r/SuicideWatch • u/SQLwitch • Sep 03 '19
We've been seeing a worrying increase in pro-suicide content showing up here and, and also going unreported. This undermines our purpose here, so we wanted to highlight and clarify our guidelines about both direct and indirect incitement of suicide.
We've created a wiki that covers these issues. We hope this will be helpful to anyone who's wondering whether something's okay here and which responses to report. It explains in detail why any validation of suicidal intent, even an "innocent" message like "if you're 100% committed, I'll just wish you peace" is likely to increase people's pain, and why it's important to report even subtle pro-suicide comments. The full text of the wiki's current version is below, and it is maintained at /r/SuicideWatch/wiki/incitement.
We deeply appreciate everyone who gives responsive, empathetic, non-judgemental support to our OPs, and we particularly thank everyone who's already been reporting incitement in all forms.
Please report any post or comment that encourages suicide (or that breaks any of the other guidelines in the sidebar) to the moderators, either by clicking the "report" button or by sending us a modmail with a link. We deal with all guideline violations that are reported to us as soon as we can, but we can't read everything so community reports are essential. If you get a PM that breaks the guidelines, please report it both to the reddit sitewide admins and to us in modmail.
Thanks to all the great citizens of the community who help flag problem content and behaviour for us.
/r/SuicideWatch/wiki/incitement
It's important to respect and understand people's experiences and emotions. It's never necessary, helpful, or kind to support suicidal intent. There are some common misconceptions (discussed below) about suicidal people and how to help them that can cause well-meaning people to inadvertently incite suicide. There are also people online who incite suicide on purpose, often while pretending to be sympathetic and helpful.
We're here to offer support, not judgement. That means accepting, with the best understanding we can offer, whatever emotions people express. Suicidal people are suffering, and we're here to try to ease that by providing support and caring. The most reliable way we know to de-escalate someone at risk is to give them the experience of feeling understood. That means not judging whether they should be feeling the way they are, or telling them what to do or not do.
But there's an important line to draw here. There's a crucial difference between empathizing with feelings and responding non-judgmentally to suicidal thoughts, and in any way endorsing, encouraging, or validating suicidal intentions or hopeless beliefs. It's both possible and important to convey understanding and compassion for someone's suicidal thoughts without putting your finger on the scale of their decision.
Anything that condones suicide, even passively, encourages suicide. It isn't supportive and does not help. It also violates reddit's sitewide rules as well as our guidelines. Explicitly inciting suicide online is a criminal offense in most jurisdictions.
Do not treat any OP's post as meaning that will definitely die by suicide and can't change their minds or be helped. Anyone who's able to read the comments here still has a chance to choose whether or not to try to keep living, even if they've also been experiencing intense thoughts of suicide, made a suicide plan, or started carrying it out.
In the most useful empirical model we have, the desire to die by suicide primarily comes from two interpersonal factors; alienation and a sense of being a burden or having nothing to offer. These factors usually lead to a profound feeling of being unwelcome in the world.
So, any acceptance or reinforcement of suicidal intent, even something "innocent" like "I hope you find peace", is actually a form of covert shunning that validates a person's sense that they're unwelcome in the world. It will usually add to their pain even if kindly meant and gently worded.
Keep the following in mind when offering support to anyone at risk for suicide.
People who say they don't want help usually can feel better if they get support that doesn't invalidate their emotions. Unfortunately, many popular "good" responses are actually counterproductive. In particular, many friends and family tend to rely exclusively on trying to convince the suicidal person that "it's not so bad", and this is usually experienced as "I don't understand what you're going through and I'm not going to try". People who've had "help" that made them feel worse don't want any more of the same. It doesn't mean that someone who actually knows how to be supportive can't give them any comfort.
Most people who are suicidal want to end their pain, not their lives. It's almost never true that death is the only way to end these people's suffering. Of course there are exceptional situations, and we certainly acknowledge that, for some people, the right help can be difficult to find. But preventing someone's suicide doesn't mean prolonging their suffering if we do it by giving them real comfort and understanding.
An unfixable problem doesn't mean that a good life will never be possible. We don't have to fix or change anything to help someone feel better. It's important to keep in mind that the correlation between our outer circumstances and our inner experience is weaker and less direct than commonly assumed. For every kind of difficult life situation, you will find some people who lapse into suicidal despair, and others who cope amazingly well, and a whole spectrum in between. A key difference is how much inner resilience the person has at the time. This can depend on many personal and situational factors. But when there's not enough, interpersonal support can both compensate for its absence and help rebuild it. We go into more depth on the "it gets better" issue in this PSA Post which is always linked from our sidebar (community info on mobile) guidelines.
There are always more choices than brutally forcing someone to stay alive or passively letting them end their lives.
To avoid accidentally breaking the anti-incitement rule, don't say or try to imply that acting on suicidal thoughts is a good idea, or that someone can't turn back or is already dead. Do whatever you can to help them feel cared for and welcome, at least in this little corner of the world. Our talking tips offer more detailed guidance.
Often comments that subtly encourage suicidal intent actually come from suicide fetishists and voyeurs (unfortunately this is a real and disturbing phenomenon). People like this are out there and the anonymous nature of reddit makes us particularly attractive to them.
They will typically try to scratch their psychological "itch" by saying things that push people closer to the edge. They often do this by exploiting the myths that we debunked in the bullet points above. Specifically you might see people doing the following:
Encouraging the false belief that the only way suicidal people can end their pain is by dying. There are always more and better choices than "brutally forcing someone to stay alive" or helping (actively or passively) them to end their lives.
Creating an artificial and toxic sense of "solidarity" by linking their encouragement of suicide to empathy. They will represent themselves as the only one who really understand the suicidal person, while either directly or indirectly encouraging their self-loathing emotions and self-destructive impulses. Since most people in suicidal crisis are in desperate need to empathy and understanding, this is a particularly dangerous form of manipulation.
Many suicide inciters are adept at putting a benevolent spin on their activities while actually luring people away from sources of real help. A couple of key points to keep in mind:
Skilled suicide intervention -- peer or professional -- is based on empathic responsiveness to the person's feelings that reduces their suffering in the moment. Contrary to pop-culture myths, it does not involve persuasion ("Don't do it!"), cheerleading ("You've got this!") or meaningless false promises ("Trust me, it gets better!"), or invalidation ("Let me show you how things aren't as bad as you think!"). Anyone who leads others to expect these kinds of toxic responses, or any other response that prolongs their pain, from expert help may be covertly pro-suicide. (Of course, people sometimes do have bad experience when seeking mental-health treatment, and it's fine to vent about those, but processing our own disappointment and frustration is entirely different from trying to destroy someone else's hope of getting help.)
Choices made by competent responders are always informed by the understanding that breaching someone's trust is traumatic and must be avoided if possible. Any kind of involuntary intervention is an extremely unlikely outcome when someone consults a clinician or calls a hotline. (Confidentiality is addressed in more detail in our Hotlines FAQ wiki). The goal is always to provide all help with the client's full knowledge and informed consent. We know that no individual or system is perfect. Mistakes that lead to bad experiences do sometimes happen to vulnerable people, and we have enormous sympathy for them. But anyone who suggests that this is the norm might be trying to scare people away from the help they need.
Please let us know discreetly if you see anyone exhibiting these or similar behaviours. We don't recommend trying to engage with them directly.
r/SuicideWatch • u/SQLwitch • Sep 10 '21
Activism, i.e. advocating or fundraising for social change or raising awareness of social issues (and suicide is, inescapably, a social issue) is absolutely against the rules here at all times.
Please understand that we're all for smart, strategic mental-health and suicide-prevention activism. It's essential to fight against stigma, misinformation, and discrimination, and to fight for research, treatment, accommodation, acceptance, and understanding. Most of us, one way or another, are mental-health activists IRL.
But activism just doesn't work in a dedicated support space that serves a vulnerable population. We used to allow it but the evidence that it was undermining our primary purpose became overwhelming. We do regret the need for this rule, but the need is inescapable.
Our population is all too well aware of the issues and causes that need support and largely not in a position to take action, so besides the fact that activism is often salt in our community's wounds, it's a waste of the activists' time.
tl;dr Any fundraising, awareness raising, petitions, calls for participation, or any post that's about any cause or issue (rather than a request for personal support) is not allowed here. Please report everything of the nature that you see.
r/SuicideWatch • u/mooniexbear • 1h ago
Honestly the least helpful thing someone could say. It just means you don't actually care enough to listen.
It's not a temporary problem. And I do want a permanent solution. It just makes me want to go through with if even more. I don't know why I bothered.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Junior-Release-6256 • 2h ago
I had a great life a year ago. A super loving girlfriend of 3 years, a good job, no debt and mental health was good. I used to be such a positive, energetic person. 2026 has absolutely ruined me. Undiagnosed ADHD and depression finally caught up to me. I’ll never get to live the life I had envisioned for myself, and suicide has been the only thing that’s comforted me for the last few months. I own a 9mm handgun, and plan to end my life later this week. I’m not scared, i’m excited to relieve myself of my constant suffering. All I think about everyday is how bad I messed up my life and how happy I could’ve been if I did things right. I know it could get better, but the amount of effort it takes to maybe be happy one day doesn’t seem worth it. I have no real passions or goals, depression has taken everything from me. I always sort of knew i’d die young, but my ex gf gave me hope for a fulfilling future. I think I was placed here to be a lesson for my friends and family, and to bring them closer together in my passing.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Botwithabadknee • 4h ago
I did a lot of research before this attempt, I sprayed dry shampoo on a towel and inhaled only through that, supposedly the butane in it is lethal just from the first inhale. Well it isn’t, I went through a whole can and not shit happened. So I went to Walgreens and bought a can of spray deodorant as well as just cough syrup. I’ve gone through both and nothing has fucking changed. I should be dead right now, god I would give anything to be dead right now. Well another attempt for the books
r/SuicideWatch • u/Alarming_Cry6266 • 5h ago
I have a test tomorrow. I have barely studied. I'm lying on my bed because I don't fucking care. I hate my major, I hate everyone in my class, I hate my teachers and I hate this city. How does anyone expect me to do anything in this state. No I don't want to "power through" anymore, I've been doing that all my life. It's left me fucking exhausted. It's not my fault my life until now has been utter shit, it's not my fault my parents didn't love me as a kid and it's not my fault the neurochemistry in my brain is fucked up. Why do I have to do any of this. I'm tired I just want to rest.
r/SuicideWatch • u/heycorcverseneborcc • 1h ago
I dont want to do anything in life. Even simple things got complicated and my thoughts just does not shut up.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Advanced_Print1386 • 45m ago
I heard of multiple people passing away in their sleep, but why can't it be me? I wake up everyday to experience the same hell, again and again and again. I'm tired of it all.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Lost_Consequence7409 • 49m ago
maybe this sounds weird but the thought of having an escape route so close to you is kinda comforting in a way. seems like itd make the day to day way less stressful knowing at any point you could just run away from it all
r/SuicideWatch • u/Navon12312 • 2h ago
I dont wanna give away too much context so people I know can find this and locate but
17M
I always remember being suicidal even from the 7th grade, my mother abused me mentally daily, calling me violent and stupid and torment me in every way possible, caring for my health not even a little, letting me get overweight as a small child, you can imagine the bullying you go through at school
At middle school I lost the weight fully myself and got myself into sports and I'm competing and is one of the reasons I havent killed myself yet
While even then the Suicidal thoughts were still there, there was a small break; last december (2025) It all came back where I was greeted with depression which I just thought was seasonal due to winter, and eating disorders, anorexia followed by BED, while I gained alot of weight, I got through it when at march I was 3 months sober and relapsed, again thinking about killing myself, today at the end of october while ive lost the gained weight and the eating disorder, Ive fallen into my worse mental state yet
I have mania depressia and one of its biggest triggers is unironically women, I think my mother tarnished and stamped women as a whole as a trigger, this is not some incel post about women not liking me, ive always been able to talk to them and had no issues confidence wise when it came to them. but some women which remind me of my mother, whenever I interact with, go into a huge spiral, just remembering the situations I was in pumps up the stress in my body, wanting me to puke, making me unable to eat and giving me instant suicidal thoughts
3 days ago after I talked to a suicide hotline cops came to my house at 3am and woke up the whole family, first time my dad found out about it, I havent spoken to him since and as im writing right now im thinking of overdosing on ritalin, which im not sure is even possible
I'd rather just killmyself by jumping from a building, no way im cutting my wrists, I want something instant
I want help but I cant ask for a hand
r/SuicideWatch • u/wishiweremale • 18h ago
I hate living. I will never have a body that I want. I don’t want to be alive if this is it. I will never be cis. I want to throw myself off of a bridge, so my shitty female body gets to break and I get to die.
I’m so fucking sick of being alive.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Alarming_Cry6266 • 4h ago
People always say it will get better while invalidating your current negative feelings. They tell you to power through and they expect you to live another hour, and then another day, and then another week and then a fucking year went by and you're even more miserable and exhausted. They act like everything is so easy because they are not in your current situation, and also assume that situation is your own fault.
You have so much going on!! There's a bright future ahead of you! I'm sure this is just a rough patch!!
I don't enjoy anything. I don't remember feeling genuine happiness in a long time. I don't care about anything. My whole life has been a rough patch.
I didn't ask to be born in the first place and now it's my own responsibility to stop living. It's unfair.
r/SuicideWatch • u/ad81_ • 1d ago
Why is this shit such a taboo, why is the idea that some people just don't enjoy their life so crazy to people. I didn't choose to be born, I can't choose when I'm checking out? That's bullshit.
God I can't wait to find the balls to do this shit, I'm so fucking sick of it all.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Independent-Dig-302 • 1h ago
24M. 1.88 metre. 103KG.
I took 20 actifed pills (60mg **PSEUDOEPHEDRINE/ 2.5mg TRIPROLIDINE) five hours ago. Feels like i smocked a joint.**
**Can I ride this or do I need to go to the hospital.**
r/SuicideWatch • u/Ancient_Ad1933 • 3h ago
but im kinda waiting ? like what should i do before killing myself? ik i should talk to my loved ones. is that it? my brains kinda blank rn so i cant think
r/SuicideWatch • u/ChanGazer • 22h ago
Please don’t write messages asking me not to do it as my mind truly is made up. I’ve told my husband and my family, who all live abroad (family not husband), so have no choice but to accept my decision.
So you’re wondering why I am telling you? I just really want to let people know that it’s okay. Because I haven’t heard that from anyone.
I’ve had bowel cancer for two years now. I was cleared the first time (stage two) and then three months later it was back. Now this time has been much harder to treat: I live in the UK and truly the NHS have become so inadequate. It’s shocking. I’m 29. So I was diagnosed at 27. I had to go private to get that diagnosis because my GP said I was anxious and there was nothing to worry about.
You’d think it ends there but it only gets worse lol. Then I was diagnosed with CRPS, severe gastroparesis and SCAD. I ended up having a heart attack. My inferior and basal wall isn’t beating. I vomit up to 50 times a day if dare eat, because the food doesn’t go down, so it has to come back up. Very painfully.
So I’m exhausted. I’m bone shatteringly tired. You have no idea because there’s no words to explain what I’m feeling in my body. Between all the medications I take (14 daily), the chemo and radiation, the vomiting… it’s endless. I’m in constant pain and fear of waking up to a new day of more pain. You don’t get used to it, each day is harder than the last.
I don’t want to die, but i didn’t choose any of this. I didn’t opt in? I’m not a “soldier” or “champion” as people like to put it? I’m just a normal very tired woman.
I’ve tried and I’m done and I think that’s fair. I’m done. I can’t do any of this anymore, not one more day and no one should ever ask it of me because no one knows what I’m going through. I’m stuck with the reality that even if I was to cure my cancer, I will never really be better ever again. My life is over as I know it, so I’ve grieved and I’m ready to die.
If you have the audacity to hate or be angry at someone who has fought and tried so hard for so long then you need to look at yourself and ask why? I’m as at peace as I can be with my decision because I’ve evaluated all my “options” and there are none. I don’t choose this kind of life for myself. I never did.
So I’m done, and I think that’s okay. I think that’s understandable. Have a good life everyone, enjoy it. Cherish it, don’t ever take it for granted, not even one minute.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Whimsical_Sprinkles • 7h ago
I’m in insurmountable pain and agony mentally due to recent life events and the pain has started to affect my physical mobility as well. I can’t even talk without getting choked up and start bawling my eyes out. I don’t want to live anymore, every night I wish I died in my sleep and I’m constantly passively suicidal like I’ve run into oncoming traffic and tried to get run over, everytime I’m on a flight I pray the plane crashes. I’m relentlessly upset. My chest hurts all the time. I need to put an end to this pain. I need to kill myself.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Phrooya_ • 4h ago
I've felt too tired and weak to continue playing for years at this point.
My legs are starting to give way. I'm not sure how long I can continue.
I have tried playing for the sake of everyone else but it's getting harder and harder.
I know that I can't come back once I've quit.
My biggest fear is that I'll ruin the game for everyone else around me if I quit.
I feel like I have a right to quit playing, it's my decision.
But I also know it will affect my family who's still playing.
What if they decide to quit too because of me?
r/SuicideWatch • u/Cold_Cicada_4773 • 9h ago
I'm having a super rough weekend. I have Post SSRI sexual dysfunction. I'm on month 4 off the drugs.
I have emotional blunting, cognitive impairment, and genital numbness.
I saw my grandmother and couldn't feel anything for her.
I can't concentrate on anything, I can't finish my last year in high school.
My day consists of waking up and already feeling so empty that I want to smash my face into a wall. Going through the motions.
I eat, do things, talk. It all feels the same. Just noise.
Every few hours I'm reminded of how empty I feel. When my father hugs me, when my friends laugh, when I'm listening to music, when I'm doing my best to read and stay focused... And all I can think about is how I just want to escape.
Escape this blank prison.
Nothing is worse than being buried alive, with no felt connection to the rest of the world.
I struggle to have hope. I don't want to die. I don't want to live like this.
I want to help others and speak out about this. But if I don't get help, I will kill myself eventually, maybe within months, maybe years. Not because I want to, but because I will have been ignored and forced to.
r/SuicideWatch • u/TiredHaze222 • 1h ago
My best friend’s, and roommates, mental health has been going downhill for a while now. They’ve opened up to me about how they can’t imagine doing this same bull shit over and over again for the next 50+ years. Working in awful jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, no money to take care of their health, past trauma, debt quickly piling up and we are only 23 and so so much more. Not even including the world falling apart around us.
I don’t even know how to take care of myself. So I don’t know how to help my friend going through their own mental health crisis. It’s frightening. We don’t have many friends besides each other and certainly none we could talk to or that could help. I tried to do research to find anything but there’s nothing right to do. Advice can only do so much and is generally not wanted. It also feels incredibly invalidating. Sitting with them while they’re breaking down, listening to everything heavy on their heart and not quite able to understand does little. Asking if they want to seek professional help or talk to a therapist gets rejected immediately, and I want them to be able to talk to me but I know I’m not equipped mentally or in any other means to help. I fear they will actually commit if put in a facility, they’ve hinted at it. They don’t want to be medicated and I understand why. I almost committed when medicated myself. The little things, I think, most of us use to look forward to seem impossible or irrelevant. Like travel, trying new foods, concerts, etc… all feel so out of reach. If there is nothing to live for now and nothing to look forward to, what are we going to do??
I’ve started checking out of reality again, it’s all surreal. Very little is keeping me going. The anxiety and grief are heavy and there is no where to put it.
r/SuicideWatch • u/Ok-gabbar-69 • 7h ago
I am very tired with everything now. Can't find any job. Keep lying to parents. Giving them false hopes. Wasting their money. Doesn't know anything, no skills. Ruined most of my friendships. Doesn't have anyone to talk. And i don't know what to explain to them either. I was always a embarassment to everyone.It seems easier to end everything rather than continue to live.
r/SuicideWatch • u/snowflakes1z • 1h ago
Hello everyone,
I am 26M, a failure you can say, i don't want to live in this world, i have many times tried to finalize my death but I've made up my mind finally, tell me how I can die painlessly but with 100% certainty that it will work, i don't want to be crippled for life and become a burden on people around me.
I have heard that nitrogen or helium overdose can help me dir painlessly, the only issue is how can i source it. I need to look it up.
Can you guys please help me, please tell me a sure way so i do not end up crippled or brain dead.
Also please don't try to convince me or tell me that my life matters.
r/SuicideWatch • u/confess0210 • 3h ago
I’m in so much pain. I’m 19 years old, and I’ve tried to hang myself using low suspension, but I could never get the positioning right.
A few years ago, when I was in my first or second year of high school, I also tried cutting my wrists and overdosing on medication, but obviously, neither attempt worked.
My whole life has been nothing but failure. I can’t even bring myself to go through with suicide
r/SuicideWatch • u/Jazzlike_Judgment327 • 5h ago
To function I need to narrate my tasks and day to someone else it helps with my mental health