TW: Suicide. Thread

Something for MH services to think about: A common public attitude towards suicide is 'people who get through hard times without ending their lives are strong'. In MH services we are made to feel the opposite. There can be a lot of shame associated with 1/

not dying from a suicide attempt; feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, failure.. No one has made me feel this way more than mental health services. Reclassifying a suicide attempt as self harm because the person didn't die just makes people want to try harder next time. 2/

Telling someone they are not at risk/not going to kill themselves feels like being pushed into a corner. Phrases like "if you really wanted to be dead, you would be" can make people feel determined to die. It's actually really hard to kill yourself - something MH professionals 3/

fail to grasp. Everything in your body and mind pushes against you and you have to overcome that. Fighting to overcome it is hard, fighting to resist doing that is hard. There is no strong/weak divide, there is only pain and fear and distress. I know I'm not the only one who 4/

feels this way, I've been told this so many times. When suicidal feelings are invalidated by mental health services, people are put at risk. Everyday, the people we turn to for help imply/hint/and even say outright that if you're not dead, you were never at risk. This slowly 5/

grinds a person down, week after week, month after month, year after year. What do you expect people to do if you repeatedly dare them to kill themselves..?

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