I don’t claim to have all of the answers to the challenge of suicide prevention, but the basics are relatively straightforward. This research into teenagers shows us precisely what keeps people alive:
Despite high suicide risk, most teens can identify reasons to live, from family bonds to small future dreams – offering hope for prevention.
Specifically, remember this:
The single most common word in the dataset was “my”. That may sound insignificant, but it tells us something powerful. Adolescents weren’t speaking abstractly about life or philosophy – they were talking about their people, their goals, their pets and their plans. This reflects a sense of belonging, which research shows is one of the strongest protective factors against suicide.
https://theconversation.com/what-suicidal-teens-say-matters-most-to-them-262900
We all need a sense of connection to our people and our futures—suicide prevention = maintaining those connections. I can only speak from my own experience, but it was the desperation of being alone and without hope that pushed me to the brink, and it was a curiosity about what my future could be that brought me back from it. If we can’t provide that, what are we doing?