My Personal Experience With Suicide Prevention

This article was published by Choiceisanillusion on November 15, 2025

Margaret Dore

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network person had given them my phone number by mistake. This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself.

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one. The person told me to ask the suicidal person why? To engage him.

Green Lake Park

So that’s what I did. I met each young man at a local park, which I thought would be safe for me. I asked each young man why, and then I tried to expand to other topics.

The last one I got him laughing. He told me that he no longer felt like killing himself.

To the best of my knowledge they all lived, but I don't know for sure.