Mental health articles

The person who threatens or attempts suicide again and again … and again This is the type of person who is brought to an emergency unit repeatedly. It is often easy to dislike such people because the suicide attempts are not dangerous and they are seen as ‘acting’ and wasting your time. However, these people are not acting; their lives are unhappy and they need help. This help may take the form of counselling with the aim getting the person to react to unhappy events by means other than attempting suicide. Identifying areas of strength, such as a supportive relationship or an occupational skill, may help the person to look on the ‘brighter side’ of life. Remember that such people are at higher risk of killing themselves. The best way of helping them is keeping in touch regularly and building up a trusting relationship so that, when upset or unhappy, they can talk to you rather than try to kill themselves.

Tags: suicide