Talking Back to Suicidal Thoughts

[nightsong]

An interesting article with some ideas on how to cope with suicidal thoughts.  Have you tried any of these? Did they work?

[Dragon]

I use the idea a lot but with several years of behaviour modification therapy behind me - looking for and correcting 'stinking thinking' is a natural.
One line of her blog post especially stood out:

In his book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, the author, psychiatrist David Burns, writes that we all have a prosecutor living inside our head, and few of us have a defense attorney.

I think that's a good way to phrase the idea ...

[Dragon]

Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW commented on Talking Back to Suicidal Thoughts.

in response to Al Jones:

Excellent article! As one who spent way too much time in suicidal ideation I heartily concur with the concept of “talking back” to the suicidal thoughts. “That’s foolish!”, “Oh, that’s gonna hurt!”, “It isn’t gonna last!” and a slew of other ways to let my, and I love the idea, Defense Attorney have his say.

Thank you for your feedback, Al. Those are great comments for rebutting the suicidal thoughts.

I am intrigued by your website chronicsuicidesupport.com. It is great that your site offers support to people with recurrent or longstanding suicidal thoughts. this group faces a great deal of stigma and resistance in the mental health field. Your website reminds me that I will need to write a post about this sometime soon. Thank you.

Maybe this will bring us a new member or two.  While the good doctor is, of necessity, against suicide she does have some good thoughts on how to live with ideation.

[nightsong]

1- Dude, I'm impressed at your bravery for commenting on the article itself.  Obviously it was something that hadn't even crossed my mind!

2- Do defense attorneys take sabbaticals?  I think mine might have gone on an extended one.