Suicidal Thoughts
Suicidal thoughts
Suicidal thoughts is when someone is thinking of ending their life. How long these thoughts last and what they can look and feel like can be different for everyone and anyone can have suicidal thoughts. It can be really hard to manage and understand when we get these thoughts.
People can experience suicidal thoughts when they feel hopeless and overwhelmed with numerous aspects of their life, and are finding daily tasks difficult to manage.
Suicidal thoughts can come in many different forms, a few experiences of this are:
- Having hypothetical thoughts about ending your life.
- Feeling that people would be better off without you or that you are a burden.
- Thinking about methods of suicide.
- Making clear plans to take your own life.
- Feeling disconnected from others or withdrawing from friends and family.
- Feeling trapped in an intolerable situation.
- Thinking, talking, or posting online about death or violence.
- Researching ways to harm yourself
- Feeling unable to make future plans
- Planning goodbyes and getting things in order
Some of us use the phrases ‘suicidal feelings’ or ‘suicidal ideation’ to describe these experiences. Suicidal thoughts can build up gradually or happen very suddenly – they can be more or less intense at different times and may change quickly. You might experience them for a short amount of time or feel like they’re constantly there. They might become automatic thoughts when faced with difficult situations.
If you’re feeling suicidal, you may find these feelings overwhelming or distressing but some of us who experience suicidal feelings might also find them comforting or reassuring. This reaction might be scary or confusing.
There are a number of things that can cause suicidal thoughts – they can be due feeling unable to cope or like you don’t have control over what is going on it your life. Suicidal thoughts may be triggered by a specific event, the environment you are in, or you might not know what’s caused you to feel this way. It could be a mixture and buildup of different things.
If you’re not sure why you feel suicidal, you may find it even harder to believe that there could be a solution. But whatever the reason, there is support available to help you with these feelings,
Our bodies
- Poor sleep, including sleeping too much or not enough
- A change in appetite or sudden changes to your weight
- Feeling unmotivated, struggling to keep up with your usual activities in daily life
- Panic attacks
- Flashbacks to difficult events
- Feeling exhausted and physically unwell
Our feelings
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Feeling anxious or frightened
- Feeling powerless or helpless
- Feeling mentally drained or empty
- Feeling trapped
- Emotionally very up and down
Our behaviour
- No desire to take care of yourself, for example not showering or eating like you normally would
- Wanting to avoid others or withdrawing from situations
- Not being able to focus on or enjoy things you normally like
- Reckless or risky behaviour because you don’t care what happens to you
- Writing a goodbye letter or giving away possessions
- Struggling to communicate
- Talking or writing about death and wanting to die
- Having urges to self-harm or use recreational drugs and alcohol
Some safety advice
If you feel as though you can’t keep yourself safe and have a plan which you feel close to carrying out, or you have acted on your suicidal thoughts, it’s important that you (or a trusted person) call 111 or go to A&E as soon as you can, so somebody can support you through this.
Having a hospital passport can help you communicate your needs if you need to go to hospital or you could create your own account here to make a Mental Health Passport which can be downloaded and printed out.
Even though research tells us that there is a link between suicidal thoughts and self-harm, this isn’t always the case. If you are worried about a friend who is self-harming, ask them if they have suicidal thoughts.
Related to Suicidal Thoughts
Skills and tips for helping your suicidal thoughts:
Some of the tips focus on making things feel less intense for you right now. Others are longer-term, to help you cope if suicidal thoughts return in the future. They may not all work for you, or different tips might work at different times.
Sometimes, advice to help with suicidal thoughts might feel a bit trivial – like they can’t possibly be the solution to something so big and distressing. Often, it’s not the thing that you’re doing itself that might help, but what happens around it. For example, making a cup of tea won’t resolve your thoughts, but it may feel soothing for you, and the act of making it might delay you taking other harmful actions. Often small actions can help us feel a little bit more contained and safe, to enable you to tackle the big stuff later on.
Tell someone how you are feeling. You don’t need to share everything you are thinking, just that you need support in this moment. It might not feel like it, but people care about you, want you to be safe, and want to help
You could write your thoughts down; this can help make more sense of them and help you to decide what next steps you might take to get support. You could also try writing a list of things to look forward to, these can be everyday things such as stroking your pet.
Try making a plan to keep yourself safe, like distancing yourself from anything you might want to use to harm yourself or end your life, or taking yourself to a safe place – this could be a friend’s house or a cosy space in your bedroom. If you feel able to, share these plans with someone else.
Focus on getting through the next 5 minutes, this can help make things more bearable rather than looking into the future when you already feel overwhelmed. What could you do to get you through this short time?
Calm your body and mind by engaging in distraction techniques or grounding skills. This can be things such as breathing techniques, temperature changes, focusing on your senses, or doing things you enjoy. Here is a short youtube video with a useful calming technique, a guide on how to make a self-soothe box, and a list of pleasant activities you could try.
Be creative – try writing a journal, doing artwork or writing poetry or music. This could be a helpful way to process and express your thoughts, a way to lift your mood, or a way to wait out difficult thoughts.
Try to take a step back and challenge unhelpful thoughts by thinking about what evidence really exists to support them
Try and remember that there’s always hope – it is possible to get past these feelings and find joy in life again. If that seems a really distant possibility at the moment, maybe you can ask someone else to hold this for you. This means they will maintain a belief that you can have a positive future until you can do this yourself.
Who can help me?
Accessing support in your local area, or on-line, may be useful if you are experiencing mental health difficulties that are having mild or moderate impact on your daily life . Based on your symptoms, age and where you live, the support below might be useful for you:
Thrive hubs can help you understand your options.
Our service is designed to advise, guide, signpost and get help for young people within Manchester currently facing mental health and emotional wellbeing issues.
Learn more about Thrive HubsFor young people looking for emotional wellbeing support, this website offers a range of information and services, including counselling, psycho-social support, and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Greater Manchester Bereavement Service can help to find support for anyone in Greater Manchester that has been bereaved or affected by a death, no matter how long ago. No one needs to feel alone as they deal with their grief.
An on-line resource with lots of advice and information for young people.
Stop.Breathe.Think is a mental health charity offering online counselling to those aged 8-21, who cannot afford or access support quickly. No wait times and available nationally, we provide vital support to those who need it right now.
Trafford Youth Engagement team delivers a number of services from our Talkshop base in Sale. Talkshop is an advice, support and information centre for young people aged 11 to 19 (up to 25 with additional needs or care leavers).
CAMHS Services
A referral to a CAMHS service might be useful if you are experiencing mental health difficulties that are having a significant impact on your daily life. Based on your age, symptoms and where you live, the following services might be appropriate for you:
We are an NHS service that offers support and treatment to children and young people up to 18 years old who are experiencing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. We also support parents, carers, and families of these children and young people
The Community Eating Disorder Service (CEDS) is a specialist CAMHS community team (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), for children and young people aged 5 – 17 who may be presenting with an eating disorder or eating disorder difficulties. We provide specialist evidence-based therapeutic interventions to young people and their families, through a range of treatments, as well as physical health monitoring.
The Crisis Service will work with you and your family, offering short-term help.
We are a specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) working with deaf children and their families. We cover the North of England and have teams in York, Manchester and Newcastle.
Emerge 16-17 CMHT provide a wide range of community based mental health services, including risk and duty support, to young people aged 16 and 17.
Galaxy House helps young people with a range of mental health difficulties including eating disorders and medically unexplained symptoms, as well as managing associated behaviours such as self-harm. Admission lengths vary depending on the young person’s needs and their care pathway. We work closely with families and community agencies to enable young people to be discharged from hospital at an appropriate time in their recovery. In addition to its 12 beds (all single rooms with 2 en-suite) Galaxy House has living, dining, therapy and outdoor space. It also has its own school provided across 2 classrooms within the building, which provides National Curriculum education from 9.30am to 3.15pm each weekday by staff from Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital School. Referrals may be for consultation, second opinion or for consideration of admission.
The Manchester CAMHS team for Looked After Children is a CAMHS team for children and young people cared for by Manchester City Council.
We are an NHS service that offers support and treatment to children and young people up to 18 years old who are experiencing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. We also support parents, carers, and families of these children and young people.
We are an NHS service that offers support and treatment to children and young people up to 18 years old who are experiencing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. We also support parents, carers, and families of these children and young people.
We are an NHS service that offers support and treatment to children and young people up to 18 years old who are experiencing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. We also support parents, carers, and families of these children and young people.
We are an NHS service that offers support and treatment to children and young people up to 18 years old who are experiencing challenges with their mental health and wellbeing. We also support parents, carers, and families of these children and young people.
We are a specific CAMHS team for young people who may have been involved in the youth justice system. We are based within Manchester Youth Justice supporting Children who may be on a statutory court order or on intensive supervision.