The authors sought to increase their understanding of the subjective experience of the suicidal individual & to identify factors that contribute to survival following a suicide attempt. They found that feelings of sadness, depression, disappointment, & emptiness were the emotions most often experienced by participants in the period immediately following their attempts. By contrast, respondents later felt glad or grateful they had survived. Treatment with a health care professional was mentioned most often as preventing current suicidal behaviour & was also identified as the most frequent coping strategy. (25 refs)