Thought help: What is with all the suicidal thoughts? - Help.com

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Some people feel they have no other options and so they think that suicide is their only way out. Instead of losing your faith in humanity find some way to help out and teach people that they do have other choices. Help them rellize that there is always someone out there ready to help them.

Sure some people have no other option, yet some people also claim they are going to kill themselves for attention on this site, which belittles the people trying to help them, people who have had to go through this themselves (as in a family, friend member), as well as endangering people who actually are contemplating suicide who may not get the help they need.

Ok, but threatening suicide for attention is not necessarily wrong?

If you think about it, the idea isn’t good at all of course. But look at the reasons behind people who crave that attention?

Not enough love,
Don’t know where to turn,
Run out of options
Run out of hope,
No support,
Not able to see any positives.

Sorry but that is what being suicidal is about. Its about having no other options but to die.

I don’t think that these people endanger those that really are about to commit suicide. Because a lot of us on this website take EVERY suicide post literally. Even if the person wasn’t going to kill themselves, they obviously felt so desperate that they had to find a random site on the middle of the internet and cry for help. And I think they deserve help just like any other person on here.

I think one reason people think about suicide so much of late is that over the past few decades we’ve all been encouraged to think we can have everything we want, and we don’t know what to do when we don’t get it. We have not been as conditioned as previous generations to accept that life is sometimes hard, and that sometimes we will inevitably have to face disappointments and even losses. We have all been promised happy endings, and sometimes we just get, well, endings.

You see people on here say, “My boyfriend/girlfriend left me, so now I want to die…” or “I had a great job and I lost it, so I am thinking of ending it all” or “No one in my school likes me, so I am going to hang myself.”

Even short of suicide threats we commonly say, “I can’t live without ________ .” You fill in the blank: an automobile, Michael’s love, admission to an Ivy-League school, $300 boots, a baby, a vacation in the Caribbean, the latest video game system, popularity in school, a diamond ring, a beautiful body, granite countertops in my kitchen, my late wife, or twin sinks in my bathroom.

But guess what. You CAN–because poverty and loneliness and infertility and the deaths of loved ones and obesity and social awkwardness are simply REALITIES of everyday life that we have to accept, adjust to, and, when we can, overcome. There are plenty of joys and triumphs that go hand-in-hand with these disappointments. The HAPPY parts we take for granted. The BAD parts we seem to believe we cannot endure. But, nearly always, we CAN. It’s just that no one prepares us for that part of life.

Honestly, I think 99 percent of people who mention suicide, while they really ARE thinking the thought, do not REALLY want life to end–they just want the pain to end. And saying that they want to die is their own way of expressing their pain, both to themselves and to anyone who will listen. “Anonymous” may say they want “attention,” and I think that’s true—they are calling attention to their pain because they need to express it, just as a baby wails when it needs something. It’s not that they are being selfish brats—it’s that they need to be heard and perhaps consoled.

100 years ago, when people had to really labor hard just to stay alive, or when their babies were apt to die at 6 months old or seven years old, and when you were just as likely as not to be widowed at 25, and when maybe 5 percent of the population had methods of transportation and owned a change of clothes, people were too busy trying to live to focus on dying.

I actually had a conversation like that a couple of months ago. I was really depressed and upset about how the current recession has destroyed my financial security, and I told my adult niece, “Lately I really feel like I just want to die.” And my niece, who has lupus and has survived seven kinds of cancer and two kidney transplants, replied, without missing a beat, “Honeslty, Aunt Theresa, I’m working too hard fighting to LIVE to even consider wanting to DIE.”

It made me feel ashamed, and it drove home an important point.

Well, the way I look at it, it’s not the whole world. Naturally a help site will be a bit of a hotspot for suicidal people. It’s also good that they come here looking for help and encouraging words. I think it would be a bit sadder if they didn’t reach out at all.

It’s hard to know exactly what to say most of the time to people coming here severely depressed wanting to end it all. I’m glad to see that there are many users that try to encourage them and try to show them that things aren’t always that bad.

I think we should all give a big round of applause to the people that actively go on suicide posts and try to help someone else live through another day. Cheers guys!

Anthrax wrote:
Well, the way I look at it, it’s not the whole world. Naturally a help site will be a bit of a hotspot for suicidal people. It’s also good that they come here looking for help and encouraging words. I think it would be a bit sadder if they didn’t reach out at all.It’s hard to know exactly what to say most of the time to people coming here severely depressed wanting to end it all. I’m glad to see that there are many users that try to encourage them and try to show them that things aren’t always that bad.I think we should all give a big round of applause to the people that actively go on suicide posts and try to help someone else live through another day. Cheers guys!

LOL I think a lot of us managed to miss the obvious lol, we are a hotspot.

*joins in with round of applause*

Suicide rates in the UK have incresed by 50% since 1990 (I don’t know about US i’m, afraid).

Some people believe suicide is almost like an epidemic, evidence of which could be found in a number of similar suicides and grouped in time, almost as if it is a trend. Would all these people have killed themselves if the others didn’t? It is impossible to know, but I just don’t think it helps to have people claiming they are going to kill themselves (whether for attention or just a joke) or asking about ways to kill themselves in an environment where there are many depressed people, is helpful to anyone.

But then it is impossible to distinguish those who are really depressed and those who are not serious, and it is great that there are people who will offer advise no matter what. I just wish those who do just post dramatic statements to get attention would simply explain what the real problem is, then we could actually help.

The faith in humanity was associated with a recent news story in the uk about the death of a family. There just seems to be so much tragedy around right now.

Asking for WAYS to kill themself sounds a little bit…imatture and not ’seeking attention’ for the *right* reasons.

But attention or not, people who need help should get it.

I also find it dissapointing that people would use suicide in order to gain attention. It really does take attention away from people who really do need help. I think that if a person was serious about suicide, they would most likely talk to family or friends rather than make a post on the Internet. People tend to take things on the Internet pretty lightly.

As for all of the tradgety in the world, it is to be expected. We, as humans, can be a very violent species. However, we are also capable of great compassion. We just need to remember that there are always good people in the world, they just tend to get overlooked easily.

But some people don’t have family or friends to talk to.

Even without any friends or relatives to talk to, there are hotlines (like the one the HelpBot posted) that are free for anyone to use.

What wrks for one person doesn’t work for one doesn’t work for others. Some people don’t feel comfortable calling hotlines.

When you have felt really bad for so long,and you begin to think no one loves you, death may seem like a welcome release.

Sometimes people post these things because they feel someone should know, and they hope they will get the attention and love they want.

Just my thoughts on this.

Good post theresape, Ive seen a great increase in suicide threats in the 15/20 yr old bracket. At times I think the teens sit indoors in front of computers all day and don’t attempt to get out there and do something physically active. Its a known fact to be indoors without sunlight causes depression ask any doctor. These days we go from school all day to home, and usually spend the rest of the day indoors i.e computers or t.v. A quick walk in the sun to the car or school bus doesnt consume the needed VitD thats absorbed through the skin. It needs to be at least 20mins per day to make any difference.
The world is changing and with it is good old technology, which is great in small doses. Depression sets in at times and young folks sit indoors and brood letting the depression take a firm hold. The suicide threats send a negative message to young people that are struggling to make their lives happier and so the trend begins.
My advice has been in the past, your young, life is short, make your life the way you want it to be, the world is your oyster when you’re young. Go to college , get out in the world earn good money and be in the place where your future life will have no money worries ,money is a huge reason for depression these days do things to make sure you can be independent and not owe. I find it sad, life is short as it is, make the most of it and try to make it happy.

Ok but then you get people who have been trying for 6years to get over depression. Have tried every type of med and therapist there is out there and still struggle.

Not justifying suicide but sometimes not being here anymore is more desirable then living in pain any longer.

I think way too many of you are stereotyping what you *think* a suicidal person is like.