Who Am I, and Why Does it Matter?

Suicide is often treated as a problem to be fixed or a risk to be eliminated. But at its core, suicidality is deeply tied to the way people understand themselves, their relationships, and their place in the world. This chapter explores suicide through the lens of identity and meaning—what gives a person a sense of purpose, what makes life feel worth living, and how belonging (or the lack of it) shapes one's experience. Instead of reducing suicide to risk factors and interventions, we ask: What can it teach us about the things that matter most to people? To understand suicide, we have to understand life—the forces that drive us, the values that anchor us, and the narratives we construct about who we are.