Talking About Suicide With Someone Suicidal Is the Best You Can Do for Them

No, it won’t make it worse. In fact, you can save their life.

Britanny Levy
Published in
9 min readOct 2, 2024

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Photo by Maksym Tymchyk 🇺🇦 on Unsplash

TW: this piece is about suicide. If you were directly or indirectly affected by it, take care of yourself — give it a pass or save it for a later read.

I’ll start this article by telling you why I’m qualified to say that you should talk about suicide with someone who has suicide ideation or intent. I’m a Suicide First Aider, with CPD training on Suicide Prevention and I’m qualifying to become a therapeutic counsellor. As a domestic abuse practitioner, I regularly support people who are considering suicide and, working at a hospital, I also help people who have just attempted it.

I decided to write this piece after I attended a refresher training on safeguarding, which included the topic of suicide, namely what to do if the person we’re supporting says they’re going to kill themselves or if we see any signs they’re considering it.

The trainer was discussing how we should pose the question, “Are you considering suicide?” One of the attendants wouldn’t accept we must talk openly about suicide with someone who’s considering it or has suicidal thoughts. Her point was: “By talking about it, we’re pushing the person to do it.”

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Invisible Illness
Invisible Illness

Published in Invisible Illness

Medium’s biggest mental health publication

Britanny Levy
Britanny Levy

Written by Britanny Levy

Professional domestic abuse advocate and a student counsellor. Writing about my personal and professional experiences.