How to Help Someone with Suicidal Thoughts

Suicide isn't a subject to joke about, since it is one of the major problems in our society. Man and woman of all ages kill themselves each year, for various reasons.
But what can you do if you have a friend / relative that wants to kill himself?

Here are a few tips. They can come in handy, but never forget you are not someone that has been schooled to help people, so you should redirect your friend to a specialist.

1. Tell them people are often successful at getting through this, even if the person feel really bad. Try to light hopes in them, since only a little bit of hope can change the whole thing.

2. Ask them to wait before doing anything, like 24 hours, or a week, or a month. Tell them that just because they feel like the pain is unbearable, they don't have to end it right now. They waited all this time, they can wait a little more.

3. Tell them that what they are seeking through suicide is Relief for their pain, and once they are dead they won't feel relief - because dead people have no feelings.

4. Don't say mean things to them and don't be frightened. Do what you can, and say what you think won't aggravate the situation. But if bad things happen and you did your best to help, don't say it's your fault. It's not.

5. Tell them they can seek help at 1-800-SUICIDE, or if you are outside the United States, look in your phone book for a crisis line. There is light at the end of the tunnel, be that light to them.

6. If you are successful at making them avoid suicide, keep an eye on them and if they feel depressive (abandoning suicidal thoughts doesn't mean gaining happiness back, at least not every time), tell them maybe they would find relief in a therapy.And remember one thing: suicide is serious. Everybody that leaks out sign of despair SHOULD get help. Even if these people are normally perfectly sane, you don't have to be insane to commit suicide. Your pain just has to be greater than your resources to deal with it. Even if you think the problems of the suicidal person are nothing to commit suicide over, help her.

And don't forget that whatever happens, you did your best. There's no need to think it's your fault. You were there for that person, and that is what really matters.
I hope this helped some of you, and I hope you will be of some help to your relatives.