03-01-2017, 01:43 AM
Assess degree of risk:
- Thoughts of hurting himself
- vs having a plan of how he would do it (much worse)
- vs being willing to carry out the plan (much much worse)
Obviously, he really needs professional evaluation - if he's not seeing a psychiatrist, he needs to and should be coaxed in this direction.
It is worthwhile risking the friendship in order to approach his wife about it - ask if he has expressed any thoughts of self-harm to her, and then let her know that you are concerned based on your conversation with him. She's in a better position to take care of his needs. If she feels he's an imminent threat to himself, she should realize that a 911 call is not unreasonable, if he refuses to go to ER himself.
There's no easy way to do this, but better to take action and fail, than not to take action and regret it later.
- Thoughts of hurting himself
- vs having a plan of how he would do it (much worse)
- vs being willing to carry out the plan (much much worse)
Obviously, he really needs professional evaluation - if he's not seeing a psychiatrist, he needs to and should be coaxed in this direction.
It is worthwhile risking the friendship in order to approach his wife about it - ask if he has expressed any thoughts of self-harm to her, and then let her know that you are concerned based on your conversation with him. She's in a better position to take care of his needs. If she feels he's an imminent threat to himself, she should realize that a 911 call is not unreasonable, if he refuses to go to ER himself.
There's no easy way to do this, but better to take action and fail, than not to take action and regret it later.