Are You Feeling or Thinking About Suicide?

If You Are Feeling or Thinking About Suicide We Invite You to Read This Information

You Should Know

You may be feeling or thinking about suicide and are feeling alone, helpless, and hopeless to change a situation which you may feel is unbearably painful.

During this time, your thinking may not feel clear and you may struggle to see alternatives to suicide as a reasonable way to reduce or alleviate the pain you may be feeling. Often however, your situation, your feelings, and your thinking can change over time and life can become more bearable if not enjoyable again. Suicidal crises are often temporary.

Estimates indicated that one in six Americans may consider suicide in the course of a lifetime. A person who suicides seriously affects the lives of at least six other people. People who have known someone who has committed suicide are more likely to commit suicide themselves. Often, feelings about suicide can be resolved with treatment by a trained therapist or by talking with a close friend. Today, you do not have to be alone with your feelings, as help is no further away than calling CMHS at 860.486.4705 or reaching out to someone close to you.

What You Can Do

1. Come to CMHS and speak with a member of our staff. Taking the risk to share with another person the difficult struggles you are having can often make even a little difference. We can help you in sharing your concerns, listening intently, and discussing with you potential options for the short and long-term. Call us at 860-486-4705.
   
   
2. Remove yourself from all objects of harm or from unsafe surroundings. Throw out pills, give weapons or dangerous objects to a friend or family member, and stay away from circumstances which might provoke high risk behavior from you, e.g. cars, high buildings, etc.
   
   
3. Tell someone who is available to help e.g. a friend, a family member, a CMHS therapist, a hotline counselor, a priest or member of the clergy, or a local health care provider (see immediate help list below).
   
   
4. Stay away from drugs or alcohol as these cloud your judgment and can lead you to be impulsive. Keep in mind that alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and that it will not make you feel better in the long run and that it may make you do things you might regret.
   
   
5. Take a moment and review what is important to you in life, as reasons for living are often "lost" or "clouded over" when one is feeling depressed and suicidal. If you are having trouble doing this, perhaps the website Common Threads might help. It's authored by people who understand what it means to be suicidal.
   
   
6. Begin to develop a list of "small" things that you can accomplish which might make a difference in how you feel about yourself, such as, having a friend walk you over to Counseling and Mental Health Services for an appointment, going to a class you have missed, or waking up a bit earlier and making classes.
   
   
7. Spend time with others, go to the lounge to study, arrange study dates with friends, go to a social event, or go to the gym and work out with a friend.