Learning from the Lived Experience of Resilient Survivors of Suicidality and Suicide Attempt: The Role of Self-Managing Recovery in Building Resilience to Future Adversity

Abstract

Many studies have explored the factors that placed individuals at risk of suicide. Yet, there is much that can be learnt from the lived experience of those who have been resilient in the face of trauma and those who attempted or planned suicide, who then chose to live and describe their life now as characterized by resilience and well-being. How did they navigate their recovery and prevent relapse? Could their insights and experience suggest transferable skills to benefit those still vulnerable to suicidality?

This chapter explores the lived experience of 17 individuals, who shared the path they navigated through recovery to resilience after planned and/or attempted suicide to explore how their experience might benefit those still at risk of suicide.

The elements of resilience, which emerged as pivotal for these people, largely reflected the elements identified in the research literature on resilience, which has been growing since World War II. It was, however, the stages of recovery the 17 participants described and their self-management of recovery and building resilience that offer new insights for suicide prevention, support of recovery and building the resilience, which prevents relapse. Perhaps most importantly, participants echoed to one another in saying that having self-managed recovery and weathered setbacks to successfully reestablish well-being was in itself a great part of what built resilience, “Having come through this I now know I can get through anything.”