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.