Many years ago, the fear of that definitely made me be more closed off initially with my therapist at the time, when I was having issues with intrusive thoughts. Which is a problem, because the root of that problem is fear anyway. Damn positive feedback loops.

The solution in my experience was that I grew to trust that provider. Also, realizing that it’s an irrational fear in my case. They don’t send you on a grippy socks vacation for suicidal thoughts, if you don’t also have a plan and intent.

Also, uhh, you must not live here… Statistically speaking, one of my two neighbors almost certainly owns a gun, but it’s not a cultural thing here at all. If you assume Northern New England is like the rest of rural white America culturally, you’ll constantly miss the mark due to stereotypes. It’s the least religious area in the country, and people keep their religion to themselves for the most part. Guns are similar. Most people don’t really flaunt them around here like you’d see down south. Unless they’re a Free Stater or you saw them using a gun (ie. backyard target shooting, hunting, etc), you probably wouldn’t know if they owned one. Guns aren’t a personality around here.