Safety contracts are not a cure-all, and they don't work for everyone. They work for me because I strongly believe in keeping my word. For me my signature on that piece of paper is binding, even if I just scribbled it out of desperation to keep from being forced inpatient. I told the nurse and social worker straight out that I couldn't and wouldn't sign anything open ended, because I don't know what might happen and I don't want to be in a situation where I feel like I'm forced to break my word because of being overwhelmed. I told them if they wanted a date, I'd give them a date, and we settled on our next meeting Monday.

That was the situation two nights ago. I knew I wouldn't cut because I gave my word on it, but I had also given my word that I wouldn't prepare for suicide and I was planning the emails and facebook messages I would need to send to say goodbye or apologize to the necessary people and make sure my body was found in a timely manner (I've been in situations where we didn't find the body until weeks after the death, and it's not pretty. I didn't want to put anyone through that.). I managed to stop by forcing myself to realize, "I can't be doing this, I am breaking my contract". I'm sure that wouldn't work for everyone, but it helped to force me back to reality.

I hope maybe this can help someone else.