I have a friend in crisis
(I’m not sure if this is the right place for this discussion so please let me know if I’ve made a mistake!)
• Mentions: suicide
A friend messaged me this morning letting me know that they were in crisis and asked to come by.
When they got here, they told me about how their mother wants to disown them after she walked in on them attempting suicide this morning.
I asked if they have a mental health professional that they speak to, and they told me that that method doesn’t often work for them.
Does anyone have any tips on how I can approach this conversation and better support them?
@shingocosie
Hi--here are a couple resources I was able to find that have some tips for how to help someone who is suicidal:
https://www.suicide.org/how-to-help-a-suicidal-person.html
https://mentalhealth.org.nz/conditions/condition/suicide-supporting-someone-after-a-suicide-attempt
A few of the things that stood out to me were:
1) If they are in a life-threatening emergency, then make sure to get in touch with emergency medical services as this could help save their life
2) There are free hotlines that they can contact where they can talk with a trained crisis counselor
3) If they do want to talk to you about it, be non-judgmental, kind, gentle, and allow them to share and express whatever they want to without making them feel worse than they already do
4) Take care of yourself
For the last point, feel free to reach out to a listener on here if you feel like you want to talk about any of your own feelings. I mention this because I imagine it must be a scary and stressful thing for you as well. ❤️ You're a caring friend to want to help however you can.
