New Blog Post: When Suicidal Thoughts Do Not Go Away

[Dragon]

Stacy has promised for a long time that she was going to do a post on Chronic Suicidal Ideation and she finally did !!!!!

You can find it on her blog and since she reads here from time to time, I'm sure she'd appreciate any thoughts you all have to offer.

[blackcat]

I saw the blog post and was also excited to see someone discuss chronic suicidal ideation and give the Forum a plug. I appreciate Stacy's insight into the nature of chronic suicidal thoughts and wish I'd known a few years ago that it was not wrong to have them. My therapist kept telling me I would be fine if I just took suicide off the table. You can imagine how well that worked. I have to attest that tackling the issues that led to the despair and improving aspects of my life did eventually make suicide a less tempting option.

Sorry, it's been two years since I dropped in, but it's partly because being in the forum for awhile and getting to hear from people who also have long-standing suicidal thoughts and talk openly about them was such a relief.

Don't kick me out of the Forum yet though as I got myself two books on suicide, including Stacy's, recently and happily read them for the holidays. While I appreciate my therapist who hung in there through years of ups and mostly downs, I wonder if Stacy's approach of addressing suicide directly and frequently might not have been the one way to make even me bored with the idea of suicide ;-)

[nightsong]

Great post! And you crack me up telling her it's about time she got to it. 

[Echo66]

Agree that the longer a person has chronic suicidal thoughts, the more it becomes 'their normal'. That has certainly been true for me.

I wonder how many MH professionals share Stacey Freedenthal's view that chronic suicidal ideation is only a problem if it intensifies to the point where a person is at imminent risk of ending their life?
In my own experience of dealing with MH professionals, they eventually gloss-over the fact of someone being chronically suicidal; like the longer a person has felt this way, the less likely they are to act on it. They become almost complacent. Dangerous territory.

[Dragon]

@Echo66 I know Stacey well enough, I think, that she considers suicidal ideation a problem whether it's in crisis or not.  I think it safe to say that she recognizes - as she says in her post - that it's often an expression of other existing problems. She says "chronic suicidal thoughts typically indicate that an unhealed wound needs healing, whether that wound arises from past trauma, mental illness, grave loss, or some other cause."  Maybe it's just the way I read it, but thoughts of suicide are a symptom (and suicide itself is a symptom, albeit the ultimate symptom) of other problems that need healing.

While living in Houston I found a "pshrink" at the VA who was great for me.  First, he actually listened to what I had to say.  Secondly, he acknowledged that any time things went "south" for me that suicide was "on the table".  He was, I think, willing to prescribe just about anything I wanted if I thought (and if he agreed) it might help.  And finally, it was my choice to accept hospitalization if I felt that I wan't safe.  I could walk out of his office knowing (or at least felling like) that he had my back IF!

Your last comment strikes home from what I've seen with other MH providers - they simply don't understand that, again as Stacey mentions, "The more someone thinks of suicide, the more they might get used to the idea. This can weaken their inhibitions and fears about suicide."  Complacency - on either part - is as you say "Dangerous territory."

@blackcat I don't delete people who go away for a while after they've posted something, they're a part of the forum and they're missed when they go quiet.  The only people I delete - sorta out of hand - are people who register and then never post anything.  I don't mind lurkers - but after 4-6 months I really do expect to see something.
and it's good to see you back - though I wish you (none of us) didn't feel the need to visit.

[Beckys11]

Stacy Freedenthal did an interview on April 16, 2018 which discusses tips from her book. You can listen to it here or you can read the transcript here
http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/20...nthal.html
 Perhaps someone else can figure out how to add it to the thread. I couldn't figure it out.

[Dragon]

@Beckys11 thanks for this marvelous find.  If anyone wants to listen to the poscast, it can b found here.

http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www....enthal.mp3