How to Talk to a Suicidal Person

Know­ing what to say or how to talk to a sui­ci­dal per­son can feel daunt­ing, espe­cial­ly when some­one shares with you that they are so dis­cour­aged. When a depressed or sui­ci­dal per­son shares that they are think­ing about sui­cide, it can be uncom­fort­able or con­fus­ing if you don’t know how to respond or what to say.  While you may feel uncom­fort­able, there are ways that you can help. No mat­ter whether these com­ments are pas­sive or imme­di­ate, they should always be tak­en seri­ous­ly.

What do I Say When Someone is Talking about Suicide?

Below you’ll see a pre­view of the doc­u­ment, with a link below for the full pdf. Learn about sui­cide warn­ing signs, ques­tions to ask, and empa­thet­ic state­ments to share with some­one with thoughts of sui­cide. 

Please include attri­bu­tion to https://www.bridgehopefamilytherapy.com/ with this image and doc­u­ment.

What to Say When Some­one is Talk­ing About Suicide_BridgeHope Fam­i­ly Therapy_8.28.24

What to Say When Some­one is Talk­ing About Suicide_BridgeHope Fam­i­ly Therapy_8.28.24

EMDR for Depression

Per­haps you know some­one who is try­ing to nav­i­gate the ups and downs of depres­sion. You’re heard their com­ments about their lone­li­ness, dis­cour­age­ment, or low self-esteem. You see how their emo­tions crash against you and you see their exhaus­tion. In the past, you may not have known what to say when they share their thoughts of not want­i­ng to be around, or on earth any­more. You may have felt fear­ful or con­fused. While you use this hand­out, as well as the infor­ma­tion from the pre­vi­ous post — is path warm — you may feel more con­fi­dent in your inter­ac­tions.

For­tu­nate­ly, in addi­tion to your sup­port, there are ther­a­peu­tic solu­tions that have shown to be effec­tive in treat­ing depres­sion and sui­ci­dal thoughts. EMDR is an evi­dence-based prac­tice that has decades of research sup­port­ing its effec­tive­ness with not only depres­sion, but oth­er men­tal health con­di­tions. EMDR is a tech­nique that I have been trained in and reg­u­lar­ly use. 

If you’re look­ing for solu­tions beyond edu­ca­tion and sup­port, please share my infor­ma­tion as a resource to the per­son you are won­der­ing about how to help. 

Change is pos­si­ble