Misappraisal of Time Perspective and Suicide in the Anxiety Disorders: The Multiplier Effect of Looming Illusions

Abstract

Abstract A voluminous clinical and epidemiological extant literature showing a link between anxiety disorders and increased suicidality has remained controversial due to the observation that the presence of psychiatric comorbidities usurps this association when examined directly. However, recent population–based, prospective research has provided strong support for elevated suicide risk in individuals with anxiety disorders independent of other psychiatric conditions. This article considers the psychological mechanisms that may, in part, account for the association between anxiety disorders and suicide. In addition to examining the role of nonspecific psychological vulnerabilities such as hopelessness and self–criticism, we explore the contributions of an anxiety–specific cognitive factor, looming vulnerability. Cognitive appraisals and images of a maladaptive looming cognitive style involve perceptions of rapidly mounting, escalating, and unmanageable threat and adversity that may serve to facilitate hop...