Suicide. 37 Sentences to Stop the Slide

When you’re on a slippery slope towards suicide, you need self-talk sentences to arrest your fall. The dark self-talk of ‘I want to die’ needs to replaced with ‘I need help and I can get it’. Change your words and you change your life.

The ice pick slammed into the slope and broke his fall. He clung to that pick with all his might.

He had slipped down this very same slope many times before. At times he had come close to death. But with an icepick in hand, he could quickly arrest his fall. He was not going to allow himself to fall any further.

The depression slippery slope

When you have depression, the negative blackness can tip you over the edge and send you hurtling down a slippery slope to destruction.

For this guy, it seemed like his whole world was crashing around him. Domino blocks the size of whales had fallen against each other and then the last one fell on him.

The desire to die was so strong. Anger, emptiness, pain, the futility of it all coursed its way through his mind.

Then a thought reached out from somewhere.

‘Your brain is unwell, and you need to get it some help. There are medical people out there who truly care. Make the phone call, get the help you need, and see where this goes.’

He reached for the phone and dialed the emergency number.

The emergency person was kind and got him to sit calmly while an ambulance was dispatched. They kept talking to him.

It wasn’t long before the ambulance arrived and two compassionate officers helped him into the ambulance.

Soon a doctor listened to his story. Compassion flowed, and serious help was given not just for his brain, but also for his heart. He felt hope slowly trickle in. He wasn’t alone. He wasn’t rejected or abandoned.

The slippery slope is always there, and the top is always connected to the bottom. The bottom is dark and endless, and you don’t want to go there.

To arrest the fall, to stop the slide to suicide you prepared for it. You need an icepick of sentences you can grab and slam into the slippery slope.

Self-talk Sentences

Simple little sentences can refocus the narrative of the brain when the ability to concentrate can be gone. Say them once. Say them twice. Say them as many times as needed until help arrives.

This is a dark well, and someone has the help I need. I can reach out to someone who cares.
There are people out there who understand my pain, and they are as close as a phone call away.
I don’t need to carry this pain alone. Others want to walk with and work through the struggles I have.
Illness comes in many forms. Perhaps my brain is unwell, and it needs some people who know more than I do.
I don’t know what I don’t know, and there are caring people out there who can help me through my unknowing.
There are better options to what I am planning, and I need some help to find them.
I am not my failures.
The feelings I have are like echoes of the past and don’t truly represent today.
Just because they said, those things doesn’t make them true.
Not everything I think and feel is true, and that is normal for everyone. I need the viewpoints of safe others to help me clarify my own.
When I choose to keep on dancing to the music of my negative thoughts and feelings, I will always be lead astray.
What I am choosing to focus my attention on will get me in the end. What good thing can I focus on for the next 5 minutes?
What they did hurt and feeling hurt is normal, and I can get through this with the right help.
Underneath my pain, there are questions that others have the answers for. I can find that person.
S.H.A.M.E. is Should Have Already Mastered Everything so I am going to stop ‘shoulding’ on myself and start ‘coulding’. I could have done this or that, but I didn’t. I am like everyone else and having failures is normal. Good growth can come out of it.
The choices I made back then were based on various influences that were happening at THAT time and not necessarily happening now.
More knowledge and understanding of myself can open the door to self-forgiveness. ‘Oh, so my brain was physically unwell and I didn’t even realize it’?
I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Perhaps I need to give myself the gift of compassion and grace. That which I would freely give others.
I can learn new ways of handling stress. There are people out there who want to help me learn.
I can learn new skills, knowledge, and wisdom that will help me when the darkness comes.
There will always be dark tunnels, but it does not mean I have to leap off the train. I can get help.
There is a ladder for my pit, and there is someone who can help me climb it.
This despair is not permanent. Feelings and thoughts can change. It depends so much on what I choose to focus on.
Mental Health, for everyone, is a fragile thing and I can grow mental health resilience muscles.
Everyone is fighting a hard battle. It’s normal, so I am going to be kind to myself and others.
I can’t control what others think of me; I can only control what I think about myself. So I am speaking kindness and love to myself.
Regardless of what I have done or what has been done to me, there are still people who genuinely care about me and love me.
Their response to me tells me more about them than it does about me.
Underneath the cruelty of a bully is a small frightened child. I am not going to let them determine my value.
Under the rubbish of my life (we all have some) there is beauty and purpose. I can nurture it or nullify it. My choice.
I am not going to judge my future by the past. I can have a different future with new thinking and new habits.
Following my negative feelings can be like a dog chasing its tail. A habit of futility.
When I overthink I creep away from the connection to the now. I need to stay in the present, stay in the truth.
My thinking can easily slip into the thinking ruts of the past. It’s a habit. I’m going to grab a spade and start digging new routes.
If God is for me, then I need to be for myself. I am not alone.
My brain takes shape from what I choose to rest my mind on. What am I resting my mind on? I will rest my mind on things that are true and good and right. Things that are pure and lovely. The fine and good things in others. Everything I can praise God for. (Philippians 4:8 Living Bible – adapted)
When I am hungry, angry, lonely, tired, stressed or sick, my will-power and ability to cope with life can take a dive. This is normal for everyone.

Keep these close at hand. You might like to share them with a friend or discuss them with a health professional.

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Barry Pearman

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