How To Help a Suicidal Person Overcome the Urge…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Although my blog is primarily for Authors and Readers to get together, there are causes I feel need (and can) to be addressed by everyone, regardless of who or where they are, but especially by authors and bloggers, who have a greater influence than most.

Depression and suicides appear to be on the increase due to all sorts of reasons, from fear of terrorism to health issues through to job losses, etc.

Young Sam has already appeared on my blog HERE discussing depression (which many of you went to, shared and gave his efforts a big boost).

This is a follow-up post from him that I hope will be shared even more.

It should be noted that although Sam’s blog is especially aimed at Teenagers, he is trying to help everyone.

TSRA

When a family member tries to commit suicide, the entire family is plunged into confusion and grief. Life is instinctually valued by all of life’s creatures. Even a blade of grass or flower fights for the privilege of life. When someone close to you voluntarily ends their lives, your entire value system is thrown into question. Family members may also be consumed with guilt, thinking that they somehow should have seen the signs that led to the individuals suicide. Group therapy with others who have experienced this trauma as well as individual therapy may be necessary to help cope.

When someone tries to commit suicide the impact it has on others is significant, even if the person doesn’t think it does. How would you feel seeing someone from your family take their own life? The thing is a person who is suicidal doesn’t feel that anyone does care, even family. It’s just a lonely world for them where they are all alone with nobody.

Why Would Someone Commit Suicide

Most people who try to commit suicide don’t actually want to die, they just want the pain to stop. Most people who try to commit suicide have been fighting it for a long time but eventually they just loose all hope and can’t see any way out. When someone looses all hope, that is when they are most vulnerable.

People who commit suicide don’t always have to be suffering from mental health. People do sometimes commit suicide for other reasons however in this post I will mainly focus on the mental health aspects of suicide.

Someone who is suicidal doesn’t tend to feel that way because of one thing. It tends to be a combination of things including, but not limited to:

  • pain
  • loneliness
  • rejection
  • abuse
  • deep sadness
  • guilt
  • depression
  • hopelessness
  • helplessness

Why Don’t Suicidal People Get Help?

Many suicidal people will suffer all alone without telling someone or getting help, but why? The answer to that is because they fear getting judged, discriminated against and made fun of. The people in this world do not all accept mental illness as a serious illness – they take it for granted or mock it.

As I discussed in a post on my blog about, Mental Health Awareness, the stigma that surrounds mental health is a big problem. If people actually support those who are suffering from mental health instead of discriminating against them the world would be a much better place and people would actually talk about their problems and get the correct help they need. This in itself would be a huge step in preventing suicide.

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How To Help a Suicidal Person to Overcome the Urge

The best thing you can do to help someone who wants to commit suicide is sticking with them and being there for them. Show them that you and other people care. Once someone can see that they have a meaning to this world and that they have worth they will feel a lot better, a lot lot lot better.

I have done a post on my own blog about How to Help A Suicidal Person. Please read it if you can as you may just save someone’s life.

If you would like to read up more on suicide and other mental health problems as well as ways to overcome them and support someone suffering from them please check out my website called Depression For Teens. I post on it weekly and am trying to cover a lot of mental health illnesses and ways to overcome them and help someone suffering from them.

63 thoughts on “How To Help a Suicidal Person Overcome the Urge…”

  1. A teenager I’m very close to once told me they would much rather stay in the physical pain they’ve been suffering than go through depression again. This young person has ended up in A&E on numerous occasions due to severe pain and has been through a lot of counselling for depression. Mentally, they are in a much better place now, but it just goes to show how much pain a depressed person is in for them to say that. Even if they feel numb emotionally, there’s often an inner pain that is much more difficult to cope with than a physical one.

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  5. Pingback: Mention in Dispatches – Peacocks, Heads of Saints and Play dough! | Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life

  6. Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
    Sam is guest posting on The Story Reading Ape and again provides us with a thought provoking article on mental health and in particular suicide. It is a topic that tends to be swept under the carpet from the reasons that Sam cites in the post. But depression and mental illness can impact our own lives and the lives of those we love at any time. There is no shame in needing help and if someone is in such a dark place they cannot see that, then as their family or their friend you need to support and encourage them to do so. Please go to Chris’s blog and like and share from there to spread the word.. also there is a link to another post on Sam’s blog that is important. Thank you.

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  8. Reblogged this on chrllrobb and commented:
    This is a very good and serious post. I deal with depression, but thankfully it is not as severe as some people have. My most dangerous thing would be to overeat, or want to smack the crap out of someone. Although when I was younger and drinking, I did try to, or at least thought about killing myself. I scared myself and God must have had a few angels there, because I came to my senses and thought; “this is stupid”. But not everyone can pull themselves out. Please read and share this post. Help and pray for anyone who is in this position. Watch and learn the signs. Love and prayers to you all.
    Stay Safe and God Bless!
    ❤ ❤

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  9. Hi TRSA thanks for sharing this valuable information. The area I am interested in is chronic pain especially where depression isn’t an initial symptom. However due to disbelief by others (including coping with stigma), trying to prove your pain is real, or at times coping with side-effects of medication (some which can cause depression and suicidal tendencies) spiralling down into a clinically depressed state is a real concern. One aspect which has come to the fore in one of the talks for a pain support meeting I attended to recently is medication especially paracetamol overdose, and I note Sam didn’t mentioned watch out for stockpiles or accessibility of tablets in his “What To Do To Help A Suicidal Person” list. However, SAM on the whole your website and blogs are great and I will keep the link for a resource if that’s okay with you.

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    • Thanks Suzane. You’re 100% correct as overdoses are a big method and I’m not sure how I missed it. Sorry!
      And thanks for the feedback.

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      • No need to apologise. You covered so much. It’s only from personal experience that I noticed its absence.
        I was taking a medication for chronic pain and my primary health care doctor wouldn’t believe that I was affected by it until one day I blew up in her office stating I didn’t want to be here any more. My husband fortunately attended with me that day and explained my change of personality. I was weaned off the tablets and a month afterwards got the courage up to throw away a stockpile of meds (most of which I had major reaction to and been taken off but given the “right moment” and taken in sufficient quantity that wouldn’t mattered!). After throwing the stockpile away I was still nervous for ages that my “crutch” had gone. That was 5 years ago. I am lucky to have a great family, friend support system. And my doctor??? I have re-educated her and while she has stated that she’s not sure how to advise (for her to admit that took great courage) refer me to a suitable specialist and saying that she would be there to support me took a lot of strain from me.

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        • I was not suffering a mental health condition initially, just worn down by a medical profession (& not just my primary health care doctor) who refused to acknowledge chronic pain and the variability of my symptoms. The depression and medication induced mental state were absent until I battled with stigma and disbelief and incorrect treatment. Chronic pain which (since first being recognised as a health issue in 1992) is listed as a mental health disorder is being reviewed in the International Classification of Disease Codes and hopefully will be given its own category when the new Code is released in 2017. I hope my personal insight into not giving up, finding support, and that re-educating others is empowering will be helpful to others.

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  10. Thank you for posting this. When governments and individuals dignify suicide by calling it “death with dignity,” they make the problem far worse. Suicidal people need help, not poison and a green light. I met a young woman who had been suicidal at one point. She received the help she needed and is now a happy parent and a nurse. I believe most suicides can be prevented through proper intervention.

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