Suicidality in family caregivers is an underrecognized problem.  Family caregivers often feel a profound sense of purpose, duty, and meaningfulness in the aid they give to family members.  They try to be strong.  They are better able to function in their daily lives than those they are caring for, but that doesn’t mean they don’t suffer.  Rates of suicidal thoughts in caregivers of people with chronic illness are about 1.3x higher than the general population.  Several factors contribute to this: physical burden of care, stress, insomnia, anxiety, depressed mood, changes in the relationship with the person who is ill, worries about their future, financial struggles, reduced time for self-care.  My lab also identified that a history of childhood abuse as reported by the caregiver may be a significant risk factor—suicidal thoughts were more than 3x higher than those without a reported history of childhood abuse. 

Moreover, my study also identified a trainable trait that protected against suicidal thoughts: those who had higher levels of self-compassion reported lower suicidal thoughts.  Self-compassion is a concept that arises from Buddhism.  It refers to being kind to oneself, non-judgmental toward perceived failings, and seeing suffering as part of the general human condition (instead of a reflection of personal faults).  Thus, this concept is not “religious” in nature.

Despite the high rates of caregiver suicidal thoughts, the field of caregiver research has largely ignored the problem of caregiver suicidality.  In fact, there is only one published study on treatment of caregiver suicidality: my own.  My lab performed this pilot study and published it in 2024 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Reports.  It found that mentalizing imagery therapy, which I created, reduced suicidal thoughts more than a support group, and it also increased self-compassion.  More and larger studies of this kind need to be done, so that we can better serve the serious emotional needs of family caregivers.