of labelling people. They really reach and involve young people. http://www.jigsaw.ie

When are we going to see schools and other centres providing programmes on how to look after your mental health – they really work – we need to just do it. The Government have a programme called MindOut that they piloted – it should be in all schools. These kinds of programmes in schools lead to young people feeling better and being more likely to connect up with help if they need it, and knowing how to do it, as well as opening up discussion on positive mental health in our schools. We need an end to young people (teenage years are when mental health issues often first emerge and if not tackled then can develop into mental illness) sitting in school feeling they are the only one going through a really hard time that they cannot cope with – they need to know they are not alone, how they can help themselves, get support from their mates and get better.

The Headstrong report My World, a study of the mental health of more than 14,000 young Irish people, reveals how high feelings of mental distress are among teenagers (about one in three). The young people in that report say school is the biggest contributor to their stress. Wouldn’t it be nice the if schools were places where they could learn from a young age how to look after their own mental health and that of their friends, with a positive mental health approach that de-stigmatises the kind of feelings that are after all common to many young people (and adults) – and keep on learning it through secondary school? Young people have said loud and clear that they would be more likely to look to a friend for help. The half-day safeTALK training that trains you to become alert to the signs of somebody you know being suicidal and how to connect them up to services should be made available to 16-year-olds in all our schools. It is currently not allowed to be taught to under 18-year-olds in this country, but this kind of training IS available to 16-year-olds in other countries. At a suicide seminar I attended where there were a lot of Transition Year students, they said strongly and unanimously that they want this kind of training, to be able to be look after their own mental health, recognise when they were down, recognise when a friend was down and how to help them. They said they would prefer to talk to a friend than go to a school counsellor or teacher.

Although it’s great to keep suicide prevention in the foreground of news and public awareness, I agree with others who have pointed out that this theory is neither new nor advanced enough.

GP has theory on suicide. Based on his own hunches and anecdotal interviews with his own patients, among others. Says if only others adopted his highly successful method of treatment, then loves could be saved. But it’s a story about suicide so thejournal.ie will run with it.
I don’t know Dr. Harry Barry and he could be a very nice chap and an excellent GP. But is this all that can be reported about research into suicide? Is there not a professional researcher anywhere in the country, or even the world, doing any kind of study in this area?
I don’t want to be callous as I know this is a very serious topic, but its very seriousness means that we should demand some kind of empirical rigour before the media publish home-grown theories and conjecture as fact. Now if Dr. Barry had written this as an opinion piece under his own name, that would be fine. But it’s not news.
Where’s Ben Goldacre when you need him?