Question: I have struggled with suicidal depression for many years.

I view a therapist's job as being to persuade the patient to do at least one of the following (1)behave differently (2) think differently (3) manage their thoughts differently. (4) respond to their thoughts differently.

For example, if someone was refusing to eat (anorexic), I think that a therapist's job would be to persuade the patient to eat something. If the therapist failed to persuade the patient to eat more, the patient's health might further deteriorate, rather than improve. A psychologist who cannot persuade patient's to change their way of thinking is fairly useless. An anorexic patient under their watch might die.

I am not anorexic, but I am suicidal. I am tired of being "half-in and half-out." I am "50-50" about living or killing myself. I niether try hard to live, or do I try hard to die.

Persuading myself to live is one of the theoretical ways to get out of the quagmire of indecision. I failed to persuade myself to live.

Therefore, I tried to get other people (psychologists) to persuade me to want to live more, and/or want to die less. It failed. Although I've been depressed longer than that, have been in therapy for 3 years.

Not a single therapist I've spoke with seems like they are interested in persuading the patient to think differently. If they had an anorexic patient, they would happily let them starve to death. The therapists I've consulted rely on providing purely emotional support. They sometimes parrot back what I say. "It sound to me like you feel frustrated about [x]"

If my car was broken, I would not want emotional support from the car mechanic, I would want them to tell me how to fix it.

I don't like emotion in general. I have a college degree in mathematics. I am familiar with all kinds of logical fallacies used in argumentation (ad hominem, ad populum, etc...) I don't find persuasive any kind of appeal to emotion, or sloppy reasoning.

Please tell me, what style of therapy is oriented toward persuading the patient to respond to their thoughts differently, and change behavior? There are many schools of though: behaviorist, pasycho-analytical, cognitive-hehavioral, etc... Which school of thought, within psychology, is best oriented toward persuading the patient to do things differently. e.g. if the patient refuses to eat, the therapist is an expert in persuading anorexic people to eat. In my case, I want someone who could persuade me to live and not end my own life.

IS THERE ANY PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY IN ANY WAY REMOTELY TARGETED TOWARD PERSUADING SELF-DESTRUCTIVE PEOPLE TO BE LESS SELF-DISTRUCTIVE??!?

I read once about a patient who liked to swallow sharp objects. Would you try to teach them how to fell less compelled to do that, or simply allow them to carry on?

Why should I not kill myself?