The Narrative

Those who have handled and or shot a firearm know that when shooting on a range or in any setting, the potential risks of a ricochet is always on a responsible firearm users mind. A ballistic round traveling at upwards of a thousand feet per second can suddenly come into contact at an angle with a resistant surface and deflect in unpredictable direction, making what seemed like a safe shooting environment into a hazardous one. This expands the characteristics of ones awareness from simply apparent features to ones which may not be so overt.

Mirroring this notion to the world of mental health, the bombardment of generalizing and potential standardizing of specific characteristics and traits of depression, anxiety, suicidality, and other devastating mental illnesses has the ability to overshadow some of the more concealed indicators, leaving room for potential ricochets.

To be abundantly clear, by no means is any of the advocacy of behavioral warning signs for mental illnesses bad or unproductive, as the recent efforts to destigmatize mental illness have been widely successful. But it is worth noting, especially when discussing a hardship such as suicidality, that not all warning signs are big red and flashing.

The Literature

Throughout the various fields of psychology, there is an agreed upon Interconnectivity that converging at the individual, ones social sphere, biology, and ones mentality converging and dynamically relating.

This not only shows the endless complexity that goes into diagnosis and prognosis for a specified mental illness but also the endless ways in which ones hardship can be individually expressed, as the cause is not linear nor is the expression. This can making noticing ones hardship difficult as there is not a simple set of symptoms that are checked off which indicate weather or not one ‘has’ depression.

Culmination

Going back to the shooting range, the precautionary steps and procedures taken in one setting differs from another. Sure there is a set of agreed upon measures which allow for safety and security in most scenarios and contexts, as there are in the mental health setting, but these should not take attention to the minute details that are situation specific and just as important as the standard indicators. When dealing with one who may be struggling with poor mental health, it is important that we look at the established indicators and symptomatic behaviors, but so too do we need to look at the individual as a unique conglomerate of circumstance and context, converging in behavioral, emotional, and logical patterns completely distinct to them.

Just as standardized measures of mental illness are vital to understanding mental health on an individual level, so too are the intricacies of the individual vital in understanding psychological standardized measure. In the act of assessing ones risk, it is important that we take into account who they are and what their story is. By doing so, we begin to see the subtle ways in which we can provide support where it is needed most.

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.