Thomas Joiner

This is really, really scary for the world of, like, suicide predic- uh, prediction.

Because with social isolation, this being ostracized from, uh, from the group, wh-what, uh, Thomas Joiner would call thwarted belongingness, I'm really starting to increase this likelihood that I might engage in a behavior that's going to stop me from feeling ever again.

And that's, that's what chronic trauma is.

It's the activation of a natural system in our body that eventually we have difficulty deactivating, engaging those natural parasympathetic stores.

And I think that's a risk factor that our friends and family need to be aware of.

Yeah, I mean, one of the risk factors we know for suicide, and this is work by Thomas Joiner, he has this interpersonal theory of suicide.

One of the critical aspects is perceived burdensomeness.

So it's a sense that you're there, you're living, but you're not really productive and perhaps you're a burden to others.

Like, they have three things, and unfortunately, I'm not a therapist either, so I don't know the specific words.

And this is the, this is Thomas Joiner who wrote a very famous book.

Yes.

So for, if I remember correctly, I, I had, one was shame.

This is a symptom of society.

And that concept of the more social relationships that you have, the lower risk you have for dying by suicide has been empirically supported time and time again since then And it is a huge underpinning of Thomas Joiner's interpersonal theory of suicidality.

If you've ever been to one of my trainings, I talk about this theory because it is like your bare bones risk assessment way to understand why someone might die by suicide.

But he cites perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness as major risk factors and reasons for suicide, which really tie into this, right? Like if you are isolated, you don't have strong connections, you feel like you're a burden on other people, that could cause someone to potentially die by suicide.