The Stages of Suicidal Divergence: A Model of Linear Agency Loss

Suicide has long been treated as a psychological symptom or clinical anomaly. This paper redefines suicide structurally—as a recursive-propagative divergence of perceived scaling potential. Within this framework, suicidal behavior emerges when an agent concludes that no viable path remains for scaling intelligence. I used data from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 28,000+), to model suicidality using the scaling intelligence model. I used regression, principal components analysis, and structured residual modeling. Three significant findings emerged. First, the variables representing the constructs in my model show remarkable explanatory power for suicidality using no more than four single-item variables. I achieve explanatory power of up to 18% with four variables, up to 17% with two variables, and up to 13% with a single variable. Second, I show that suicidality appears to progress in a nearly perfect linear divergence pattern from No Suicidality -> Suicidal Ideation -> Suicidal Planning -> Suicidal Attempt. In a sample of 𝟑𝟓,𝟔𝟗𝟕 people, only 𝟏𝟏𝟖 (𝟎. 𝟑𝟑%) of them did not follow a linear progression from suicidal ideation to attempt. If you examine only those who report any suicidality, there are 𝟐,𝟓𝟗𝟎, and only 𝟏𝟏𝟖 (𝟒. 𝟓𝟓%) deviated from this linear progression. Given this linear classification, I obtain explanatory power of 𝟗𝟕.𝟖𝟗% for suicidal ideation, 𝟗𝟐.𝟏𝟑% for suicide planning, and 𝟗𝟕.𝟕𝟖% for suicidality. Finally, I empirically demonstrate a potential cause for suicide, where agents use suicide as a last-ditch effort to scale their intelligence once they believe all possible environmental influence, either currently or in the future, is unobtainable. The Stages of Suicidal Divergence model provides a clinical framework for identifying the stages of suicide and the potential to prevent attempts by restoring perceived scaling potential. These findings offer a new foundation for prevention, assessment, and treatment, and formally resolve suicide as a recursive state with identifiable entry points and exit paths. This work has not been peer-reviewed.