Suicide

      

The title sits all by itself … Alone, one word, Alone, not supported by any other words, Alone, with no direction but inward.  The statistics for suicide are frightening and depressing.  Please follow this link for some insight into the magnitude of the problem, an issue that is becoming worse in our society.  https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

A few days ago, a friend took his own life.  The despair he felt must have been overwhelming.  The warning sign was given late at night, when most were asleep, an ominous posting on social media.  A few years ago a young woman who had played violin at my wedding when she was a child, took an overdose of prescription drugs and died.  Both were victims of depression, a debilitating disease, and make no mistake, depression is a disease.  Both were talented and bright individuals and loved by many.  One was a middle-aged man the other a twenty-something young woman.  Probably the only thing in common between them was depression.

These beautiful human beings descended into a darkness so suffocating that they thought the only solution was to kill themselves.  They left behind families and friends that grieve and feel full of guilt.  The guilt that says, “Could I have helped, why didn’t I notice, what if I had been a better friend, a more caring lover, a more attentive parent.  The truth is that even if we met all those criteria, the depression would most probably have won and the result been the same.  Most of us are not trained mental health professionals and are not equipped to prevent someone from taking their own life.  The pain ends for the victim and begins for the new victims.  For the survivors are the new victims.

This link is to the story of Eric Kramer, an NFL quarterback who attempted suicide and lived to tell about it, something rare among gunshot victims.  https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2016/05/21/erik-kramer-detroit-lions/84657892/

Unfortunately, I have known a few friends and a coworker who have committed suicide.  Each time I wondered if I could have done anything, much self-examination told me there was nothing I could have done, yet that does not stop the feeling of guilt.  Why do I know this?  Because every damn day, every day, I think about doing the same thing.  And every day I look for a reason to go on.  I hang on by a thread, just a thread. All we can do is to become better listeners and observers.  Sometimes the depressed individuals exhibit behaviors that are warning signs and some will even threaten suicide, a threat that should be taken seriously.  Some people are good actors and hide their pain behind a bright and cheerful smile.  Compassion in American appears to be in decline, we have become a bitter, greedy, self-absorbed society, and the innocent suffer.  However there are people who care, help exists, if you or a loved one is thinking of suicide please call a suicide hotline like this one: 1-800-273-8255