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Speaking just for me as someone who survived a few attempts and was in a ward after two of them: a lot of the way we talk about suicide prevention just reinforces stereotypes instead of making it easier for folks in crisis to get help and feel dignified doing so.
Telling folks to reach out and check on their friends isn't bad advice in a vacuum, but it's not an effective way to address a mental health crisis. Like, therapists go to school for years to learn how to do this. It's not just a matter of being there or listening.
For me, medication, counseling and a family safety net that kept me off the street when I was in crisis are the reasons I'm alive. I appreciated friends who were there for me then, but that doesn't change the fact it isn't their job to fix me and they didn't have the expertise to
Reaching out is fine. But y'all: if you don't have training you can for real mess someone up even worse than they already are. Like, if your friend had cancer you wouldn't try to treat them because it's your job to reach out. You'd get expert medical help and resources for them.
And that's the easy but uncomfortable truth: folks in mental crisis need expert assistance, costly medication & the resources to be safe, healthy and housed while working through that process. We should make that the goal instead of deputizing people to try their hand at therapy.
I have friends who quit therapy because they couldn't pay for it/insurance is so often tied to employment. When you tell someone "feel better" but as a society reserve that care for the privileged few, you just shift the burden back onto folks already on the margins.
When you tell someone "please stay" but passively contribute to a society that tells them their life doesn't have value unless they can pay, you're just re-victimizing them even if that's not your intent.
