I've been reaching out for 5 years to various people, including to "so called" mental health professionals. Yet to met anyone who REALLY cares beyond what they will get out of it (i.e. a paycheck).
@losing hope You deserved so much better. I don't understand why people go into healthcare without any compassion for human suffering of the patients they see everyday. The mental health care system is broken. Society does need to be talk more seriously about how mental health professionals fail to care for the mentally ill people under their care.
People think therapists are nice caring people we see on the TV shows and films but unfortunately in real life they are therapists and healthcare professionals within the mental health care system who are not nice people and can be uncaring to those they are providing care for.
It sort of seems like everyone thinks people think of suicide on a whim- not everything can be talked through, and the things that are able to be talked through and fixed that way are typically not fundamental to the person's life/well being.
@daysfeel Society fails to grasp the real reasons why people choose to end their lives and its a decision not made lightly on a whim. We have people who suffer from more severe mental illnesses which make it extremely difficult to live a normal life ie bipolar, schizophrenia. These severely mentally ill people tried their best to treatment and to live a good life but their illnesses denied them that happiness and peace in life.
Some problems are not temporary ie a person who is declared bankrupt can not do certain things ie take a loan, get a mortgage, work can effect security clearances for certain jobs. A person who has a criminal record can struggle to get a job and will not be allowed to vist certain countries. Being diagnosed with a life changing physical illness like ALS or MS can make life extremely difficult as these conditions have no cure and progress to get worse overtime.
No one wants to leave their loved ones or leap into the unknown which is what death is but life can become too much and even worse than death itself.
I'm a bit conflicted when it comes to this type of suicide prevention/awareness things. On the one hand, it is unquestionably good that they discuss suicide out in the open, and I believe people like this Roman Kemp fellow mean well, are deeply affected by the loss of someone close, and want to do something to help.
On the other hand, focusing on preventing suicide is going about it backwards. Most people don't kill themselves for a laugh or out of boredom. Most people who kill themselves would rather live, if it weren't for the fact that living is immensely painful for them. If you could take some of that pain away and make the load of life a bit more bearable, a suicidal person might want to give recovery a shot. But alleviating suffering is not something that you can accomplish with a documentary, or an "awareness" campaign online.
You don't prevent suicide by telling people not to kill themselves. You prevent suicide by helping the suicidal person to have a life they feel is worth living.
@TransilvanianHunger The documentary host Roman Kemp comes from a preveilged family and was able to get help for his depression which he suffered in his teens and still suffers from. Kemp has very loving parents. I do feel like there is a middle class element in sucide prevention campaigns which is not everyone has the means and rescources to get help the way preveilged middle class people can. Suicide prevention campaign fail to address class issues and how they overlap with mental health.
Not everyone has a family support system. I grew up with a single mother who was always stressed about work, took it out on me at times and always complained about being too tired to deal with things so at a young age I always felt like a burden on my mother so if I had a problem I generally didn't go to my mother for help because she had enough problems already. I have lots of relatives who knew my mum was struggling as a single mother but they were too self centred to care.
Not everyone can afford to see a therapist
"You don't prevent suicide by telling people not to kill themselves. You prevent suicide by helping the suicidal person to have a life they feel is worth living." - Exactly I always believed if we had a much better compassionate world that actually helped and supported people with their problems suicide would be the exception and not the norm.
Not to mention that for a lot of people even having family and friends to reach out to doesn't really help because people's issues are different and complex and suicidality doesn't have the same root for everyone. I've yet to find a documentary on the topic that doesn't feel extremely out of touch to me.
@Scattered-Soul Not all family and friends react well on the issue of suicide. When I was 21 and reached out to my close university friends in my law class what happened was my friends eventually began to avoid me at university and stopped talking to me altogether. They saw me a werido for being suicidal. These friends prided themselves as living as good christians but failed to be good samartian to friend in a time of need.
if people do not reach out it is for a good reason.
I saw an advert from Norwich fc and samaritans. It's two guys at the soccer and one is looking all stressed and depressed and the other is all cheerful and supportive. Then the twist is, the cheerful one ctbs in the end. I feel like this is a bit of trope, that suicidal people don't look like they need help, that they don't reach out, that they wear a false smile. Sure you have people like Robin williams, but anyone who knew anything could see he was struggling.
In truth suicidal people are in plain site but they are often ignored or cast aside. I think this is do gooders just gaslighting themselves
@carac If people do not reach out it is for a very good reason. When I was 21 and reached out to my close university friends in my law class what happened was my friends eventually began to avoid me at university and stopped talking to me altogether. They saw me a werido for being suicidal. These friends prided themselves as living as good christians but failed to be good samartian to friend in a time of need.
There are far too many people who are judgmental and do not want to listen if a person reaches out. Sucide prevention campaigners should be asking why don't people reach out ?
