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EStokes comments on How would you talk a stranger off the ledge? - Less Wrong Discussion

11 Post author: MoreOn 23 January 2012 02:52PM

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Comment author: EStokes 23 January 2012 10:49:32PM 0 points [-]

I... don't see how making someone feel silly is going to help in the long run? If it really is a problem for them, then wouldn't they have a harder time bouncing back from thinking they've said something silly/stupid, not to mention feel alienated and alone, possibly discouraging them from talking about it again instead of doing the deed? It seems to me that an expression of suicidal intent as a cry for help doesn't necessarily make it insincere. It doesn't sound unlikely to me that someone could say they've the intent to do it, because their view of how things are makes it seem like life's not worth it, but that they'd of course want to think otherwise, and so would still like to hear serious advice on the matter, or at least hear that someone cares. Honestly, it sounds very callous.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 24 January 2012 10:21:56AM 2 points [-]

I'm not suggesting that it's beneficial to make suicidal people feel silly. I'm proposing that the sensation of retreating from a position of suicidal intent is often feeling silly about having done it.

I'm starting to regret posting this now. There's way too much room for misinterpretation.