How to stop a friend from committing suicide?

Question

my best friend always cuts himself and told me he even tried choking himself before. I"m really scared he'll try to hurt himself again. I asked him why he was suicidal and he said he felt like nobody cared about him. i told him that i did and his family cares about him, but he still is unhappy with life. how can i stop him, and help him enjoy life better, and let him know that hes loved?

Answer 1

There's a guy that was going to jump off the Ogelthorpe bridge in Columbus, Ga. A woman that passed by in a car stopped and got out and told him not to do it. She said she would make love to him if just stepped down.

Those two people got married and are still together. They live in Alabama now.

Answer 2

If you're in school, have him talk to a counselor & hang out with him.  Go to a place he enjoys or used to enjoy & have the time of your lives.

Answer 3

plz do something plz... just don't leave him don't just tell him that u care about him don't just talk show him that u care about him ... give him some hope in life go have fun with him but u got to do something plz stop him ... it's so sad

Answer 4

I think you should give him a kiss on the cheek and tell him you care about him straight from your heart. That might give him something to keep his mind on rather than worse things. You could also try taking him to fun places. Anything to make him happy again.  

Answer 5

If he is threatening suicide and you actually in all heart of hearts believe that he will, you need to tell someone. Even if you had promised never to tell anyone about it, if he is going to do something stupid you need to confide, preferably with a member of his family. Because if you don't and he does do something stupid, you will regret it.

But that is if the worst comes to the worst, you may be able to bring him around in your own way. Trust me, it isn't easy. I have had 4 friends who have self harmed at some point, 1 of which tried to commit suicide before I knew her, 1 of the others constantly claims to want to. The vast majority of the time it was only bravado, but only you can be the judge of that in your position.

You just need to carry on doggedly showing him that you care. Just being there is often enough, but if there is anything else you can do that will really show him the amount of people who care about him, then that is an added bonus. Something else a friend and I used to do was to find out what my friends were cutting themselves with. It was generally the blades from pencil sharpeners, we would raid their bags and take them all, my friend used to raid their bedrooms and take away all blades. It got them in a terrible mood, but ultimately did manage to show them that we cared enough to try and stop them.

The key here is to do everything that you can, there is no sure fire way to bring them around, each person is different. My friends self harmed for different reasons and each case was handled slightly differently. But they key in all of them is not to be hurt by what they say or do when you try and help them. Because chances are that they will get angry, and say things that they don't mean. You need to shrug off the blows and carry on. Hopefully they will come around and realise how stupid they are being. Tell them they are being stupid if you have to, some people can handle straight talking.

Good luck with it all, and remember that if you even have an inkling that he may try and pull some suicide stunt, you need to tell someone else who can help you stop him. You can't watch him 24/7.