Suicide Prevention Quotes

[Daniel E.]

“When you feel like giving up, just remember the reason why you held on for so long.”

~ Unknown

 

[Daniel E.]

"When it is darkest, we can see the stars."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

[Daniel E.]

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

~ Seneca

 

[Daniel E.]

“Crisis is what suppressed pain looks like; it always comes to the surface. It shakes you into reflection and healing.”

~ Bryant McGill

 

[Daniel E.]

“Coping with any death is traumatic; suicide compounds the anguish because we are forced to deal with two traumatic events at the same time. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the level of stress resulting from the suicide of a loved one is ranked as catastrophic-–equivalent to that of a concentration camp experience.”

~ Carla Fine, No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of a Loved One

 

[Daniel E.]

“Suicide has overtaken car accidents, heart disease and cancer as the biggest killer of British men under the age of 45, and male rates of substance abuse, violence and imprisonment are eye-watering. And yet dysfunctional emotional regulation continues to be aligned with alpha masculinity.”

~ Antonella Gambotto-Burke

 

[Daniel E.]

“Because of your twisted thinking, you see yourself in a trap from which there seems to be no escape. You jump to the conclusion that your problems are insoluble. Because your suffering feels unbearable and appears unending, you may erroneously conclude that suicide is your only way of escape.”

~ David Burns, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy

 

[Daniel E.]

“It is hard to be happy without a life worth living. This is a fundamental tenet of DBT. Of course, all lives are worth living in reality. No life is not worth living. But what is important is that you experience your life as worth living—one that is satisfying, and one that brings happiness.”

~ Marsha M. Linehan, DBT Skills Training Manual

 

[Daniel E.]

“Acceptance can transform but if you accept in order to transform, it is not acceptance. It is like loving. Love seeks no reward but when given freely comes back a hundredfold. He who loses his life finds it. He who accepts, changes.”

~ Marsha M. Linehan

 

[Daniel E.]

“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”

~ Voltaire

 

[Daniel E.]

“Even in my blackest depressions, I never regretted having been born. It is true that I had wanted to die, but that is peculiarly different from regretting having been born.”

― Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

 

[Daniel E.]

“That the very delusion which drove me to a death-loving desperation should so suddenly vanish would seem to indicate that many a suicide might be averted if the person contemplating it could find the proper assistance when such a crisis impends.”

~ Clifford Whittingham Beers, A Mind That Found Itself (1908)

 

[Daniel E.]

"The greatest joys are found not only in what we do and feel, but also in what we hope for."

"The worst bullies you will ever encounter in your life are your own thoughts."

~ Bryant H. McGill

 

[Daniel E.]

"When pain exceeds pain-coping resources, suicidal feelings are the result. Suicide is neither wrong nor right; it is not a defect of character; it is morally neutral. It is simply an imbalance of pain versus coping resources. You can survive suicidal feelings if you do either of two things: (1) find a way to reduce your pain, or (2) find a way to increase your coping resources. Both are possible."

"People often turn to suicide because they are seeking relief from pain. Remember that relief is a feeling. And you have to be alive to feel it. You will not feel the relief you so desperately seek if you are dead."

~ Martha Ainsworth

 

[Daniel E.]

"What are you telling yourself to make yourself suicidal? You largely constructed your depression. It wasn't given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it. What do you think you're telling yourself to make yourself this way?" We'd get the client to admit things like, "I don't like my life," and then we'd say, "Yeah, but that wouldn't induce you to commit suicide. What else are you telling yourself?" And that's when clients say things like, "It shouldn't be the way it is. It's terrible that I failed. I'm no good." That's when we hear the shoulds, the oughts and the musts, and then we convince the client to abandon these irrational demands. Our slogan is, "I will not should on myself today."

~ Albert Ellis

 

[Daniel E.]

I'd be better off _______.

When a depressed person sees that loop emerge in her mind the urge to pull can be enormous. Agree with it and do something. Disagree with it and prove it wrong. But either way, take it seriously. Pull, push; Click, click; automatic pilot mode.

~ Steven Hayes

 

[Daniel E.]

When your day is long
And the night
The night is yours alone
When you're sure you've had enough
Of this life
Well hang on
Don't let yourself go
'Cause everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes

~ R.E.M., Everybody Hurts

 

[Daniel E.]

"Realize that no one specific person or experience is necessary to your happiness."

~ Robert L. Leahy, Challenging Your Hopelessness

 

[Daniel E.]

"You will get better. Repeat that. You WILL get better."

~ Aunt Gigi

 

[Daniel E.]

"Stop and think about what is happening right now. Is this moment hopeless? Sit quietly, noticing your breath, letting it in and out, watching it come and go. Feel your feet against the floor. Hear the sounds around you. Peel an orange and smell the tang within. Listen to the music and feel the notes run through you. The present is here, every moment, every day. When the future is gone and you live fully alive here and now, you put an end to hopelessness. Appreciating the moment will make you forget about the hopelessness."

~ Robert L. Leahy,
How to Overcome Your Feelings of Hopelessness