Is anyone familiar with the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior? If so, what do you think of it?
It proposes that "an individual will not die by suicide unless s/he has both the desire to die by suicide and the ability to do so." People who have the desire to die perceive themselves to be a burden and feel alienated from others/socially isolated. However, people who are capable of overcoming the survival instinct and successfully killing themselves are those who have been repeatedly exposed to pain, injury, and death. Suicide is more common in occupations (e.g. physician, soldier) that give repeated exposure to pain and injury. It's also more common in people with anorexia nervosa, who expose themselves to pain through starvation for long periods of time. It's the deadliest eating disorder but the majority of deaths are from suicide not starvation.
If you look at the statistics, most people who want to die don't attempt and the vast majority of people who attempt aren't successful. Suicidal ideation alone is not a good indicator of who will complete suicide.
I have been suicidal for over a decade but I think that the reason why I'm not dead yet is because I don't have that "acquired ability to enact lethal self-injury." I want to work on developing it to overcome my survival instinct.