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Suicide attempt

A friend of mine attempted to commit suicide. What can I do to help her?

She wouldn't tell me much, and I really don't know how to help her. And she is just 13 :eek:

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Reply 1

Adam83

12

talk to her, she needs someone she can trust and talk to. dont judge her whatever she says.

Reply 2

dh00001

16

let her know youre there for her to talk to about anything you want. its going to be like walking on glass so i would say dont pry

Reply 3

Love Sheep

1

Tell her to talk to you. I know it's a little pushy, but if you think her life is in danger, it might be worth it to try and open up a few boundaries and let her know you're there.

Reply 4

Yoda

12

lol_nl

A friend of mine attempted to commit suicide. What can I do to help her?

Don't help her. She may regret it in a few years.

However a few girls pretend to want to kill themselves just for attention. They look rather silly with the scars now.

Yoda would probably distract her from her problems so she forgets that she wanted to kill herself.

Reply 5

. sav .

1

Yoda you can be most unhelpful :P

Reply 6

Sidhe

lol_nl

A friend of mine attempted to commit suicide. What can I do to help her?

She wouldn't tell me much, and I really don't know how to help her. And she is just 13 :eek:

.

Not alot except support and a bit of sympathy really. If she tried she needs specialist help and that's not something you can give as such.

I've talked to a few people who have been suicidal, and the best thing to do is to just make them feel wanted, make there contribution to the human race be more than there own self involved ideas, most suicidal mindsets are fleeting. Make sure you let them know how much they mean to you personally and how much you'd miss them if they were gone, but try not to be too obvious. Little else you can do. If they want to talk about their issues make sure your at the end of a phone line, if not, make sure you keep an eye on them, so they know you are there for them regardless.

I think the best thing I ever said was, well I'm here now, but not going to be all the time, but if you need to talk then call me, and I'll be there, whenever. And in theses cases I dropped everything and was.

Reply 7

gracie88

14

Yoda

Don't help her. She may regret it in a few years.

However a few girls pretend to want to kill themselves just for attention. They look rather silly with the scars now.

Yoda would probably distract her from her problems so she forgets that she wanted to kill herself.

Why the hell do you talk in third person!?

Anyway OP, be there for them as much as you can. Talk to them so that they can let everything that's getting to them out into the open. Maybe they feel like they're isolated.

Reply 8

fleur de lis

15

Yoda

Yoda would probably distract her from her problems so she forgets that she wanted to kill herself.

You think someone who genuinely wants to kill themselves would be able to 'forget' that by you trying to distract them? :s-smilie:

Sidhe

the best thing to do is to just make them feel wanted

I agree with this, but I think it is important not to put pressure on them by telling them your own feelings about how it would affect you if they were to commit suicide. Don't try and force her to talk to you. Make it clear that you are there for her and willing to support her, but let her come to you. If you try and force your way in, you may end up pushing her away.

Never say 'there's always someone worse off than you' or similar things. This may be true, but someone who is feeling truly suicidal will probably be too self absorbed in their own pain/problems to appreciate this.

Is your friend receiving professional help?

Reply 9

Forté

2

fleur de lis

You think someone who genuinely wants to kill themselves would be able to 'forget' that by you trying to distract them? :s-smilie:

she is 13 afterall... :rolleyes:

I wouldnt recommend talking about it anyway....

Reply 10

Angrybanana

11

Yoda

Don't help her. She may regret it in a few years.

However a few girls pretend to want to kill themselves just for attention. They look rather silly with the scars now.

Yoda would probably distract her from her problems so she forgets that she wanted to kill herself.

The scars would imply they actually did it rather than pretending. I normally like reading your posts but that one was quite stupid.

:dito:

domisakin

she is 13 afterall... :rolleyes:

I wouldnt recommend talking about it anyway....

She may be 13, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is the stereotype teenage angsty girl trying to seek attention. She may have genuine problems.

Reply 13

Forté

2

Angrybanana

The scars would imply they actually did it rather than pretending. I normally like reading your posts but that one was quite stupid.

I think what he's getting at, is that these are desperate cries for help/attention. Such victims have no intention of suicide.

Reply 14

Forté

2

fleur de lis

She may be 13, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is the stereotype teenage angsty girl trying to seek attention. She may have genuine problems.

true...

Reply 15

daggy

Sidhe made some really goos suggestions as did Fleur :smile:

It's a bit of a crude question, but how did she try and kill herself?
Generally if you want to do it you could? It really aint that hard....
Some people will do it as a cry for help, tis isn't to say they are attention seeking on superficial grounds, just that they have a problem and nobody is helping them.

Now I wouldn't advise sympathy as this is more likely to make her feel even more sorry for herself, after all, how can you sympathise? You dont even know what's wrong!!! If you can find out the problem and empathise it may help more :smile:

Either way, just be her friend, sometimes a reality check is needed though, if she's gonna kill herself then she is gonna do it - you can't stop her.
You can minimise the chances by being there for her when she needs you though.

Who else knows she's attempted to kill herself?

Reply 16

Vampyrcorn

14

The change has to come from within her. You can be supportive but don't expect to be able to make her better. There's not an awful lot you can do to be honest.

What kind of suicide attempt was it? Did she go to hospital and nearly die? Or did she just scratch a bit of skin a few inches from an artery? Do her parents know?

Reply 17

ßlαcksωαn

17

aw this is sad. And at 13! geez she'll have problem her whole life if it doesn't get treated asap. She needs to speak to a counsellor/psychologist simple as that. And people dont just "forget" about this kind of thing. Is she ok now? because sometimes the methods ppl use can fail and have quite serious consequences.

Reply 18

sweetcandygirl

6

She needs to be strong... and all you can realy do is encourage her to seek you in order to help her be strong when she needs it.

Another tactic is to point out all she has going for her (which is a hell of alot more than at least half the people in this world!!) and also how much pain she would cause the people she leaves behind.

ps. How depressing is this for my first ever post!

Reply 19

generalebriety

16

sweetcandygirl

Another tactic is to point out all she has going for her (which is a hell of alot more than at least half the people in this world!!) and also how much pain she would cause the people she leaves behind.

Trust me, as someone that's suffered from depression, that kind of malarkey does **** all but anger you more.

If this girl has serious problems, just talk to her - or, more specifically, allow her to talk to you. Offer her advice if you can, but don't be judgemental, and more importantly, just allow her someone she can confide in and someone she can vent her anger too. She's 13; if she has any sort of mental problems it'll probably be apparent. Otherwise, maybe a good rant is all she needs. Don't tell her "you have so much to live for" and all the clichés - they don't help, because when you're depressed, you can't see that. But if she shows signs of wanting to try again, you have to take it to a higher authority, like her parents. Don't tell her you'll do this (as it'll ruin her trust in you), but don't hesitate to do it if you need to.

Suicide attempt

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