Emotional Lived Experiences of Women Attempting Suicide

Suicide is a serious problem in the field of public health and is currently the tenth leading cause of death worldwide. Shockingly, statistics show that every 11 minutes, one person loses their life to suicide. Suicide is a complex phenomenon involving individual, emotional, social, psychological, and genetic factors. People who commit suicide have diverse lived experiences. Since unsuccessful suicide attempts are more common in women than men and it is one of the important risk factors for future suicide, the purpose of this study was to investigate the emotional lived experiences of women who have attempted suicide.

To conduct the present study, from all women attempting to commit suicide who had referred to the Social Emergency of Meybod City, Iran, 9 people were selected using purposive sampling. In order to collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data analysis was performed using the 7-step Claizian method. The reliability and validity of this research were based on the criteria of "transferability, reliability, verifiability, and authenticity".

The findings from emotional experiences included 7 main categories: "experience of spouse betrayal", "experience of marital problems", "emotional inefficient coping methods", "experience of negative feelings", "experience of lack of warmth and support from the family", "experience of parental marital discord", and "experience of sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence" and 15 subcategories.

Most women who commit suicide have experienced sexual, physical, and emotional abuse during their childhood and adolescence. Therefore, it is necessary to prioritize the implementation of support and educational programs aimed at preventing and reducing the harm caused by experience of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse for women in health, medical, and educational centers.