Helping Someone Who May Be Suicidal

Guest blogger Aimee Daramus wrote this post to promote awareness of suicide prevention resources.

For anyone who feels at risk of hurting themselves or otherwise feels triggered by the holidays, please surround yourself with the safest people you know, on and off-line, but protect yourself from any voices that are mocking you, denying your reality, or otherwise trying tome you feel that your desire to get through the schooldays safely is wrong. You don’t need those voices now; please shut them out of your life, even to the extent of letting someone you trust monitor your social media to shelter you from those influences. If you have a good therapist, get in touch immediately. Go to the hospital if you have to. There are other support resources below, to help you find support.

You can help by spreading messages and memes of support, letting people know that their lives are valued, and by checking in on anyone you know who might be at risk during this time. Make sure they know that they are important to you. If you see potentially triggering contents, please consider deleting them if you can, and letting people know that bullying trauma survivors is not acceptable. Above all, please be sensitive in how you comment on this. You don’t know who might be reading, or how it might affect them. Yes, of course you have the freedom to say what you like. Is using it to encourage someone to kill themselves the wisest use of that privilege?

If you need to talk to someone that you think might be suicidal, please do so. You need to find out if they have such thoughts. If they do, you need to know if they have a plan. Try to remove anything that might be used to harm themselves. If there is immediate risk, consider calling the paramedics to the them to the hospital, but ONLY if you believe there might be immediate risk. Don’t hospitalize someone because you’re scared to have that conversation. They need their loved ones right now. Safe places with safe people are the best thing for them right now.

Here are a few resources:

Suicide prevention phone apps:

Safety Plan (the icon is a white equal-armed cross on a blue background)

Suicide Safe (from SAMSHA; this app has, among other things, links to emergency services and even a section on “conversation starters” to help you have difficult conversations about suicide)

MHFA AU (the icon is a white star on a dark green background) this Mental Health First Aid app also has tips for talking to people about suicide

Twitter Feeds:

@MHCrisisAngels

@WeTalkMH

@afpsnational

Web site:

suicide.com

suicidehotlines.com

afps.org

Hotlines:

1-800-SUICIDE

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255