(12-26-2010, 10:15 PM)Confidence Wrote: People have so much to live for and ending your life will ruin all the things you could have accomplished.
Most suicidal people have a hard time realizing that though. That's specifically why suicide helplines are not about trying to stop the caller from committing suicide but rather to agree with them on what they are saying. You don't want to be distant from the caller, you want them to feel like you understand where they're coming from by making concurring remarks about what they're telling you. You're trying to get the caller to open up to you and there's no way someone's going to do that if they know you haven't been in a similar situation therefore you wouldn't be able to help them. For instance, it's the same reason why people that need relationship advice don't waste their time asking/taking advice from someone that hasn't had many successful relationships. As a matter of fact, I did some reading and found out that some suicide helpline operators were once suicidal themselves.
Bottom line is that suicide prevention is not about making the distressed caller change his mind about killing him/herself but rather to help them realize what they have to lose by doing so. By doing that, they'll make the decision themselves.