3. Doesn't talking about suicide encourage it?
Description
This article is from the Suicide FAQ, by Graham Stoney greyham@research.canon.com.au with numerous contributions by others.
3. Doesn't talking about suicide encourage it?
It depends what aspect you talk about. Talking about the feelings
surrounding suicide promotes understanding and can greatly reduce the
immediate distress of a suicidal person. In particular, it is OK to
ask someone if they are considering suicide, if you suspect that they
are not coping. If they are feeling suicidal, it can come as a great
relief to see that someone else has some insight into how they feel.
This can be a difficult question to ask, so here are some possible approaches:
"Are you feeling so bad that you're considering suicide?"
"That sounds like an awful lot for one person to take; has it made you
think about killing yourself to escape?"
"Has all that pain you're going through made you think about hurting
yourself?"
"Have you ever felt like just throwing it all away?"
The most appropriate way to raise the subject will differ according to
the situation, and what the people involved feel comfortable with.
It's also important to take the persons overall response into
consideration when interpreting their answer, since a person in
distress may initially say "no", even if they mean "yes". A person
who isn't feeling suicidal will usually be able to give a comfortable
"no" answer, and will often continue by talking about a specific
reason they have for living. It can also be helpful to ask what they
would do if they ever were in a situation where they were seriously
considering killing themselves, in case they become suicidal at some
point in the future, or they are suicidal but don't initially feel
comfortable about telling you.
Talking exclusively about how to commit suicide can give ideas to
people who feel suicidal, but haven't thought about how they'd do it
yet. Media reports that concentrate solely on the method used and
ignore the emotional backdrop behind it can tend to encourage copy-cat
suicides.
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