What To Do When Someone Tells You They Are Suicidal
1. SHUT UP! Listen to them. Please. Don't be so eager to give your opinion right away. Do so when asked. For goodness sakes never miss a good opportunity to shut your mouth.
2. OPINIONS TO YOURSELF--Your opinion is important. We should be able to share them with the people that we love, however, when it comes to this topic, only give them when asked.
3. "Suicide is selfish."--NO matter how much you love this person, and this may be what you believe, keep this one to yourself. The only thing you're doing is passing along bad information because it's not and you're ensuring that this person may never come to you for help again. YOu'll be the last person that knows anything. The suicidal person may not come to you and keep you out of their lives.
If you care, then you don't want this to happen.
4. Tell Someone--If you are not a professional, you can't handle this one alone. If you believe your loved one may harm themselves, tell someone. If the danger is imminent, call the authorities. This is not betrayal. You're saving a life. Treat it as if this person had a gun wound to the head. Don't treat it like they just told you they broke a leg. Suicide is just as life threatening as a stab wound. Treat it as such.
They may be mad at you, but you'd rather they be alive and not speaking to you, than on the other side of the ground not speaking to you.
5. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT-- This one was already mentioned but it's very important to remember. Refrain from calling them names and saying that they are dumb. Don't approach this from a logical point of view, because there is nothing logical about suicide. Nothing logical about wanting to hurt yourself. You want to approach this as a caring and loving person. You want them to know that you are there for them, not judgmental. Just loving and caring. If thats hard for you, then fake it. This is not the time for you to explain how YOU feel. You want your loved one to get help not shut down on you.
2. OPINIONS TO YOURSELF--Your opinion is important. We should be able to share them with the people that we love, however, when it comes to this topic, only give them when asked.
3. "Suicide is selfish."--NO matter how much you love this person, and this may be what you believe, keep this one to yourself. The only thing you're doing is passing along bad information because it's not and you're ensuring that this person may never come to you for help again. YOu'll be the last person that knows anything. The suicidal person may not come to you and keep you out of their lives.
If you care, then you don't want this to happen.
4. Tell Someone--If you are not a professional, you can't handle this one alone. If you believe your loved one may harm themselves, tell someone. If the danger is imminent, call the authorities. This is not betrayal. You're saving a life. Treat it as if this person had a gun wound to the head. Don't treat it like they just told you they broke a leg. Suicide is just as life threatening as a stab wound. Treat it as such.
They may be mad at you, but you'd rather they be alive and not speaking to you, than on the other side of the ground not speaking to you.
5. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT-- This one was already mentioned but it's very important to remember. Refrain from calling them names and saying that they are dumb. Don't approach this from a logical point of view, because there is nothing logical about suicide. Nothing logical about wanting to hurt yourself. You want to approach this as a caring and loving person. You want them to know that you are there for them, not judgmental. Just loving and caring. If thats hard for you, then fake it. This is not the time for you to explain how YOU feel. You want your loved one to get help not shut down on you.
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