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Common Symptoms, Behaviors, Risk Factors

Home → Services → Mental Health Services → Suicide Prevention → Common Symptoms, Behaviors, Risk Factors

Below are some common symptoms associated with thoughts of suicide both at home and at school.

Home Risk Factors

Health:

  • Mental health conditions
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Schizophrenia
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Depression
  • Substance use problems
  • Conduct disorder
  • Serious physical health conditions including pain

Environmental:

  • Access to lethal means such as firearms and drugs
  • Stressful life events, like rejection, divorce, financial crisis, other life transitions or loss
  • Prolonged stress, such as harassment, bullying, relationship problems or unemployment
  • Exposure to another person’s suicide, or to graphic or sensationalized accounts of suicide

Historical:

  • Previous suicide attempts
  • Childhood abuse, neglect or trauma
  • Family history of suicide

Home Warning Signs

Talk:

  • Killing themselves
  • Having no reason to live
  • Feeling trapped
  • Feeling hopeless
  • Being a burden to others
  • Unbearable pain

Behavior:

  • Increased use of alcohol or drugs
  • Withdrawing from activities
  • Sleeping too much or too little
  • Giving away prized possessions
  • Fatigue
  • Looking for a way to end their lives, such as searching online for methods
  • Isolating from family and friends
  • Visiting or calling people to say goodbye
  • Aggression

Mood:

  • Depression
  • Loss of interest
  • Humiliation/Shame
  • Relief/Sudden Improvement
  • Anxiety
  • Irritability
  • Agitation/Anger

Common Symptoms, Behaviors, Warning Signs at School

Many of the warning signs above are also present in school. The following list provides more school-specific behaviors.

Warning Signs

  • Change in interaction with friends in class
  • Victim of assault or bullying
  • Talking, reading, or writing about death/suicide
  • Poor attendance
  • Acting out in class
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Withdrawal from activities and sports
  • Feeling embarrassed or humiliated
  • Unwillingness to seek help from teachers/staff
  • Poor grades and work completion
  • Use of alcohol or drugs at school
  • Skipping classes
  • Tardiness to school
Suicide Prevention
The Bellevue School District acknowledges that we learn, work, live and gather on the Indigenous Land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish and Snoqualmie Tribes. We thank these caretakers of this land, who have lived and continue to live here, since time immemorial.