The Narrative

Out on the shooting range with a rifle or cleaning a sidearm at home, it is a fundamental safety protocol to keep the muzzle of your firearm pointed in a safe direction throughout the entirety of its operation and handling. This may seem like an obvious observation, but much conscious thought goes into ensuring the firearms muzzle is safely directed, especially if shooting in the presence of others. Ensuring a firearm is pointed at the ground or downrange is not only a means of safe and responsible gun ownership, but so too is it an example of intention and choice in the presence of something with such capacity.

Just as one takes deliberate care in handling a firearm safely, our choices and attitudes require similar intentionality, specifically in the context of mental health and well-being. It is only appropriate within this ongoing aim to better grasp lethal means safety and suicide prevention, therefore, to reflect on bases from which one chooses suicide. Perhaps due to its finality, the choice of suicide is often met with perplexity. But as discussed in previous posts, we cannot allow our lack of understanding to lead to avoidance. We seem to perceive the choice of suicide like we do any other, a risk to reward ratio. “what are the risks of holding this firearm pointing it this way?” However we cannot see suicide in this same light, as it is not a choice people pursue simply out of preference, but rather because people believe it is the only choice left.

What direction is our “muzzle pointed”? To what goals and futures do we align our present choices? These types of questions are often asked within a therapeutic setting and can lead to inquiries of optimism and future-oriented thinking, promoting direction and meaning in ones life. This is a vital part of counseling an individual who may be experiencing suicidal ideation, as optimism takes stress and emotional instability from devastations and shifts their orientation to challenges along the way.

The Literature

Throughout the literature present on the topic, meta analyses have found an overall positive correlation with increased optimism and decreased suicidality. This suggests that as hopefulness and associated emotional resilience increases, the severity of suicidal thought and behavior correspondingly decreases. Therapists reconnect to clients futures by setting small, attainable goals, which cultivate hope and encouraging positive self-talk that redirects their focus toward what can be possible—even throughout adverse times.

This gives insight into the impact of optimism channeled by way of future-focused thinking has on ones emotional stability and means of coping. Stress no longer leads to catastrophe but a means toward an eventual fulfilment of ones goals and dreams.

The Culmination

To point the muzzle of a firearm is to be conscious as to where it is aimed. As humans, our locus is defined by the goals that we seek and the dreams we imagine. It is therefore imperative that future-oriented thinking is prioritized when dealing with suicidal ideation within oneself and others, bringing forward facing hope to ones inner turmoil.

If suicide is a choice made not because people favor it, but because people believe it is the only choice left, optimism serves as an antidote that can bring direction to sorrow; remedy to woundedness. To live in orientation to an aim is to shift ones hardships from defining the outcome to defining the journey through which the outcome is found.

If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, call or text 988. The National Suicide Hotline is staffed around the clock with certified members of the American Association of Suicidology. Or the Crisis Text Line, text CO to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and responds, all from a secure online platform.