I don't want to generalize too much from 2 examples, but now it seems to me that the "everything is ok now" part is a huge warning, even if it's followed by some rationalization. Not sure why.
Consider: It's much easier to commit suicide if the people around you aren't on guard against you committing suicide.
"I am contemplating suicide for unclear reasons" was a gasp of the part of the person not yet committed to action of suicide; it puts people on guard, it gets them to help (interfere, from the view of the suicidal parts of the mind). If the person then decides to commit suicide, he's got to set the guardians at ease, get them to cease interfering. Telling the lie that "everything is okay now" makes it easier to succeed at suicide.
Makes sense. :-(
But it may be many different causes for different people. For example is someone's depression is biologically caused and they take some prescribed drugs, they may honestly report improvement... and then become overconfident and stop taking the drugs.
Last month, two people far at the periphery of my social circles have threatened suicide. Seems like a sign for me to learn some ledge-fu.
I reviewed the stuff I'd learned back in high school ("Listen." "Be supportive." "Don't argue." "Etc etc etc.") I have trouble believing that this would work outside of movieland, especially on strangers. More so, in person I'm an awkward, fidgeting introvert---the impact of everything I say is thus diminished, and I sound very insincere or clinical, like I'm following a bad movie script, when I say anything like, "You are not alone in this. I’m here for you." or "How can I best support you right now?" I doubt that this would sound any better in writing.
I suppose I could split my question into two related ones: what would you say to a person threatening to commit suicide, 1. in person, and 2. in an email?
I'm looking for out-of-the-box ideas that don't rely on charisma or compassion shining through. Personally, if I ever need to talk myself out of suicidal thoughts, I apply the "bum comparison principle": if my life is so crummy that I'm willing to commit suicide, then I should be willing to just walk out on everything I value and drift off in a random direction, survive by dine-and-dashing out of cheap restaurants and wash dishes if I get caught, maybe take odd jobs or hitchhike or gather roots and berries or blog from public libraries. I don't see this possibility in a negative light, and yet I still haven't done it. To me, it means that however bad my life may seem, I'm still too attached to it to walk out; therefore, suicide isn't on the menu.
People have different reasons to want suicide, and I understand that what works for me with my first world problems probably won't work for a person who is in too much physical pain from an incurable disease. To the best of my knowledge, the two people I mentioned earlier are both unskilled laborers who had lost their jobs, one of them so long ago that he's no longer eligible for unemployment benefits. I don't think I'll meet these particular people again, but I'd appreciate everyone's thoughts on what I could've said if my brain hadn't frozen.