Depression? Stress?

[one eyed fatman]

It's so easy to come by these days. Read a story in a small town newspaper today. Young guy (25), very well liked by everyone and a volunteer firefighter. Treated everyone like a friend and was everyones friend. Went into his bedroom and shot himself in the head.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[P95Carry]

There is no knowing with folks - and it turns out that sometimes the seemingly most stable and content people do this.

Sad event in any family - and the fallout from such can be devastating.

[frankmako]

you can not tell. things will happen. just keep yourself right.

[Wayne]

Sad. I have been depressed, have thought about things while drinking, etc..

But, with me, life is too strange to give up on it until you don't have a say on it, as it, your body gives out and you die.

I will be the first to say that I have a strange outlook on life. I dislike haveing to do what I must do in order to continue a paycheck but, all in all, it's just too damn strange to give up on and take the easy way out.

Why people do the things that they do, I can't answer that. All I can draw from is my own life. I've seen things that would gross others out, make them want to hide, or just to ignore. I've read things that others would deem sad, make them mad, or just push their blood pressure to the limit. I have had experiences where I was so saddened that I questioned life, so madding that I questioned life, and so bad that I've become insensitive to what was happening.

This may be insensitive, and I apologize in advance, but as we control out own lives, what we chose to do with it is up to us. I have decided to take a different path then the individual above, but I don't fault him from doing with his what he thought he should. I don't agree, but I am not going to bash him either.

To me, it's nothing but an adventure that I live while upon the earth. Tonight, tomorrow, next week, or decades from now may be my last.

I do feel for your friend, or relative. He had the choice to do what he felt was right for him. I disagree with his decision but it wasn't up to me to decide what was right or wrong in his decision.

Mourn him, but just remember, he was an individual and what he thought was right for him was his decision, not yours. Whether you agreed with him or not, it was his decision and not anyone elses.

Wayne

Sorry to be this way, but you have to look at it both ways.

[P95Carry]

True Wayne - there are many facets to these things.

The one thing tho that so often comes out of the tragedies is - extreme hurt and chaos for those left behind. The thing perhaps I wish the suicides would consider before they go all the way.

It is a contentious subject, like so many and there are arguments both for and against - but of course - ultimately it is always the individual's choice and that we cannot change.

[ibex]

Treated everyone like a friend and was everyones friend.

I think these people are actually most likely to commit suicide. If everyone likes you, you're an actor 24/7. Not ever being able to be yourself has got to put a lot of pressure on you and sooner or later, you break.

Lots of generalizations and... what's it called... popular psychology?... but I think there's more than a grain of truth in that.

[QKShooter]

I'll take the heat & jump right in and tell it exactly the way I really see it.
To me the act of suicide is a stupid, EASY, cowardly, & Extremely Selfish way out of this world.

Forget the Religious aspect of it & how the church feels about it being a sin.
I'm not even making the religious argument.

It is a sin against Nature and it is a crime against everything that historically makes us human.
Suicide is a slap right across the face to the countless numbers of human beings throughout human history that have done everything humanly possible (against all odds) to hang on to precious life.

That would be even dating all the way back to our early human ancestors that somehow managed to survive the freaking Ice Age For A Thousand Years.

It is a slap to The Holocaust survivors & to the soldiers of all nations that "hung in there" while their feet got frozen solid or they had their limbs shot off or were sent to deplorable prisoner of war camps for years.

It is an insult to the live baby girl that got abandoned and tossed in trash dumpster in mid winter & yet somehow managed to stay alive & was found, fought for life & is going to college next year.

It mocks the burn victim in the burn ward that is "80% Burnt Alive" & is in excruciating, screaming pain nearly every minute of every day.

It is an insult to every sailor at sea that met with an untimely watery grave with their family at home left to mourn their death without even a body to put in the ground & it is an insult to every military person risking their lives right now to protect your life here.

You are an inexcusable coward if you kill yourself.

There are so many people in so many parts of the world that need so much help.
They would take any help from any individual that was willing to help rather than blow the old brains out.
They are trapped in horrible conditions and yet still want to live.

Mothers starve themselves to death & fight to be the first one into the refuse dumps in order to find something/anything to feed their dying children.
The poorest person in America is 1,000 times better off than what it means to be POOR in the poorest nations where people barely are able to wake up & yet they still try to stay alive.

That's the way I feel about it.
It is the most massive indignation possible to every person that ever had their precious life ended early in a plane crash or a car accident or on the "operating table" or by a serial killer.

The people who commit suicide don't care about any of that.
They don't care about anything anymore & that's where the selfish part enters the picture.
They don't care about their loved ones & the people that they leave behind & they don't care about the millions of other people in this world that could use ANY helping hand or the even the smallest scrap of positive help.
They don't even care about the people that have to wash their brain matter off the walls.
They don't care about the elderly, lonely, people that could just use a tiny tiny bit of company, conversation, and compassion.

They care about nothing because their life is worthless to them & if it's worthless to them then how much should it be worth to me?
I don't feel sorry for them unless they have a true mental illness.

In America there are ALWAYS countless other BETTER ways out.

If you feel THAT TOTALLY WORTHLESS then go help somebody else out & then all of a sudden your life will be worth something to you (and everybody else) again.

Put the gun & the bullets away & sell everything you own & go work in an orphanage in Europe where all the little babies were born with A.I.D.S. & then your life will be incredibly valuable again.
What have you got to lose?...it's sure BETTER than the morgue & a very cold "six feet under" ~ you stupid, selfish, "person"

Life is sacred & not to be thrown away just because your stupid girlfriend or Wife left you...or they are going to "foreclose" on your house or you "Lost Your Job" ~ You think that is so BAD?

In "world perspective" that's not BAD at all & in America people have had all three of those things happen to them At The Same Time ~ And More & have still gone on to become millionaires.

What about the person that wants to kill themselves because they hate the entire human race?....You want to hate the entire human race?
That's fine & sometimes understandable...then go help innocent, abused, neglected, animals...for crisake there are enough of them that could use some love and help.

Don't ever think about killing yourself because you'll die a total disgrace to the entire human race & every person that ever lived and valued life.

You'll go down in obscure, anonymous, history as being a totally stupid, moronic, turd and you'll die an embarrassment to your species. That is my personal opinion.

[dr_cmg]

QK, enough beating around the bush and sideswiping all the issues, come on and tell us what you really think.

In reality I think that you have espressed what most of us are reluctant to say.

[Wayne]

Q,

To the point, I like it. I agree. When I get stressed, or depressed (got that SAD thing and Oregon is bad for triggering it), etc.. I go to the ones that I love and just spend time with them. Giving them a boost does the same for me.

Me, I would never be that selfish to those that I love. There is way too much out there that I haven't seen, or done, so the thought of doing something such as this doesn't even enter into the "options" of things to do.

I just figure, when all heck comes down on me, that I've hit rock bottom, the only way now is up

And even the worse thing that has ever happened to me (so far) dims in comparasion(sp) of some of the examples that you listed.

Wayne

[Joel]

Not to mention all those happy people dancing at our gravesite. (LOL) Don't want them dancing not even one day sooner than they have to.

We all can safely say that we "would never" do things, however, we haven't reached our breaking point and we all have a breaking point. Thank God, most people never reach it (well, until they have kids) and are allowed to live life and deal the hand they are dealt... without taking their own life.

I'll pretty much help anyone who needs it. Especially those who seem to be at the end of their resources and aren't afraid of work. I will work alongside them and help any way I can. What I refuse to do and won't do (I hope) is ever judge them. Unless you have been in their shoes........

[Scott]

So QKS, I'm not sure of your position on this? Could you clarify it a little bit?

I have to agree with you though. My biological mom shot herself last Spring just before my birthday. She was the third suicide on her side of the family (sister and grandfather) and there was another on my biological dad's side (3 of them within 2 years). Both my half sister's have made attempts. One was nearly successful, but they got her to the ER in time. Both of them are on meds and in counseling. My half brother has admitted to deep depression. Makes one wonder.

[QKShooter]

I hope that everyone that is suffering from depression gets some help.

People can do so much good if they just stick around & don't cop out.

I was an adopted abandoned baby.
Yep, I sure was. Hi Everybody! ~ Don't Feel Sorry For Me!

A true ******* Moderator am I.
And don't you'all ever forget it.

And "Much Thanks" to the Fickle Finger of Fate & a kindly nod from Way High Above ~ I have had a great life & I sure do very much appreciate having it.

I'm personally very glad that my "Unbeknownst To Me" loser "Birth Mother" didn't decide to do herself in & take my sweet baby butt with her. I like living here on Planet Earth.

I'm also Extremely Happy that she decided to leave me for the wolves and the buzzards...because I ended up with the greatest set of adoptive parents that any person could ever hope for.

I don't want to see any good person ever take their own life over some temporary setback or hardship.

50/50 ~ Things Can & Do get better.

Good odds ~ a 50/50 chance that things will get better...rather than worse.
Especially here in the United States.
I'll always take those odds over any Automatic EXIT.

[dr_cmg]

I have suffered from clinical depression and thinking about suicide is one of the things that comes as a part of the process. When I was going through the depression, I had 3 or 4 ways figured out. All my ways were clean, no wife coming home and finding my brains all over the bedroom wall. In all that pain, misery, and confusion there was one question that I held on to that prevented me from even attempting suicide. Every time I got to the point of contemplating not how to do it, but actually doing it I would ask myself, "Would Leah and your two children be better off with you gone?" And in my deepest despair I could never answer that question yes. I could say that they would be financially better off, but I knew that emotionally they would not be and that the financial improvement would not change that. So when I would answer, "No!" to the question I could push the darkness and despair back just a little ways and live through another day.

As an aside, my wonderful wife finally was able to get through to me and to help me find my way back to what for me passes as normality. I have learned to recognize symptoms of the onset of depression and how to keep myself from starting down the spiral to destruction that depression is. I have had only one real episode of depression in the past 25 years and that was a reaction to medication. Fortunately the medication also caused me to sleep a lot so I was able to miss most of the misery.

For any who have not suffered from severe depression please understand that a person in that state is not really sane. I describe depression as a spiral that ends in death. When someone starts down the spiral he starts to ask himself: "Why are you so depressed thing are not really that bad?" And when realizing that things are not really that bad depresses him even more and this goes on day in day out hour after hour. And if not stopped the spiral inevitably leads to death. So if you have a friend or loved one who appears to be more down that he or she should be intervene. Help that person get help. It may save a life.

Rant over.

[QKShooter]

What a total shame & a true great loss to the world it would have been had you decided to actually do it.

Ditto: if any person is suffering from depression...Please get them some help. Do it.

[Rock and Glock]

Ditto: if any person is suffering from depression...Please get them some help. Do it.

QK, Wayne, Dr_ and Others: You're all correct. BUT - someone who will take their own life does not recognize all of the valid points and arguments made. It simply just ceases to matter. At all.

The above comment by QK kind of sums it all up.