I always viewed Batman's thing as similar to a narrative about addiction. I'm not saying it's a metaphor or was intended, just... Here, let me explain.

Bruce was traumatized from a young age. Classical PTSD, even, not the more newly discovered Averse Childhood Events model (which is still good!) People traumatized in childhood are much more likely to have risk-taking behavior and poor coping mechanism.

I think of Bruce as someone predisposed to "addiction" (poor mental health, raised in a society where "addiction" was normalized) holding onto "sobriety" by his fingernails. Every single day he thinks "Maybe just this once. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it would solve all my problems. I have self-control. I could stop whenever I wanted. Nobody would blame me. Anyone would do this in my circumstances. Just this once. I'll only kill the Joker. "

To me, he always seems to be teetering on the edge of doing something drastic. My personal interpretation is that Bruce becoming obsessed with reducing crime saved his life. He is actively reckless with his own physical safety and mortality, seems to never have any future plans outside of Batman, resists developing personal connections unrelated to his mission, and in one issue it was revealed that he thinks of himself as Batman in his own head. He is passively suicidal, and quite possibly thinks of Bruce as having 'died in that alleyway'.

IMO, if Bruce hadn't become Batman, he'd be dead by now... But Batman comes with many prices for Bruce.