Purpose:The purpose of the study was to understand essential meanings of suffering experienced by suicide attempters. Methods: Data were collected in 2009 through individual narrative interviews from 7 suicide attempters. Texts from literary works and movies containing suicide were also included as data. Data were analyzed using the hermeneutic phenomenology of van Manen. Results: Thirteen themes were identified in four dimensions. In the dimension of 'lived body', 'unbearably sweet temptation to death', 'body surrendered by emotional damage', 'chaos in life and death', 'squashed body by the heavy weight of life', and 'loss of meaning in life' were identified. 'The black hole, one is not able to get out' represents the experience in the dimension of 'lived space', 'The moment on the edge of a profound abyss' and 'the worst present and hopeless future' represent 'lived time'. In the dimension of 'lived human relation', 'I who am alone in the world', 'fear of being abandoned', 'unbreakable relationship trap', 'I who am not recognized' and 'guilty feeling' were included. Conclusion: Results of the study should be helpful in developing personalized suicide prevention programs by showing the various types of suffering deeply ingrained into the personal history of suicide attempters.

Nurses in the field of addictions and substance abuse have assumed, along with most of medicine, that alcohol abuse is a multifactoral health problem. The narratives of two college student's comments about their experiences of excessive drinking are considered from the human becoming theory as an alternative perspective to the causal theories which are dominant in the addictions and substance abuse fields. These issues are also considered from a human becoming perspective.