LIFE AFTER SURVIVING A SUICIDE ATTEMPT

There is increasing recognition that individual subjective accounts are important to understanding suicidal experiences. The specific experience of life after a suicide attempt is important in the development of prevention strategies and understanding how people go on living. This systematic literature review aimed to answer the question: How are subjective accounts of life after a suicide attempt described in the literature? A systematic database search was conducted to identify qualitative research studies that have investigated the that included first-person accounts of life after surviving an attempt. 21 sources of literature met inclusion criteria and were reviewed and synthesised following a quality assessment and thematic analysis. Results were organised under five broad themes: psychological; the body; relational aspects; contexts; existential. Findings suggest that the experience of life after a suicide attempt is unique and idiosyncratic. Efforts to understand these experiences should attend to the individual-in-context, with particular attention to sociocultural and material contexts and the process of meaning-making. Clinical implications and future research is considered.