Originally Posted by
Pi.R^2
*wades in*
Firstly, the if you are feeling suicidal thread has bugged me right from the start, as I think it's really dangerous. In my opinion, people who are genuinely actively suicidal need to be in contact with a crisis team, and if they are going to seek support here, a thread of their own seems more appropriate. I've hopped into that thread before to try to give support, but replying to ten posts in a row, all with minimal information about the individual's situation, makes it very hard to say anything meaningful. I really don't think it's a good place to receive support, meaning it is essentially just a pit of woe.
As a very frequent poster in the 'are you feeling suicidal thread' I would have to disagree with what your saying.
I understand your point about them needing to seek the help of professionals, specifically crisis teams and the such and we encourage all the time. It is the first thing that we say to anyone new to the thread and what we continually suggest.
People can come into the thread once or stop around for a while- when in there we discuss what is making them feel suicidal, ways that they could seek help, what help they are currently receiving, if anything has triggered the feelings in particular and we really help each other to keep motivated to fight.
Believe me when I say that we are not trivialising the subject of suicide in any way and if you were to come into the thread for longer than two seconds you would know this. It is far from a pit of woe, but sometimes people just need to verbalise what is going on in their heads without the requirement of answering a hundred questions about their current situation in a thread of their own. A thread of your own can often make things feel worse. Imagine being actively suicidal and no one responds to your thread. Its happened and will happen again. Its like a kick in the teeth sometimes.
It can be frustrating when there is nothing you can say to someone. On occation people do just post some woe, but its rare. But this is certainly usually a place where *hugs* are well received. We try to keep the room as positive as possible given the subject and everyone that posts knows that people are struggling so have an understanding.
Sometimes people just need to hear that others are feeling the same way, that there is somewhere to go to talk about a call with the crisis team or just somewhere to go where people don't think they are attention seeking. Because even if they are seeking attention, that is good thing. The thread is full of people fighting their corner with them. Trying to give them ideas or distractions. The motivation to seek help. The hope to carry on.
Whilst people are posting in that thread, they are not killing themselves and that is a good a reason to have a thread as any other.