My friend is casually mentioning suicide. Any advice?

Question

One of my closest girlfriends has had a rough time these past 3 years. She has the kindest heart and even though she doesn't have much, she always shares whatever she does have. She is a lost soul right now and I am running out of ideas to help her back on her feet.

She does want to be helped and every time she makes some progress, she seems to get knocked backed down. Sometimes she creates these problems, and other times they are beyond her control. And up until now, her positivity has outweighed any negativity.

Here's the gist of it, but in no way tells the whole story: A work injury led to unemployment, which led to depression, which led to abusing hardcore drugs, which led to an eviction... all mixed in with a bunch of low-life men, two that raped and impregnated her, along with a few abortions/morning after pills. She has no close family members and very few true friends. She is in her early 30s and is very talented in her field.

The other day I showed her this book on palm reading and she opened to a page that is about suicide. She read it and said "Okay well that is all I need to know!" and gave the book back. The message she took from it was "s***w what everyone else thinks and do whatever you want to do." (which by the way, is in no way the actual message of that page)

She has jokingly referred to blowing her brains out in the past and ending it all. Last night we talked about it seriously and she said that she knows she would hurt a lot of people if she killed herself but at this point does not care. She believes in some sort of afterlife, but not in any God from an organized religion.

Honestly, her situation is not that hard to fix if she would just do a few simple things. She knows what they are yet just cannot do them, or at least all at once. Her world is not as broken as I believe she sees it to be.

I hope she is not serious, and is just blowing off steam, but any advice would be awesome!

I talked some sense into her last night but there's no telling if she will remember our conversation if/when things start rolling further downhill.

Thanks!

Answer 1

:( im sorry.  Tell her a story a story of Killin 2 birds with 1 stone.  Tell her that one bird dies from the stone and the other of a broken heart and that she is actually doin the same to all that care about her (family/friends) I doubt she want to hurt others.  Maybe she will realize that she has a purpose in life and that it would b a waste to let it go all down the drain after all she's been through.  She seem young and most ppl want to give up early in life with out ever giving it a chance.  This situation just seems like shes on a journey but like every journey u need a crew (friends) to get u through the tough seas.  Goodluck with ur friend hope u can broaden her view of the importance of life with advice u get from hear.

Answer 2

So I have had a friend go through a similar experience. She was very suicidal for a few months. All I could do was be there for her if she ever needed me. I was her shoulder to cry on and her diary to confide in. After she was no longer suicdal she told me that all I did helped her so much. Basically her knowing that she had a friend she could rely on helped her not take her own life.

Answer 3

Get her as much help as possible, call her everyday, make her feel loved. Just watch her. Suicide isn't something funny to joke about [I have attempted it several times, & everytime I mention it jokingly, I see all my friends get really quiet & scared]. Be her support.

Unfortunatly, that is the best advice I can give you. You could try to get her to a pyschotherapist or something as well, but I don't know how willing she would be.

Good luck!.