Recent post tonight.

[buckbeak]

Mnhq please please can you reconsider your stance on suicidal messages on these boards. I know you've taken advice from the Samaritans, but I've been suicidal before, there is no way I could have phoned and spoken to someone that way, and the email service for the Samaritans isn't an instant service.

People are posting here to talk, and it upsets me so much then the posts are deleted immediately. They are crying out in the moment of need, I don't think deleting the posts is helping them at all.

Please don't think i don't respect everything else you do on this site, it's just this one subject that really gets to me.

If someone wants to talk when they are in that situation, it should be encouraged, not told to phone the Samaritans and then deleted, it's not one size fits all, not everyone wants to talk out loud to someone.

Please reconsider this.

On the post yesterday the OP was clearly in need of immediate RL medical help, didn't believe A&E would take her, and posters were trying to persuade her that yes, she should definitely go to hospital. Then comes a deletion message telling her to phone the Samaritans. It made no sense and did appear rather callous.

All the posts of this nature I've seen, I've not witnessed anything like you describe.

The threads are always deleted so it’s hard to link, but I agree with lipstick on this.

I often see “think of your children” when to someone in the depths of despair, they are thinking of they children by removing themselves from their lives.

I think there's a big difference between a suicide thread where people are posting things like "think of the children", and the one I am talking about. So I'll bow out now, as this thread was started about the former

Oh @QueenieMum I really hope so.

I have been "that poster" and received a lot of support here. I would like to agree with you OP but a person in that position is extremely vulnerable and let's face it you don't know who is posting. The biggest problem as pp have stated is when people are well meaning but don't really have the training or ability to deal with the situation. One wrong word could have catastrophic circumstances.

Also it really is triggering for others and many posters on here are vulnerable.

So as much as I feel desperate when folk are deleted I don't think mnhq have a choice.

I don't think I would cope if I were on a thread where an OP did actually hurt themselves or they just disappear. I'd go mad with worry and guilt.

I've argued contrary to this in the past but I have to agree with mnhq on this.

@Greensleeves when starting this post, I actually had that post in my mind too.

I have seen some posts on threads over the years that have made me wince, when they trying to help, in these situations.

I really do agree with MNHQ stance on this.

@LEMtheoriginal I'm glad I posted this thread, as I can understand fully now why it's done.

I just hope the people concerned are getting help.

I'm glad you got through it too

For those of you interested in how MH is funded provided you can contact your mp and local councillor
Ask what services & funding is available for community MH, for EDT, crisis teams,psychiatric liaison in A&E
Attend open public meetings of your local authority and nhs trust,ask the big questions What support is available to individuals in the community in crisis - is it adequate

LEM fantastic post,you nailed it with a v frank and honest explanation

PurpleSaises Greensleeves

think of the children

That was one of the phrases I was thinking about when I said people say inappropriate things. Another one that I've seen is where a poster suggests the suicidal person think of all the people that will miss them if they kill themselves. I'm not trained in this type of thing but even I can see that's not a sensible thing to say.

Here’s the thing,in a disturbed state of mind the person is thinking of the kids
They’re thinking my kids will be better off without me.theyre thinking a lot
I think some posters fail to see the urgency of the presentation

The stance of many crisis teams to not engage with some suicidal people is evidence that in some situations it escalates the feelings/behaviour ie with bpd. For clinical depression/bipolar, no amount of hun posts will be constructive. Proper support is needed.

Thanks for posting this. I responded to that thread. In fear really... It felt wrong to ignore it even though I have no idea how to help. In future I'll just report, I really wouldn't want to risk making things worse.

I'm glad that mnhq deletes.
My mh is crap at the moment. I have loads of empathy for anyone suffering, but replying with words that help affects me badly. Even sometimes seeing a title affects me. Many times I've got as far as the reply box to offer something simple, then changed my mind and then promptly wallowed under a cloud of sadness.

V honest reply Gingaaarghpussy
Love the username btw

Sorry to hear that @Gingaaarghpussy (love the name btw )

I really hope your mental health improves soon.

I'm with MNHQ on this one.

Hello all

Thanks for all your feedback on this. As mentioned above, we took advice from MIND and the Samaritans on this difficult issue, as we were very aware that we didn't have the necessary expertise.

Those organisations recommended that we remove posts which mention a proposed method, because of the possibility that this might tip others who are also feeling suicidal into acting on those feelings. So now, if someone does this, we post a link to our mental health advice and to the Samaritans, and we remove the thread. We also get in touch with them directly with the same links and advice about getting RL help.

If the OP doesn't mention a method, we tend to post the same links on the thread, but leave it up - and of course, we keep a very close eye from that point.

We're in the process of talking with Mind now so we may well have some updates soon.