SPURRED on by the loss of his best friend to suicide, a Dunfermline man is hoping to help people with mental health problems after completing a year’s research.

Dad-of-two Jonathan Wilson, 31, has now published his findings in a short book, ‘Action Potential: Why Suicide is an Addiction and What We Can Do About It’, which he is keen to share in a desperate effort to tackle the issue.

After speaking to the Press about his plans last July, he went on to speak to people affected by suicide before collating his findings.

“I spoke to a wide variety of people both from my own social circle as well as complete strangers,” he explained. “It was interesting and difficult because you are hearing people’s personal stories. What I took real comfort in was the sort of feedback I was getting that what I was doing was really worthwhile and people seemed to really take solace from the fact that there was a bit of experience through the loss of my friend.

“I think it helped a few people and it is something I really want to build on but am kind of at a crossroads and don’t know what to do with this.

“I contacted someone at the Scottish Government which was previously the Choose Life framework set up for suicide prevention.

“I emailed them a general sense of what the core thing is but you just don’t hear anything back.

“The process itself has been pretty time-consuming. From the off, I would be looking at documents where the terminology was way above me head. It would take me hours to get through documents but by the end, I feel I came to quite a good understanding.”

Although he admits he is someone with no formal training or education in psychology, one of Jonathan’s key theories laid out in his work is what is going on in the brains of people who want to commit suicide.

“One of the main things I focused on was the discovery of addiction potentially and how that was described as essentially anything that we think we do we feel is always a result of this reaction in our brain,” he explained.

“When putting it in terms of suicide, I am not saying that the act of attempting suicide is an addiction but the repetitive nature of suicidal thoughts ultimately leading into an act. So, largely, I attempted several times to put it down on paper and ended up with what I have done. I feel at this stage I don’t know what to do with it. I feel it is quite significant but I know it is just scratching the surface.

“I think for a lot of people to get to that point, a few things really need to happen. One, you need to feel there’s no alternative and you come to that conclusion. They are in such a dark place and if what I am suggesting is correct, you can look at it like when surrounded by complete darkness, this is one thing that gives you a bit of light.

“Unfortunately, what that person perceives as positive, everyone else sees as a negative. Suicide is seen as a negative act when in reality, that person believes this is the best thing.”

Jonathan’s book is now available on the Kindle bookstore, however, he is keen to share it with anyone who is interested.

He added: “I am wanting the information out there so at least someone can come and say to me, ‘Wrong but this is why’.

“If anyone wants to email me and discuss it, I am more than happy to do so.”

Anyone wanting to get in touch with Jonathan to find out more can do so by emailing jdwilson442@gmail.com.