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I was scrolling through my newsfeed the other day and someone posted "I'm fixing to drive myself off the bridge," is it normal for people to post suicidal thoughts on social media?
Yea it's normal, I do it all the time cause I'm just depressed a lot. People that are depressed tend to do that.
no, it's not normal. just because someone started out the doing it then others followed the same footstep. everyone would say those kind of people are merely seeking attention. that can be quite true, but the meaning begind those posts are that they also might be screaming for people to notice and help them. however, i dont think they are putting the messages into the right place/people (social media). they should seek help from professionals like pychologists/counsellors. these people also might need help from families and friends
there are proper procedures to handle suicidal people.....the best way is to refer them to a doctor....if they post it to social media...it might not handled properly... and might end up killing himself more....
Basically, they're asking for help. The help they need can range from just wanting someone to talk to, just so they know someone out there cares; to wanting a pity party (attention seekers, but they need help too); to needing a therapist.
Of course you can't tell the level of help a person needs by reading some vague Facebook post, but just understand that it's a cry for help in some way and should ask what's wrong. Now if you get hit with that, "I was just joking. Calm down." It's a lie 100% of the time, it's just they're way of saying they don't want to talk about it; so if you want to help, you'll have to approach them in a different way.