who helps?

when you are having harmful thoughts what have people said to you that made you feel a bit better?

what do you say to a friend if you are trying to reach out and tell them that you are thinking about, well, suicide?

Hello, Lonely1298!
In my particular case, when I've felt unsafe, nothing anyone says has any effect. Withdrawal, rest and meds have been my recourse in those situations.
It depends on the friend. Some friends can handle this kind of information; many cannot. If you find yourself moving from thinking about suicide in the abstract to planning suicide, please treat that as an emergency and seek professional help. Any thoughts of self-harm need to be taken seriously.

Wishing you safety and a little peace (and better answers to your questions)!

"Nothing really bad is going to happen right now, this minute, today, is it? So why don't we watch Dexter and eat ice cream?" (My mother)

Usually though, if I'm alone, the only thing that helps is calling a crisis line and talking until the feeling has passed.

Tough one. There's a slight difference between asking for help, and talking about suicide. For the first, you should ask for help. Explain that you haven't chosen to feel bad, and that you want to feel better. Say if you're frightened you aren't seeing things clearly. Make sure you tell this to someone who can help, like your parents or doctor.

For the second one, you need a crisis line. They're trained to have those kind of conversations, and it can be a great relief just to talk about it out loud to someone else. I honestly am sure they've saved my life more than once.

Hope that helps, and I hope you start feeling better soon.