When someone talks about taking their own life, it’s very often an anguished distress signal. But sometimes repeated suicide threats are used as the ultimate means of control in a coercive relationship. “If you leave me, I’ll kill myself” is a form of emotional abuse that can make it feel impossible to walk away.
It is because suicide is such a terrible and tragic thing – that someone might be experiencing such mental torment that they cannot see another way out – that the threat of killing oneself is so potent in abusive relationships. And it is also a reason why we have to be so careful about the way we publicly discuss suicide, its causes and how it can be prevented. Because it is so powerful, there is a risk that it gets wielded by well-meaning social campaigns in ways that not only distract from effective suicide prevention, but can do real harm.
