The Role of Meaning and Purpose In Suicide Prevention

Will Work For Purpose is a podcast born out of the current era. We are growing more mentally ill, and we are all becoming more aimless. I think that the best thing we can do right now is looking to those who have in no small way, been able to hold onto a sense of purpose regardless of the circumstances.

I am not sure how far I will get with this project or how many people I will be able to talk with, but I feel compelled to try. I find that if I could, at the very least, bringing awareness to the purpose famine, I would consider this podcast a success.  For your reading, I have included a link and some quotes from the study referenced in the podcast.

“The findings of the mediational analysis demonstrated that degree of perception of purpose in life significantly explained the relation between satisfaction with life and suicide ideation. These findings have theoretical implications for models of psychological well-being and for the prevention of significant psychological distress. Specific support was provided for Frankl’s contention (Frankl, 1971, 1985) that one is unlikely to attain life satisfaction by directly pursuing happiness or subjective well-being, but rather that such positive outcomes might ensue from the intentional pursuit of meaningful tasks, experiences, and attitudes. The mediational findings suggest that improvement in psychological functioning might be achieved by clinical interventions targeting perceptions of meaninglessness and lack of meaningful pursuits in addition to dissatisfaction with one’s life. Research evidence indicates that positive emotions can significantly improve problem solving, enhance emotional well-being, and reduce suicide ideation (Joiner et al., 2001).”  “Purpose in life significantly moderated the association between depression and suicide ideation and was most protective against suicide ideation with increasing levels of subjective depression. The clinical implication of this finding is that attending to the sense of purposelessness in a client reporting little subjective depression may contribute to overall psychological resiliency, yet doing so for a client reporting more subjective depression may serve a powerful role in deterring suicidal thoughts thereby potentially decreasing suicide risk.”

“We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We need to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—hourly and daily. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the task which it constantly sets for each individual.” ― Viktor Frankl