Loving Someone With Suicidal Thoughts Webinar

If you or someone you love is in crisis, call the suicide prevention lifeline at 988 or text the crisis text line at 741-741.

Anne Moss Rogers interviews Stacey Freedenthal PhD, LCSW in this webinar Q&A style. At the end, we answered audience questions.

Stacey’s bio: Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, is a therapist, author, and educator who specializes in helping people with suicidal thoughts. Her new book is Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do. Dr. Freedenthal also authored the book, Helping Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: Tips and Techniques for Professionals, and she created and maintains the website Speaking of Suicide. Dr. Freedenthal is an associate professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work and a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives in Denver, CO, with her husband and their collection of cats.

In this recording we address these burning questions:

1. What makes people more likely—and less likely—to become suicidal?
2. I’m so afraid of asking about suicide. Will I give them the idea? What if they say yes? What if they get angry? What if I say the wrong thing?
3. What do I do and how do I figure out the right thing to do when my loved one is in crisis? It’s so hard to figure out.
4. I’m afraid when my loved one is talking about suicide. And I’m afraid when they are not. It’s like I’m always waiting for the shoe to drop, and I can’t find any peace. How can I get myself out of this cycle?
5. How could they even consider suicide if they have kids and a loving family? Sometimes I feel like I’m worthless or don’t matter at all. Isn’t it a choice?
6. Why isn’t my love enough? Can’t they see how much I love them?
7. My loved one lives with persistent suicidal thoughts. Is there any hope they can lead a normal life? How does someone get used to that?
8. I go through all these motions, drop everything for the current crisis, and then everything is fine. It’s exhausting and I’m starting to think my loved one has gotten addicted to saying they are suicidal. How can I know I’m not being manipulated, or they are just trying to get attention?
9. If my loved one goes to a therapist, what should I expect in the way of deliverables?
10. Stacey, you talked about “brave listening” in your book, Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts. What is brave listening and why is it important? What is reflective listening and why is that important?

Audience Questions:

1. My partner is in constant chronic pain from complex health issues. How do I cope with the guilt of being his reason for saying alive?
2. Is there a website you can recommend with up-to-date suicide statistics?
3. My daughter is 18 years old and attempted suicide Sunday night. She is getting inpatient treatment right now. What can I expect when she comes home? Any suggestion for me and my family to prepare as she returns home?
4. Trauma-informed therapy is hard to find. HOw do we advocate for our person to get them that kind of treatment?
5. When someone tells him his/her/their suicidal thoughts, it should mean they consider me safe enough to share with me. Yet if I don’t feel like having the right energy myself to support them, how could I help them without making a mistake and worsening their situation?
6. Can you put the link to Anna Weider’s letter in the chat so it’s easy to find?

Creating a crisis safety plan. Hacks for the rest of us.