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psychiatrist (not your regular doctor, even though he/she prescribes
antidepressants). Then get psychotherapy from the psychiatrist who
prescribes your psychotropic drugs (if he/she does talking therapy) or
from a doctoral level clinical psychologist, or from a social worker
covered by insurance. Unlicensed and lesser trained counselors are not
likely to have the experience, the authority or the status needed to
deal with a crisis involving a serious suicide attempt.
In most cases, I also would not recommend accepting limited
therapy. Suicide warrants highly qualified professionals and intensive,
long-term psychotherapy. Beware of a doctor who recommends that
you have a therapy session once a month or for just 15-20 minutes a
week. If the doctor who prescribes your drugs makes that suggestion,
tell him/her that you would like to have both meds and psychotherapy.
If you are a college student, your Health Service and your Counseling
Center should provide you with both of the services you need. If you
are not covered by health insurance and don’t have a rich,
sympathetic relative, then I’d go to your local Mental Health Center.
They should provide psychotherapy at a rate you can afford and
arrange for you to get drugs from a psychiatrist consulting with the
agency.
I will not discuss at this point therapy for depression or other
psychological conditions related to suicidal thoughts because a full
discussion is already in other parts of this chapter or other chapters. It
is well documented that psychotherapy, especially Cognitive-
Behavioral Therapy, is in general at least as effect as antidepressant
medicine, if not more effective. But psychotherapy may cost more and
take longer.
As I repeatedly said elsewhere in this book, it is wise to
supplement psychotherapy with self-help readings and efforts. Of
course, the psychotherapist you are seeing should be fully informed
and involved in planning and monitoring all self-control or self-
improvement efforts you undertake. There are so many useful self-
help methods: improving self-esteem, increasing optimism, living
according to your values, overcoming unwanted habits, improving
sleep, coping with stress, worries and trauma, improving health,
increasing happiness, reducing shame and guilt, mellowing anger,
handling relationship problems, finding and keeping love, increasing
tolerance, reducing irrational ideas, stopping bad memories, increasing
insight and self-understanding, etc, etc. They are described in this
book. Look them up.
Self-Help is only a supplement to therapy when suicide is a
possibility
As I hope I have made very clear, preventing your own suicide is
not a self-help project. If "ending it all" is on your mind, your first
priority is taking preventative action (see the first few paragraphs in
this section), then get professional help right away. If you are an
adult, you should probably also get anti-depressive medication as soon
