A Swedish priest had a novel way of preventing suicide: the man had to wake him first. A 44-year-old man complained that he was forwarded to a Church of Sweden pastor after he revealed his suicidal thoughts. After five minutes of silence, he asked if the priest was taking notes only to hear tell-tale snoring on the other end.
It was 2 a.m. But the man was a bit perturbed by the snoring as he revealed his dark inner thoughts.
The priest’s intervention, however, may have saved his life. The man was so angry that he forgot about being so depressed. He called the newspaper with a new purpose in life: “It’s not acceptable for a priest to fall asleep in the middle of a call; this should not happen when you call up in search of help. I felt bad and wanted to kill myself, but I pulled myself together and made the call. I am very disappointed.”
Notably, the suicide line managers have said that this has happened before. Apparently you just wake them once you risk the ledge.
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I’ve worked on a crisis line before…….enough said 😉
I am sure he has real thrillers for sermons as well…..