I am struggling with how to counsel a person who wants to commit suicide.\u00a0 Would you please help me to find out a solution to this problem?<\/p>\n\t
The answer would vary with the cause of the person’s desire to leave this life. So the first thing you need to do is investigate what is behind the suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
While you are working on the reasons, it is important that the person has someone to watch over them. You don’t want to leave him alone until the issue is resolved. If this is not practical, then you need to contact the local hospital. Usually, they have facilities to keep a person under 24-hour watch. If you suspect that person is serious and will do something soon, then contact a suicide hotline for immediate help. Most suicidal thoughts are passing events. If you can keep a person from carrying it out at the moment, the urge will pass and you can then deal with the actual root cause.<\/p>\n
What should never be done is to ignore the person. The fact that he is bringing up the topic means he is seeking help. It is better to take it too seriously than not take it seriously enough and find him dead later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I am struggling with how to counsel a person who wants to commit suicide.\u00a0 Would you please help me to find out a solution to this problem? Answer: The answer would vary with the cause of the person’s desire to leave this life. So the first thing you need to do is investigate what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-14627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-suicide"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13864,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-8-year-old-says-he-wants-to-drown-himself-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":0},"title":"My 8-year-old says he wants to drown himself. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have an 8-year-old with behavioral issues. Several times he has said he wants to drown himself. What do I do? Answer: Assuming that the statements are not hyperbole, such as indicating embarrassment by saying \"I wish I were dead,\" then you have a problem on your hand that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16821,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-pray-for-my-friend-who-is-on-drugs\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":1},"title":"Can you pray for my friend who is on drugs?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm searching for all the churches of Christ on Google because I'm searching for prayer. My friend is really struggling. He grew up in an atheistic home, and it's abusive. His parents just yell at him all day long, and they nag a lot. They just tell him everything\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-deal-with-an-addict\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":2},"title":"How do you deal with an addict?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to know how the church deals with a member who practices self-destruction? The individual is a brother who has so much potential to excel in the church but has demons he is facing (e.g. alcohol). He is full of energy and commitment but had a recent incident\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37374,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-husband-has-gotten-involved-in-drugs-and-gambling-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":3},"title":"My husband has gotten involved in drugs and gambling. What do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband and I have been married for twenty years. We have four children together. Two of them are grown with their own families now, but two of them are still at home. During the first part of our marriage, my husband was a wonderful father and husband but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83134,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-believe-your-article-on-suicide-is-unfair\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":4},"title":"I believe your article on suicide is unfair","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon. I read an article on your website under the title, \"I find your article on why suicide is a sin to be completely unsympathetic and untrue.\"\u00a0It was published in 2018 by Alan Feaster. I am not going to debate your position that suicide is a sin. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13004,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-get-my-boyfriend-to-be-honest-with-me-instead-of-hiding-things-like-his-occasional-drug-use\/","url_meta":{"origin":14627,"position":5},"title":"How do I get my boyfriend to be honest with me instead of hiding things like his occasional drug use?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My boyfriend used to be a heavy drug addict and he says he is clean, even though I find him lying to me and hiding his occasional drug use from me. I can't ever talk to him about anything because he gets mad and tells me to grow up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}