{"id":60,"date":"2022-03-02T12:41:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T17:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/studentsuicideawareness\/chapter\/exploring-our-own-feelings-about-suicide\/"},"modified":"2022-03-28T17:07:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T21:07:19","slug":"exploring-our-own-feelings-about-suicide","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/studentsuicideawareness\/chapter\/exploring-our-own-feelings-about-suicide\/","title":{"raw":"Exploring Our Own Feelings About Suicide","rendered":"Exploring Our Own Feelings About Suicide"},"content":{"raw":"
We all have feelings and attitudes about suicide, whether we\u2019re aware of them or not. This section helps participants become aware of their own feelings about suicide, and it provides the opportunity to discuss what worries they have about engaging with another person who may be suicidal.<\/div>\n
\n\n[h5p id=\"5\"]\n\nThese slides are available for use with this section of the presentation. For information about downloading presentation slides, see Introduction<\/a>.<\/em>\n\n<\/div>\n

Feelings and Attitudes<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/div>\nBefore we start to talk about how we can be in a support role for others, let\u2019s take a moment to explore our own feelings and attitudes about suicide. It\u2019s helpful to think about this ahead of time so that you don\u2019t bump into surprising feelings or attitudes while trying to support someone; this way you can make sure the experience is more about them. You don\u2019t have to do a complete assessment of yourself at this point, but this is an invitation to consider your own feelings and attitudes because you likely do have some beliefs and thoughts about this topic.\n\nIt\u2019s okay to have different feelings and attitudes about suicide. Some of these beliefs will be more helpful than others. The goal is to let go of some of the less helpful ones to make sure that the interaction is about supporting someone else.\n\nThere are people who believe that suicide is wrong. We\u2019re not here today to argue about the ethics or morality of it. We\u2019re going to focus on questions, feelings, worries, and thoughts. Please be honest, but also remember that there may be people here who have personal experiences with suicide. Let\u2019s make sure we treat each other with compassion and respect.\n\nThe thought of asking someone about suicide can be overwhelming. One concern that people often have is that if they bring up suicide and a person isn\u2019t considering it, the person may start thinking about it as an option. That is untrue. Asking about suicide will not put the thought into someone\u2019s mind. It can give the person a sense of relief (e.g., \u201cFinally, someone has seen my pain\u201d) or give them permission to open up further about something they have been hiding.\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
\n

Activity: Questions and Worries<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

\n\nAsk participants to divide up into pairs to discuss these questions:<\/em>\n\nImagine that you are able to ask someone if they are thinking about suicide. What questions, thoughts, beliefs, worries, feelings come up for you? What are your worst fears?<\/em>\n\nThen, as a large group, ask people to share their responses. (If the session is online, participants could share their responses in the chat.) Responses may include:<\/em>\n