Quote:
Originally posted by Z
A woman who lived across the road from me committed suicide last year, she'd locked her front door so that her little boy wouldn't come home and find her dead body, but the poor thing had been sitting outside the house for hours (we'd walked past him and everything, and had been considering inviting him into our house because obviously he wouldn't have a mobile phone to phone his dad etc.) and then a neighbour called for the police to see if they could find out what was going on... Very sad. That's the only case of suicide that's affected my life, in that I knew the woman, but it's not something I'm familiar with so I can't really pass comment.
I know a girl who claims she is depressed. I say claims, because she's a very attention seeking sort of person (crying wolf and all that, I don't know whether to take her seriously) which is bad of me, I suppose, because if she really is depressed and it's a cry for help - I'm ignoring it. But, a recent example, she signed into MSN and spoke to me for the first time in a while, the usual Hey/how are you thing, then she said "I'm signed out from college due to depression." followed by "But I'm in Florida at the moment, at least I get a longer holiday!"
My question to anybody who's been depressed before is - if you are depressed, do you ever feel open enough to speak about it, and to "look on the positive side" in the way that she did? It's easy for me to scoff and say she's contradicted herself, she's made some kind of optimistic statement, she's clearly not depressed, but I've never suffered from depression before, so I don't know what it's like.
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Z, I think it's a valid question that you ask, and I have to agree with Sunny's answer. I suffered from depression a few years ago, and came extremely close to suicide (there certainly is not enough help or information available to people, but I was lucky in that I had a superb Doctor, to whom I genuinely believe I probably owe my life). I was still able to make 'jokes' if you can call them that about it - mainly to people I did not know so well. To those closest to me, they were the ones who saw the real anguish, but those who were not so close....I almost felt embarrassed talking to them in anything other than a half joking tone (not that there is anything to be embarrassed about).
I have lost people to suicide - reading this thread, it's sad to see how many people here have lost people in that way, or been touched by suicide in some way. As much as if someone is feeling suicidal, I would want to help them, because I know from my own experience, that there can be a way through to a happy life; I also appreciate that it is their life, and they have the right to end it if they want to. Sometimes I wonder if we
should try and stop people killing themselves if that is their desire. A lot of people are in agreement with euthanasia, and believe that people who are physically ill have the right to die. What about those with emotional issues? I don't mean to sound harsh, and repeat that if I had a friend who was suicidal, I would want to help them get through it rather than killing themselves - obviously - but sometimes I wonder if I want to keep people around for my own sake. I don't know...I will have to think on it some more.