FAQ

Find answers to some of the more frequently asked questions on the Forums.

Forums guidelines

Our guidelines keep the Forums a safe place for people to share and learn information.

Any advice? Supporting suicidal partner.

HojuCakes
Community Member

My boyfriend experiences intense feelings of hopelessness and talks about ‘giving up’ often. He has seen a psychologist and is on medication but these feelings still come up.

He has expressed feeling suicidal and won’t go back to see a therapist as he feels he doesn’t have time. I have experience with depression myself but what works for me doesn’t work for him.

Other than begging him to not hurt himself, and to go see a therapist again, what can I do? How do I know if he is actually going to hurt himself or just saying these things out of pain and frustration?

10 Replies 10

Croix
Community Champion
Community Champion

Dear HojuCakes~

Yes it's difficult, having different approaches ot the same serious problem like this. You wish with all your heart you could help but sometimes nothing strikes a chord.

I don't know if it will help or not but I do believe some males are more prone to the idea of dealing with matters themselves. I would imagine many were brought up in my era when males were "supposed to be" stoic, self-reliant, capable and not prone ot emotional display. Sadly some parts of these ideas are still around today.

I was very much this way myself, and did not believe any medical person could assist me and so struggled on for far too long in isolation. It was only later, when I did have competent medical support that I started to improve, something I'm glad ot say has been so effective I've reached a pretty good recovery point.

I'm sure you have already tried all the logic and persuasion you can . Do you think another approach might be possible? Are there other males he is aware of who have faced similar struggle and received help? I'm not sure of his interests of course, may sporting stars and other public figures have told their stories with great frankness to get the idea of assistance across to others.

Beyond Blue does its bit in a series called "Personal Best" which has videos of real people talking about their experiences and what helped. It covers all sorts of subjects, I've linked below to the ones concerning suicide, however you may care to start wiht Depression or some other subject

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/personal-best/topics/suicide

Do you think this might be a help?

Croix