Personally I never called any such hotline; my assumption was that suicidal thoughts originate from one's own brain and way of thinking - adjust that and these issues would go away. Unfortunately, while this can work (for me it worked extremely well, though I should also say, I don't have suicidal thoughts to begin with, even more so as one's lifespan is finite anyway - but I do understand those who have a terminal illness, to not have to go through more suffering when something is uncurable), there are people for whom it can not work, often in the way how their brain works. Just like some people have seizures, brains are different too.

It puts some responsibility on those who receive such calls, because the caller may be in a state where any additional negative input could push that caller over the edge, due to their current state of mind. So this kind of requires more training even of casual people, just as people are expected to know the basic steps necessary for first aid (on a fresh accident site, for instance). It seems pretty clear that those on the national hotline, must have had professional training too. So if there is a decline of suicides, this is most likely - and logically - due to the work by those who take up the phones.

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Jtsummers 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is a fantastically ridiculously comment.

> my assumption was that suicidal thoughts originate from one's own brain and way of thinking - adjust that and these issues would go away. Unfortunately, while this can work (for me it worked extremely well, though I should also say, I don't have suicidal thoughts to begin with

You're, in this comment and the part I quoted, saying that adjusting your thinking worked well for you (with the implication that it worked well in dealing with suicidal thoughts), but you say you don't have the problem (suicidal thoughts or ideation) under discussion. This is like saying, "I've heard that you can walk it off when you break your leg, and that's worked for me, but I've never actually had a broken leg." Complete nonsense.

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nomel 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> but you say you don't have the problem

I think it's very clear stated that they HAD the problem, but were able to work through it, resulting them in not HAVING the problem.

So, it's more like they broke their leg, it healed, and now they no longer have a broken leg.

edit: I am dumb.

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Jtsummers 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> I think it's very clear stated that they HAD the problem, but were able to work through it, resulting them in not HAVING the problem.

From their comment:

>> though I should also say, I don't have suicidal thoughts to begin with

How, from that, can you possibly get to the idea that they ever had suicidal thoughts? It's certainly not "clear stated" that they had the problem of suicidal thoughts.

The comment I responded to is a nonsense comment. They say they solved the problem of suicidal thoughts by adapting the way they think and also say that they never had suicidal thoughts to begin with.

It is possible that they're just a terrible communicator, but, again, nothing is "clear stated" about them having had suicidal thoughts.

	▲	nomel 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I re-read their comment. You are correct.

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Forgeties79 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is bootstraps by another name. “Just (don’t) do it” belongs in nike commercials, not in discussions surrounding behavioral health. If it were that simple then we wouldn’t have these issues at this scale in the first place.

Nancy Reagan “just say no” comes to mind.