I think you’ll struggle to get a neuroscience perspective on that.

Are you open to philosophical or psychological interpretations?

By recognizing the role of your cerebral cortex, and by exercising your capacity to engage your volition objectively (as opposed to subjectively or capriciously). A simple question disguised as deep and difficult.

By thinking things through.

It’s really simple. Change the brain chemistry. Lithium did it for me. I was getting awful close to killing myself and then they put me on Lithium and a year later, I was out of danger, I think. I mean, Lithium had an immediate (one month) effect, in that it ratcheted my depression down enough to be able to avoid killing myself. Without it, who knows? But they have studies that it works.

There are more than 200 different combinations of drugs they use to help folks who are suicidal. They don’t know which one will work, but usually, if they get enough time, they can find something.

It is really, really weird to be thinking about suicide one day, and to be unable to think about it the next. That’s when I realized how much chemicals control our thoughts. I used to think I was in control and now I realize that if I am in control at all, it is to a small degree, and a lot of it has to do with brain chemistry. Scary, eh? Frankly, I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced it can believe it. It just feels like we’re in control. Everyone knows they are in control. We take it for granted. The very idea that we are not in control seems absurd. Ya’ll are lucky you can think that. But I can’t any more.

Suicide isn’t an innate urge. That’s why being suicidal is considered an abnormality.

@Patton
I know that that’s why I asked.

What I want to know is can animals overcome these primal urges if so how and what is driving them if anything? Can only animals with cortexes overcome these urges and if so how ?

I’ve gone through a degree course in neuroscience so if anyone knows any technical details I should understand

I don’t think you can know what is innate or not. It depends how you define innate. But there can be and are outlier behaviors that are innate. They may be abnormal, but they can still be built in to us. I think it is quite possible that suicide is an innate behavior that is activated under certain, specific conditions.

@inunsure If you know that suicide isn’t an innate urge, then why did you offer it as an example in the OP?

@Patton
because thats an act against innate urges

I see. That should have been clearer. The OP makes it look like you’re saying the opposite. I’m not sure we really have an innate urge to survive, however. It seems to me like we have a lot of innate urges to do things that typically lead to survival, but not an innate urge to survive per se. Human beings are capable of rationalizing these urges and understanding that they promote survival, but it would actually be evolutionarily inefficient to hardwire an urge to survive because evolution is sometimes fostered by our deaths (like when we sacrifice ourselves to save our children).

Our prefrontal cortex lets us veto certain automatic functions including innate urges. It cannot stop us from breathing. But it’s powerful enough to not let our hand touch the boobs of a beautiful stranger standing next to us on the subway. The prefrontal cortex needs 25 years to mature. For some people it takes longer.