“Many people believe that once someone starts down the dark path of suicide there is nothing that can be done to stop them. This is not true.”
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Where To From Here
Between 1937 and 1971, roughly 500 people were stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The researchers followed up with them years later, and they found that 94% of them were either still alive or had died of natural causes. Someone might argue that these people were stopped therefore they weren’t serious, this is not true many of these people were held back.
This study strongly suggests that if we can help someone who is suicidal at the time of crisis, or ideally before they even get there, then they won’t just do it another way; they will choose to live.
Often a suicidal crisis is a short-term crisis, if we can keep someone alive in that time there is an exceptionally high chance they will live.
Seiden, R. H. (1978). Where are they now? A follow‐up study of suicide attempters from the Golden Gate Bridge. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior, 8(4), 203-216.