Social Network

To the guy who wrote this on craigslist on December 31st:

You wrote: i think i am going to kill myself tonight…… maybe early morning…..

I say: First of all it is not safe to vent about your suicidal thoughts on the Internet anymore. After that guy Abraham Biggs killed himself on Justin.tv people have a heightened sense of responsibility to call the cops when people start talking about suicide on the Internet; and in some cases when the cops come to check out the reports of a suicidal person they come with guns drawn like in the case of that suicidal elderly woman shot dead by cops in California. Sometimes they arrest you as with that teen arrested for threatening suicide over a world of warcraft game.

You Wrote: i haven’t been able to stop the thoughts for a while now.. i have always had thought of suicide in my head even as a kid but the last year i would say the thought are more and more real. i have told a “friend” or two but the response is “that’s stupid”  i have mentioned it to one friend multiple time but one she isnt the type of person to be caring enough to respond to it and two she probably doesn’t think i am serious it doesn’t matter anyway i really have nobody in my life.

I say: People don’t usually know how to respond to someone talking about suicide. The reality is, until you actually kill yourself people don’t really have any way of knowing how serious you are; and they can’t really help you anyway. Think about it. Is there something you can imagine they could say that would make you feel better and make you change your mind about killing yourself? People who struggle with suicidal thoughts and feelings over many years need more help than friends and family are equipped to provide. If it’s just loneliness your feel, frustration or other passing emotions of sadness you might try approaching people a little differently. For example you might say to them, “I’m not feeling real good about myself or about my life right now. Do you have any ideas what I might do? Do you ever feel this way yourself? How do you usually handle it?” It might work better than telling someone you feel like killing yourself. People don’t know how to respond to that except to say “that’s stupid”

You wrote: my life went down a road and the place ive ended up there is no real turning back from ive never really experienced much out of life ive loved but ever been loved just always kinda floated a long in my own world people may think it had something to do with new years when they find out maybe it does but ive spent numerous new years alone nothing in my life changes i dont posses the power to change it the things i hate will never change dragging my life out for he sake of other people….. i just cant do it anymore. i dont want to do it anymore people that think you are stupid for doing it they just dont understand people say suicide stupid and makes no sense… all that is saying is they never had a desire to die… no longer live.

I say: I hope you’re still alive. It’s obvious you would choose life if things were different. I hear what you’re saying about feeling like you don’t possess the power to change your life. I don’t know anything about your life so I’m certainly not going to preach to you that we always have the power to change our lives. I don’t believe that’s the case. I believe that some people need help from outside of themselves. If you’re still alive, I hope you find that help.