A Word on Suicide.

[cyperian]

This post really got me thinking about some of the posts I've seen both in the past and quite recently. I've always had these thoughts in my head; what do I do, what are the consequences, what's going to happen, what's the moral thing, is this for real? But I've never been able to quantify all of this into something as straight-forward as a chart

Comments

[cyperian]

I really couldn't have said it better myself.

In further conversation, James was saying that people who cry wolf in this way are essentially doing 2 things. 1) Their ruining your trust in them. If you hear it bi-weekly as you do, you're less inclined to believe that their serious. And if they're not telling the truth about something as serious as ending their life, how are you to trust other things they say without taking it with a grain of salt? 2) Hearing something like that from someone you care deeply for is stressful. Worrying about it constantly wears on a person emotionally and often physically. This is going to cause a strain on the friendship. You’re either going to get to the point where you begin calling the authorities every time you hear them say something along those lines (because they’ve demonstrated they’re serious) or you stop caring and then they wind up following through because they’ve driven away/broken the trust of everyone that would have stopped them. Either way, you’re likely to lose the person you once cared about deeply.

I’ll certainly add your friend to my prayer list. I’m so sorry to hear you go through that.

[kriscynical]

I have another friend (A) overseas who ended up walking away from a long friendship (B) because B kept putting it on A's shoulders to keep B from killing herself and it just wasn't fair. A finally had enough and walked away, and I don't blame her. She couldn't take the emotional stress of it anymore. Edited to add that B also had an eating disorder on top of being suicidal.

With my friend it's boggling to me and makes it very apparent that I don't completely understand how depression works. She has a husband who loves her, she has a very small child, they have a house, he has a job, etc., and yet she is absolutely gawd-awful miserable 24/7. It's like none of those things, even her husband or child, being her the slightest glimmer of happiness. My brain just cannot compute that but I know that's the way it is for lots of people who are chronically depressed and should be on medication. In her case she has no insurance, so no insurance = no more meds.

[cyperian]

Good Lord. I really can't imagine what A and B's relationship must have gone through. It's not a peer's responsibility to keep someone from taking their own life - it should be given over to professionals and to the individual in question. If someone like A is lucky enough to have family and friends, they should really only be called upon to offer periphery support (such as giving a ride to A, telling A if they're worried, or if they see A doing things that the doctors noted as possible problems). Even that might be too stressful for some of those around A and I wouldn't blame them a bit if they had to detatch.

I'll definitely pray for your friend. That's really heartbreaking that she can't afford to even seek help.

Also: I'm sending you a private message over LJ. As I was typing my reply I realized that I wanted to say something that could potentially be a problem if I posted in public.