There is increasing recognition that individual subjective accounts are important tounderstanding suicidal experiences. The specific experience of life after a suicide attempt isimportant in the development of prevention strategies and understanding how people go onliving.

This systematic literature review aimed to answer the question: How are subjectiveaccounts of life after a suicide attempt described in the literature? A systematic databasesearch was conducted to identify qualitative research studies that have investigated thethat included first-person accounts of life after surviving an attempt. 21 sources of literaturemet inclusion criteria and were reviewed and synthesised following a quality assessment andthematic analysis.

Results were organised under five broad themes: psychological; the body;relational aspects; contexts; existential. Findings suggest that the experience of life after asuicide attempt is unique and idiosyncratic.

Efforts to understand these experiences shouldattend to the individual-in-context, with particular attention to sociocultural and materialcontexts and the process of meaning-making. Clinical implications and future research isconsidered.

. .