When someone is struggling with thoughts of suicide, it's natural to want to somehow talk them out of it.
But according to HuffPost, it's not the time to let just any old words come flying out of your mouth.
Dan Reidenberg is the executive director of the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, and says that in this situation, our words matter. A lot.
What we say to someone makes a difference in life and when we are talking to someone who is struggling with thoughts of death and dying, our choice of language is even more important. Dan Reidenberg, executive director of the Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
For example, if you say, 'that’s selfish, or 'that’s crazy,' it's minimizing and doesn't acknowledge the pain your friend or loved one is experiencing.
Remember, Reidenberg says, you want to be there for the person's moment of deepest pain, not push them away with your own biases and judgments.
Also, saying something like 'there are so many other people who have it worse,' is a demeaning, dismissive, and possibly harmful comparison of people's pain.
As an analogy, it's like telling someone who is dying of cancer, 'well, there are people dying of hunger right now.'