One of my friends just attempted suicide like 30 minutes ago. Thankfully he’s alive (I know bc he texted in the gc, and he didn’t say it like a joke) but I’m not really sure what to do. I told him I’m free to talk if he needs to (I am not able to go see him in person) and another friend who lives near him said about the same. We also had another mutual friend commit suicide not that long ago. What do I do?
Inform their family, depending on how nice the local police are - ask them to do a wellness check.
For your personal mental well being, I would recommend going low contact with a suicidal person, they will drag you into their drama and pull you down.
This isn’t good advice for everyone. It might not even be good advice for most people. However, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that it would be good for you to do this.
As a professional I’d basically be required to say the above, but I’m also watching from the inside as my country’s health system decays starting with populations that were underserved to begin with like the mentally ill. In other news I have a hospice interview tomorrow. If nothing else I’ll just get to focus on making people comfortable. That sounds so relaxing. I’m getting tired of having to tell people no all the time.
Yeah none of this is good advice generally.
A person who just made a suicide attempt nedds routine and normality but with a lot of friendly interactions sprinkled throughout that.
Sometimes family can even be one of the reasons a person gets so driven to go that far.
So cutting off contact and potentially making his family put even more pressure on him is one of the worst things you could do.
Cutting off contact only helps if you can’t handle the situation or the person anymore, and that still doesn’t help them, it just shields you from mental stress.