Suicide note

A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by (or plans to die by) suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide.

It is estimated that 12–20% of suicides are accompanied by a note. According to Gelder, Mayou and Geddes (2005) one in six leave a suicide note. The content can be a plea for absolution or blaming family and friends for life's failings.[1] However, incidence rates may depend on ethnicity, method of suicide, and cultural differences, and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics.[2][3] A suicide note can be in written, audio, or video form.

Contents

Reasons

Some fields of study such as sociology, psychiatry and graphology, have investigated the reasons why people who commit suicide leave a note.

According to Dr. Lenora Olson, the most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include one or more of the following:

The most common reasons people contemplating suicide fail to write a note are:

Sometimes there is also a message in the case of murder–suicide, explaining the reason(s) for the murder(s), see e.g. Marc Lépine's suicide statement and videotaped statements of the 7 July 2005 London bombers.

Forgeries

According to forensic linguistics forged suicide notes often contain negative social projections about people who die by suicide. A forged note might contain words like "cowardly," which rarely occur in genuine suicide notes.[8]

Famous suicide notes

The following people have left famous suicide notes:

See also

References

External links