Well.....closer to home.....This summer my DH was replacing some ceiling tile at a call center. There was a girl sitting on the curb crying her eyes out. Dh overheard someone asking her what was wrong...she had just been fired she said. Later that evening on the news, a girl, having just been fired and was very disdraught.....sound familiar?.....jumped off a highway overpass into on coming traffic and was hit by a semi. Killed instantly.

My son and his GF were attending a concert last week at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA. When the concert was nearing the end they noticed someone who they thought to be a lighting guy fall from high above the stage. It turns out it was a concert goer that had committed suicide. My son and his GF were just a few rows back from the stage. Needless to say they are both traumatized.

I read about that Matti.

I just don't understand the need to be so violent. I do understand being so distraught that you want to die. We have all been there at one time I would imagine. Most of us snap out of it and move on. But if you want to kill yourself why not just take something and go to sleep? What makes people want to find the most awful, violent, painful way to do it? And then to involve someone else in your death is unbelievable to me.

Gosh...Yeah...Please, People... If you are going to kill yourself...PLEASE have the decency to do so in your own home and not involve anyone else...Come on...don't you know how depressed you'll get someone else. What are you thinking!!! No body likes a downer... use some common sense or just snap out of it! I mean your death is your business...just don't leave any blood!

(Yes, I am being sarcastic)

I don't think anyone with normal brain chemistry can understand what is going on in the mind of someone that is severely depressed. Someone close to me tried to kill himself in a gruesome, bloody way. My father happened to be nearby and someone at the scene went and got him (he is experienced with advanced first aid). He saved the person's life. This person is one of the kindest, most unselfish people I know. He is like a brother to me. And it seems so unlike him that he would traumatize his family and friends (and my father) with what he did. You know the expression "not in his right mind"?...it is very true.

Southern California has commuter rail lines. There have been several suicides by stepping in front of the trains. Those poor engineers/train drivers.

Sue, you're 100% right. Most people don't know and perhaps can't understand what the world looks like to someone who is lost in the fog of depression and despair. The fact is, this is a tough, tough world for sensitive souls.

William Blake said, "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

Perception is everything.

Perception is everything.

It most certainly is. The fact is, this is a tough, tough world for everyone. No one has lived without some bad things happening to them. Most of us do not feel death is the answer to all our problems and work toward a rich, fulfilling life.

Here is the can of worms opening.

My perception of failed suicide attempt is it should be a punishable crime as is premeditated attempted murder. Anyone doing so has deliberately tried to murder a human being and thought about it before hand. How many of us do know murder/killing is wrong?

There are so many organizations that offer help to anyone thinking about suicide, all it takes is a phone call, or walk into an emergency service (police station, firehouse, emergency medical station) or mental health hospital and tell them you want to kill yourself. They will immediately HELP you, free of charge and continuing. There are advertisements everywhere and organizations begging to help.

LIL

We have a friend who lived with his Elderly Mother. He came home one day and she had blown her brains out with a pistol.

My first thought was "how can you do something like that to your own son?" She knew he would be the one to find her. That was years ago and he is still kind of messed up over it. He will never be the same.

To day in my small town some one who is not in her right mind >She drove through a Catholic church .She open the doors and drove right in ! I do not know if she lived it must not been to fast had 3 dogs with her .The cop drove it out . kinda sad people get like this she is bipolar.I know her sad!!!

My uncle who I never met stood on the track waiting for the midnight special...it came. His problems were over, but made a lot for the family. A lot of sad stories out there.

Nobody can ever understand what weight is being carried on the shoulders of a person who attempts or who commits suicide. It is not black and white, it is varying shades of gray. One of my friend's mother committed suicide years ago, my Godson did so, a business associate's daughter and one night, for a brief moment, it crossed my mind. Loneliness, illness, fear, unrequited love...... I always say that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary situation.

One of my clients had cancer that went to his brain and spine. One morning he kissed his wife and told her that she should remember that he had always loved her. She knew what that meant, he drove to their farm and took his life. He had always told her that when the pain got too bad to bear that was what he would do. So I will never judge a person who chooses to do that. I have nearly been there myself. There for the grace of God go I.

Everything Lynn said.

Also agree with Lynn,
I had an uncle, on the day he and his wife were having a garage sale, go into the kitchen, give her a kiss, go into the back yard and shoot himself.
Of all the relatives I would never have pegged him to be one to kill himself. He was nice, easygoing, etc. I think it may have been financial, don't think it was a health issue...

A few years ago in my town a man tied a rope around a phone pole, the other end around his neck, sat in his car and hit the gas down a hill near my house. My dad who is a retired detective was one of the first on the scene. Not a pretty picture since he did it in front of his home with his children inside.

Sadly, we've had more experience with suicide than most--over the years, my husband's family has had 6, possibly 7 (one may have been an accidental death) suicides. Two drownings, one shot (after a police chase (he was a senior citizen), one by hanging, one by euthanasia, one carbon monoxide asphixiation. I mention all that only to say that the method makes little difference--the result is always the same, the family is devastated and full of questions.

And in every case I personally know of, the victims had NO ability to even consider how their actions would affect the surviving family. Please, don't blame the victim for being so filled with pain, so desparate that they see no other way out. Their intent is never to cause pain to others, just to end their own. And no, I certainly DO NOT believe that those who try suicide but survive should be prosecuted for attempted murder--that's more sick than the person who was mentally ill enough to try it in the first place. When someone survives, they need treatment, not punishment. And while we're on the subject, I also believe that in the case of fatal illnesses, with the proper counselling and preparation, assisted suicide should be an option, if desired by the patient--with no legal ramifications for the patient/family or medical personnel.

Liljunker, it is a "tough, tough world for everyone," but in my 50 years on this planet, I have observed that some people have it tougher than others. And some people are not well-equipped to handle problems. And some people are not emotionally strong.

Yesterday afternoon, I had lunch with an 89-year-old woman who buried her 14-year-old daughter in 1974. It was her only child and the love of her life, a surprise baby born when my friend was 39 years old. The cause of the 14-year-old's death: A horrible medical mistake.

I don't know how my friend remains so strong and upbeat but she does. She doesn't hate the doctors and when she talks about her little girl she smiles and laughs. She's a strong soul.

My point is, we're all wired differently, and we all handle things differently and process things differently and perceive things differently. But my #1 point is, life's problems are not doled out in equal measure. Some people have a tougher time than others.

Rose

I think this is a growing trend. Money is an issue. Parents spoil their children and they can't do that well as young people have to start slow....

I worked with a single mom of 2 that said she could never provide for her children the way her parents could. She said to me that her children would be better off if she were dead. Note: She lived in a house her parents bought her. Drove a car her parents bought her, but worked with me at IBM. IBM announced a plant closure and she moved her car mechanic into her home; attempted to get pregnant and be a stay at home mom. ????? HUH?

I've been depressed on and off during my life. But I've gotten treated (talking therapy and medication). And I always told myself, wait a few days, things might get better. And they always did.

Indianapolis news is reporting a 58 year old man just shot and killed himself on top of a parking garage in down town Indy, of course he fell to the pavement below. Several saw him. So sad.

Sue