Brother attempted suicide tonight - help
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Brother attempted suicide tonight - help
| Wed, 04-28-2004 - 2:07am |
Gosh, what a way to introduce myself to a new board and hopefully I'm in the right place.

(((((((((((((Mare)))))))))))))))))
Welcome to the board though I certainly wish we were meeting under better circumstances! Im just grateful your brother was unsuccessful.
*hugs
This may not be of much help, but I knew that it helped when I was in your brother's similar position, and we recently spoke about it at work at a suicide prevention seminar (we deal with clients all over the world).
So many people avoid the subject, pretend that what happened didn't happen.
We are taught that the most important thing is to ask questions.
You may not like the answers, but a lot of the time it helps if they know that we are hear to listen and help, maybe not understand, but to show that we care.
Other than the #1 question of "Are you considerng suicide?", comes the second question(s):
Have you considered it before?
Have you attempted to before?
Did you plan it? How long?
What is happening in your life?
I doubt this helps much, but I know just knowing that people cared enough to listen and ask open-ended questions to get me speaking so they could listen, it just really helped.
Do only what feels comfortable to you. You know your boundaries and your brother's boundaries, so take this in to consideration before you decide what sort of things to ask.
Good luck, and your family is in my prayers.
I wish you and your family all the best. Take care HUGS
Welcome, Maremegan!
I agree with what all the other posters have said and I can only think of one tidbit to add... not directed at you particulary but to everyone. I once worked as an intervention specialist in an environment with an alarmingly high suicide attempt rate. One thing that we were trained to do was use the following terminology: instead of successful/unsuccessful we were told to use completed/uncompleted. The rationale was that successful/unsuccessful portrayed the idea that actually dying was the better result and that to survive meant failure. I know it sounds like p.c. crap but part of the explanation was that you never know what a person's motivation is and if they are already feeling like a failure ie: 'unsuccessful', they may beat on themselves even more for not being able to be 'successful' at even an attempted suicide etc. Plus, you never know who may be contemplating harming themselves and getting rid of the terms that somehow imply judgement may belp it seem like an event/act and less like a 'fix or cure to problems'.
JUST an FYI and sorry to say no direct means of helping you other than sending positive vibes and welcoming you to the board.
32
Edited 4/30/2004 1:14 pm ET ET by workinprogressat32
Hi, Maremegan!
Thank you, everyone, for the help and encouragement.
HUGS