Saturday, December 29, 2012

suicidal tendencies... how to help

A love letter from God on Christmas Eve
Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Nicole


This is so sad... Just read a blog post (Today and Forever) by The Bloggess (my favorite blogger, really, since I have never laughed so hard as when I read her Knock Knock Motherfucker aka Giant metal Chicken story), and a friend of theirs committed suicide last week.

I have a soft spot in my heart for those with suicidal tendencies as I have been there - have the scars on my wrist from when I was 15 to remind me of where I came from, & how hard it is for people in the world to understand the demons we face, and what to say/do. All I can say is: TELL THOSE PEOPLE - the ones you worry about - that you love them, that you care, that you want them in your life, that you don't want them to die. It's amazing how powerful that can be just to know that a single person cares, and amazing how many people with seeming hundreds (or dozens) of friends have no one who actually reaches out (and a few who actively tell them the absolute wrong things). Running away, hiding, trying to argue/philosophize them out of it, thinking (or calling) them selfish - all the wrong things. When someone is drowning, you don't fucking argue with them. You yank them out of the water, despite their inexplicable fighting against you in panic-mode. Just help!

The saddest line... "One of the hardest things to accept about this tragedy is that Dan did ask for help. When things got bad he went to the VA but was told that he couldn’t get the specific help that he needed because he didn’t serve during wartime."

God help our country and its healthcare!

I had a wonderful week in Los Angeles for Christmas with my friend Paige, and will post an update about that soon!

1 comment:

Matthew Lee Adams said...

This kind of story makes me think of Aimee Mann's bittersweet "Just Like Anyone" - she wrote it about the death of her friend Jeff Buckley, but its message resonates for times when a friend is left wondering if there was something they missed or something more they could have done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2A6ZX20zs0