How to make a safety plan without having to go to the hospital?

[Sadness20]

I don't know what to do. When I feel suicidal everyone says I have to go to the hospital. Any other ways to cope with suicidal thoughts?

 

[summers]

I don't know what to do. When I feel suicidal everyone says I have to go to the hospital. Any other ways to cope with suicidal thoughts?

Take a walk, maybe while listening to music. Or if you have a car, go for a drive. Sometimes just letting your mind wander and forgetting all your problems can be very helpful.

The hospital will help you by locking you up like a criminal, which may keep you alive temporarily, but may also make you more suicidal when you get out.

 

[Sadness20]

Take a walk, maybe while listening to music. Or if you have a car, go for a drive. Sometimes just letting your mind wander and forgetting all your problems can be very helpful.

The hospital will help you by locking you up like a criminal, which may keep you alive temporarily, but may also make you more suicidal when you get out.

Yes I know that, that's why I dont want to go to the hospital

 

[noname223]

I don't know what to do. When I feel suicidal everyone says I have to go to the hospital. Any other ways to cope with suicidal thoughts?

I had different experiences with hospitals/clinics. I personally did not like the psych ward for people who are currently highly psychotic/suicidal.
But I was often times voluntarily in clinics. Many times this really helped me. My personal favorites were day hospitals. They helped me to structure my day, I have met nice people who also had mental illness and I really liked psychoeducation. They can also have a longterm positive effect.
In my darkest hours they really helped me to cope.

But I can also understand if you absolutely don't want to go there.

I think going voluntarily to such a place is often a better experience than if you are forced to do so. If you want to know more possibilites for coping with suicidality I have made a thread in recovery. "A guide how to fight nasty depressions." Maybe this could help you. However I don't know whether you even have depression. There might be other reasons for your suicidality. Though I have to emphasize I am not a professional this is why I can give sometimes also not helpful advices.

I wish you all the best.

 

[symphony]

If you want to make a step-by-step sort of safety plans, there are lots of templates and whatnot online. Some are more formulaic than others. The general idea is to list out things that can work well for you in particular and keep that list in an easily-accessible area so you can refer to it in moments of distress. The average safety plan may ask you to list triggers, warning signs that things are getting worse, various coping strategies you can use without involving another person, places you can go to feel safer, loved ones you can reach out to for more support, ways you can make your environment safer, reasons to live or otherwise stay safe, professionals you can reach out for support, and ending with the suicide lifeline and contact info for nearby emergency rooms and hospitals in case your previous ideas don't work as intended.

If you have a therapist, you can also ask to make one together with them, and they wouldn't have sufficient reason to hospitalize you from that alone. Or you could try calling the national lifeline. They won't hospitalize you unless they believe you to be in immediate danger, and once when I called in the past, the man on the other end walked me through writing up a safety plan.

Regarding hospitalization - yes, it absolutely sucks, but most of the time it's at least bearable, and some people do find it helpful in the long term. My understanding is it helps most for people who are acutely suicidal rather than chronically suicidal, and one pro is that they generally help with medications and getting you connected with intensive aftercare.

I hope at least something in there was helpful, and that you can come up with something that works well for you

 

[notaboutangels]

I found that going to library helped me. It was quiet, had internet, was free to everyone etc. I know like mine however it wasn't open at nights which posed a problem although some libraries have different hours too. There might be other places like this if you don't live in the middle of no where like me.