What Everyone Should Know About Suicide Prevention: Myths, Warning Signs, and How to Help

By William Prueitt, MD

Adult Psychiatrist, Jean Marie Warren Center of Excellence for the Treatment of Depression and Suicidality
Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) at any time, day or night.

Suicide is one of the most misunderstood topics in public health. The misconceptions surrounding it are not harmless — they shape whether people ask for help, whether the people around them know how to respond, and whether warning signs get recognized before a crisis escalates.

I am an adult psychiatrist at the Jean Marie Warren Center of Excellence for the Treatment of Depression and Suicidality at Laureate. In my work, I see firsthand how much these misunderstandings cost people. 

I also see how much can be done when individuals, families, and communities are better informed. This blog addresses the myths I find myself correcting most often, the warning signs worth knowing, and the practical steps that can genuinely make a difference.
 

Myth: Talking About Suicide Makes It More Likely to Happen

This is one of the most persistent and most consequential myths I encounter. The fear is understandable — it can feel as though raising the subject might plant an idea that wasn’t already there. 

But the evidence points in the opposite direction.

Asking someone directly whether they are thinking about suicide does not increase risk. In fact, it often does the opposite. 

It signals that you are paying attention, that you care, and that it is safe to talk. Many people who are struggling with suicidal thoughts feel profoundly alone. Having someone ask — genuinely and without panic — can reduce that isolation and open a door to getting help.

This applies to public conversation as well. 

Talking about suicide thoughtfully and openly, as we are doing here, does not spread it. Silence, on the other hand, can leave people without the language, the knowledge, or the permission to reach out when they or someone they love needs support.

Asking someone whether they are thinking about suicide does not put the idea in their head. For many people, it is the first time anyone has made it safe to tell the truth about what they are experiencing.”

Myth: Suicide is Primarily a Young Person's Problem

Because youth suicide receives significant media attention, it is easy to assume that teenagers and college students represent the highest-risk group. That assumption can lead us to overlook people at other stages of life who are equally — or more — vulnerable.

The data tell a different story. People in middle age and older men in particular carry significant suicide risk that is often underrecognized. 

Suicidal thinking can emerge at any point across a person’s lifespan, and it does not announce itself by age. A 55-year-old experiencing a major depressive episode, a recently retired man losing his sense of purpose, a widow living in isolation — these individuals can be at real risk, and they may be less likely than a young person to seek help or to have people around them watching closely.

The practical implication is this: we should not use age as a reason to rule out concern. If someone’s behavior is changing, if they are expressing hopelessness or withdrawing from the people around them, those signs deserve attention regardless of their age or season of life.
 

Myth: Talk Therapy and Medication Don't Actually Prevent Suicide

This myth discourages people from seeking treatment at the moment they most need it. 

The reality is that both psychotherapy and medication can be highly effective — not as cures for the circumstances that brought someone to crisis, but as meaningful interventions that reduce the intensity of suicidal thinking and address the underlying conditions driving it.

Suicidal thoughts are often rooted in hopelessness, in mental health conditions that are not being adequately treated, or in a sense that a person lacks the tools to cope with what they are facing. 

Effective treatment targets all of these. On the therapy side, there are approaches developed specifically for suicidality — not just general depression treatment, but frameworks designed to work directly with suicidal thinking. Medications can substantially reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other conditions that elevate suicide risk. 

Beyond “traditional” medications, there are newer interventional psychiatry treatments that can make a significant difference for people who have not responded to other approaches   . Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and Spravato® treatments are among those we offer at Laureate which are showing promising results reducing depressive symptoms.

What “working” means in this context is worth clarifying: treatment does not promise a perfect life or the resolution of every problem. What it can do is dramatically reduce the severity of symptoms, restore functioning, and give people room to address their lives with greater stability.

For many patients, the difference between before and after treatment is profound.

I want to emphasize one more thing: people can often go years without treatment when they could have felt substantially better much sooner. If you or someone you know is struggling, seeking care sooner rather than later is one of the most important things you can do. There are usually more options available than people realize, and many of them work.

People can spend years living with symptoms that treatment could significantly reduce. There are usually more options available than they know — and the difference treatment makes can be night and day.”

Warning Signs: What to Watch For

Suicide is difficult to predict with certainty, but there are patterns worth knowing. For anyone — parents, partners, friends, teachers, colleagues — recognizing a shift in someone’s behavior is often the first step toward getting them help.

Some of the warning signs to pay attention to:

• Talking about wanting to die, feeling hopeless, or feeling like a burden to others
• Expressing that the future looks bleak or that there is no way out of their situation
• Withdrawing from friends, family, or activities they previously valued
• Significant changes in mood or behavior — more anger, more sadness, more agitation than is typical for thatperson
• Increased use of alcohol or drugs
• Giving away possessions or saying goodbye in ways that feel final

One important nuance: not everyone expresses distress directly. Some people, particularly young people, may introduce the subject through humor — a joke or an offhand comment that could be dismissed as nothing. 

My advice is not to dismiss it. If someone mentions suicide even in passing, even in a way that seems like a joke, it is worth asking a follow-up question. If it was nothing, the conversation can ends there. If it was not nothing, that moment of taking it seriously could be the opening that leads to help.
 

How to Talk to Someone You're Worried About

One of the most common questions I hear from parents and caregivers is: how do I even bring this up? The honest answer is that it is a hard conversation, and it will probably never feel entirely easy. That does not mean it should not happen.

A few principles that I think matter most:

• Come from a place of care, not alarm. Let the person know why you are asking — because you love them, because you have noticed something, because you want to be there for them.
• Listen more than you talk. You do not need to have answers or solutions ready. What most people need first is to feel heard. Let them tell their story without interrupting or trying to fix it in the moment.
• Stay nonjudgmental. Make it clear that you are not angry, not disappointed, and not going to overreact. The goal is to create an environment where telling the truth feels safe.
• Brainstorm together afterward. Once someone has felt heard, that is the moment to start exploring what might help — professional support, a call to a crisis line, a change in their immediate environment.

I think it’s worth repeating: this conversation is hard. There is no version of it that is easy. But a difficult and important conversation that happens is always better than one that does not. 
 

Reducing Access to Lethal Means: A Simple Step with Significant Impact

One of the most evidence-supported and most overlooked prevention strategies is also one of the simplest: limiting access to lethal means during periods of elevated risk.

Suicidal crises are often acute and time-limited. When someone is in the grip of this kind of crisis, their thinking narrows and they may act impulsively on thoughts they would not act on in a different state. Creating distance between a person and the means to harm themselves — even a small amount of friction — can be enough to allow a crisis to pass without irreversible consequence.

The two most important categories to address are firearms and medications. Firearms carry the highest lethality; medications are a very commonly used means but allow more time for intervention. Practically: 

• Secure firearms in a locked location. Store ammunition separately, locked in a different part of the home. If someone in the household may be at elevated risk, strongly consider temporarily removing firearms from the home entirely.
• Dispose of unused or leftover prescription medications, particularly narcotics. Many pharmacies and policestations have medication drop boxes for this purpose.
• If someone in the household may be at elevated risk, strongly consider locking away large medication supplies and dispensing only what the person needs on a daily or weekly basis.

This is not about permanently restricting anyone’s access to anything. It is about being thoughtful during periods when the stakes are highest.
 

The Most Important Thing

Suicide is not inevitable. 

Most people who experience suicidal thoughts do not die by suicide, and effective treatment exists. What stands between a person in crisis and the help they need is often something relatively small: a conversation that happened, a warning sign that was taken seriously, a clinician who was sought out sooner rather than later.

If you are struggling, please reach out — to a mental health provider, to a crisis line, to someone you trust. If you are worried about someone else, say something. Ask the question. Take the joke seriously. Make the call.

None of those things require expertise. They require only paying attention and caring enough to act on what you see.