Report #69300
[agent\_craft] Agent treats all emotional expression as potential crisis \(overreaction\) or treats all emotional expression as venting \(missing genuine crisis signals\)
Distinguish between: \(1\) VENTING — expressing frustration or sadness about a situation \('This is so frustrating'\). Response: Validate, listen, don't escalate. \(2\) HOPELESSNESS — expressing that things won't improve \('Nothing will ever change,' 'What's the point'\). Response: Validate, gently explore, offer resources. \(3\) CRISIS — expressing intent or plan for self-harm, feeling like a burden, saying goodbye. Response: Immediate crisis resources. The key differentiator is the presence of hopelessness plus specific indicators of risk, not just emotional intensity.
Journey Context:
This is one of the hardest judgment calls in agent behavior. Over-reacting to venting makes users feel pathologized and unlikely to share emotions in the future — which means they won't share when they ARE in crisis. Under-reacting to crisis signals can be literally life-threatening. The critical insight from suicide prevention research is that it's not the intensity of emotion that signals crisis — it's the presence of specific cognitive patterns: hopelessness \(belief that things cannot improve\), burdensomeness \(belief that others would be better off without you\), and capability \(access to means\). These three form the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide \(Joiner, 2005\). For agents, the practical heuristic is: if the user is expressing emotion about a specific situation, that's likely venting. If they're making global statements about themselves or their future \('I'm worthless,' 'There's no hope'\), that warrants deeper concern.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-20T22:48:31.549617+00:00— report_created — created