Holding the Lifeline
A Guide to Suicide Prevention

Module 4: Suicide Across the Life Span - Page 2 of 17

Stages of Development

"There's a history of suicide in my family. Two of my great aunts died from suicide in their 20s by jumping off a cliff. My grandfather was an alcoholic and committed suicide. He was at home, stinking drunk, and shot himself. My mom was bi-polar and had suicide episodes. My aunt fought feelings of despair her entire life. I remember phone calls as a child from my aunt in New York City to my mother when she kept threatening to jump to her death.

When I was 8 years old, I saw my mom in a straight jacket in the isolation unit. When I visited my mom in the hospital she looked wild, she did not look like the person I knew.

Once they had adjusted her medication, she would slowly return to the mom we knew."

-- The words of a suicide survivor

Human development expert Erick Erikson identified 8 stages of development from infancy to death. Erikson's model recognizes the fact that human beings face different growth challenges, depending on where they are in the stages of development. Whereas an infant's task in life is to develop a sense of trust, an adolescent's role is to find independence.

Each stage in development may result in different suicidal behaviors or risks: A teenager may want to commit suicide for reasons much different than an older person. Understanding suicide's impact across the life span can help uncover the causes of suicide among various populations and ages. In addition to age, suicide rates differ by gender and ethnic affiliation. Suicide Rates By Age shows how suicide risk varies across the life span.

Among the goals of the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention is eliminating healthcare disparities that are attributable to differences such as race or ethnicity, gender, education or income, disability, age, sexual orientation, and others. ref

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