Suicide threat, distressed poster

But everyone was asking her to seek real life help, they were saying to wake her partner. However in real life some folks don’t have support. And sometimes anonymity is better than actually talking to a real person.

Mumsnet have sought advice from mental health charities and their policy is in line with that.

How heartbreaking to think she's been turned away

She’s been turned towards people who can actually help her.

MN's policy was developed in consultation with MH charities, following several suicide-threatening threads that created hysteria on the boards and ended up with the original poster becoming overwhelmed with a tide of frantic posts and PMs. Plus several troll suicide threads. I know it feels brutal but I think it's the right policy.

This makes me so so sad. There has been so much talk recently of raising awareness of mental health and suicide, and so much advice to people to just talk to those in distress. There was a post on here just the other day about an ad that people felt simplified the issue - the point of the ad was to encourage normal people to talk to people, that it might just make a difference.
The poster tonight reached out for help, who knows how much it might have meant to her to see that people - strangers in the internet, actually cared.
How heartbreaking to think she's been turned away :(

What's changed?

MNHQ took some advice from charities with (generally) a lot more expertise than posters on here.

If that one person stops and talks rather than sees a message saying sorry we don’t allow these messages call x, and we can keep them talking, even if it’s till morning, then it’s a life saved.

This is what’s so worrying. “We can keep them talking” referring to unqualified posters who really want to help but are hindering the op from seeking real life help and often posting things that will make them feel even more in despair.

It is absolutely right that those threads get deleted. They are not always genuine but always disturbing.

We are not qualified to get them right.

I didn't see the thread, but am sure I have seen suicidal threads left to stand here in the past, particularly on the Mental Health board.

What's changed?

I think for me, I don’t care if 1 in every hundred of these are genuine

What if the 99 100 threads (99 of which are trolls) trigger suicidal / thoughts / plan in readers?

well meaning but not helpful at all

And there we have it folks. The one person who has proved mumsnet right, the person who attacks instead of supports.

Slow hand clap running.

I feel sad for this girl i was typing my support. Did anyone catch her name to send her a message

I think for me, I don’t care if 1 in every hundred of these are genuine. If that one person stops and talks rather than sees a message saying sorry we don’t allow these messages call x, and we can keep them talking, even if it’s till morning, then it’s a life saved. And that’s worth putting up with all the other trolls.

If the OP of that thread reads this PLEASE pm me as I can't bear to think of you struggling. I don't have the right words other than to encourage you to seek help. Maybe start a thread in mental health for folk just to chat and hold your hand.

Heavy handed call mnhq you've fucked up

everyone posting 'think of your child'

well meaning but not helpful at all

Thanks for explaining that running.

Surely there's a way round this. How can people post to get support?
Suicide shouldn't be a taboo that we delete. It's valid that people feel like this.

I hope the poster of that thread sees this one and knows, although we are strangers, we are thinking of you and hoping you get the help you need.

It is absolutely right that those threads are deleted. It’s what mental health experts and charities recommend.

Posters are not qualified to talk a poster out of suicide and unwittingly post things that make the situation worse.

Everyone has good intentions but those threads have to go.

its right they are deleted....they aren't allowed

can you imagine the drama if they were allowed to stand? troll central already here

samaritans is the place, not mumsnet

LEM absolutely here here.
In 2008 MN saved my life.

Seems like today it would leave me to fester and make various hideous choices v

The advice was to comment and point the poster in the direction of help not to delete so somethings changed. makes the advertising companies uncomfortable

I feel awful that this was deleted. She reached out and was turned away?!

I have been where the OP on that thread has been several times. Being able to reach out on here enabled me to get the help I needed.

I am absolutely devastated as this basically means that at my most anxious I'll literally have no where to turn.

Unbelievable.

They always delete suicide threads. They have taken advice and I think the logic is that it is unlikely to help the poster keeping it up, but it may well harm other people?