Posted by holymama on June 19, 2004, at 6:53:04
In reply to suicidalness, posted by cubic_me on June 18, 2004, at 11:07:32
Cubic me,
I just spent my therapy hour yesterday talking with her about how to stop suicidal thoughts. She thinks it's like a compulsive habit that pops up for me when I'm feeling really depressed and desperate, and so she thinks I can condition myself to stop, over time. I don't think about suicide on a daya to day basis and I don't really want to die -- for me it's more of a place my thoughts turn to for a few hours when my depression feels unbearable.
Her ideas were this:
1. First thing to do is choose something else to do with your minds/thoughts everytime suicide pops into your mind. She suggested to pray/meditate/do a little yoga/play a song...but the idea is to pick out what that thing will be when you are feeling allright, so you are prepared with it. Pray (or meditate, etc) immediately EVERY time you think of suicide. This way you get the thought out of your mind.
2. Prepare a box of things that bring you comfort/relief so that you can look through it after you do your praying (meditating, etc. In this way you can bring comfort to yourself and remind yourself of why life is good, what is meaningful to you. This can be a distraction from your pain and also make you feel better. IN the box you could put anything good, some suggestions are pictures or photo albums from really good times in your life, wedding video, video of your kids, letters from friends or relatives that make you feel good, a few CDs that make you feel good not sad, even a letter that you write to yourself when you're feeling GOOD to remind yourself that bad times do pass and a reminder to yourself about what you can look forward to when life gets good again.I haven't done this myself yet, I just got the idea yesterday, but it sounds like it might work for me. I think over time if I try to replace those suicidal thoughts with a prayer and good thoughts, it could work for me.
~~Autumn~~
poster:holymama
thread:357795
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040614/msgs/358033.html