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From: mjc@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA (Monica Cellio)
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Subject: Re: suicidal tendencies
Message-ID: <244@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 17:31:50 EST
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-c.244
Posted: Fri Jan 18 17:31:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jan-85 02:26:55 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 38

From: turtlevax!ken@DECWRL.ARPA (Ken Turkowski)
>Are there any signs that I should watch out for?  How can I tell if
>someone I know is having suicidal tendencies?  Suppose s/he does have
>these signs, how do I help stabilize them?

The LASPC people out there can do a much better job of this, but a few that I
recall are:
	- talking about it (too many people take this to mean that the person
	  isn't serious -- "if he really wanted to do it he wouldn't talk
	  about	it first")
	- other talk down the lines of "things would be better for everyone
	  else if I wasn't here"
	- any preparations for death, such as suddenly drawing up a will and
	  taking out a life insurance policy (of course, doing these things
	  does not mean that the person in question is sucidal, but if the 
	  person is young and these happen in conjunction with other signs...)
	- sudden changes in behavior that can't be explained by other things,
	  especially "the calm before the storm" if the person has talked 
	  about suicide

I think the best thing to do is talk to the person.  Don't tell him "You'll
snap out of it"; show him that you understand and that you really care about
him.  Don't hover over him or follow him around everywhere, but let him know
you're there if he wants to talk.  Don't be afraid to ask, "are you feeling
depressed?".  Contrary to popular belief, talking about it will *not* spur a
person on or "put ideas in his head".  The ideas are already there; talking
about them can sometimes make life seem like far less of a crisis.

I don't know where turtlevax is, but if it's near any large city there is
probably a crisis hotline of some sort there.  They can give you more
information.  

Hope this helps.

						-Dragon
-- 
UUCP: ...ucbvax!dual!lll-crg!dragon
ARPA: monica.cellio@cmu-cs-cad or dragon@lll-crg