Have you ever known anyone who committed suicide?

oakapple said:
Yes, I know of about 6 who did this. So very sad. All men, and in all cases because of depression. Not my family thank goodness, but neighbours and people I knew slightly., From drowning, gassing, and hanging. Awful and so tragic.
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Oh that's just awful! That family must have felt like they were cursed.
 
Yes, a boss of mine committed suicide after his wife indicated she wanted to end their marriage. He hanged himself in the garage of their home while she was away on a business trip.
 
A young guy I worked with, still in his 20s, smart, good-looking, nice person, blew his head off after his girlfriend left him. I only heard about it through others, he worked out a lot and was a 'bodybuilder', they say he was taking steroids at the time. Also, a neighbor of mine had a friend who was probably in his late forties, lost his job and fell on hard times. My neighbor let him live at his house for awhile, and he ended up committing suicide in the neighbor's home...not sure how he killed himself.
 
I knew a guy who worked with me at the Post Office a couple decades back. He was a Nam vet and had a look in his eye that let you know he was capable of anything. We sort of hung out for awhile till one New Year's night when he threatened me while drunk. I don't react when people do something like that...not immediately. I've found that discretion is indeed, the better part of valour. I joked about the incident and slowly disengaged as his life went out of control. There were confrontations at work , at his home, and with the cops. I normally try to help people who've lost their way...I know how it feels. But, I won't tolerate intimidation of any kind so I just watched as he went over the edge and blew his brains out one morning. He had built a home with a pool and invited everyone to a house warming. I declined, saying my kids demanded my attention. He was so volatile, most people accepted out of fear... never intending to show up. No one did.

Going "Postal" is probably true...several otherwise prosperous and healthy people dusted themselves just in my short time there. Take the most boring job imaginable and give it to people screened for brains. Couple that with a mandate to hire war vets and you get a really explosive culture.
 
Yes...a family member...and its hard...but I, thank whatever is holy, do not ascribe to the religious views regarding suicide. When I was a kid, the suicides had to be buried in a far corner of the cemetery...
But worse that THAT is when people say: they were being SELFISH for committing suicide... I genuinely would like to HURT those people, however, life teaches lessons in way we do not have to take upon ourselves.
I read a good article once that said that people, without 'seeing it'...are committing suicide by the way they conduct their lifestyles, their eating habits, but what they ingest drug wise (especially the Rx drugs). by stupid chances they take, and by their lousy attitudes in general which will lead them to even worse choices in their lifestyles....and then when they die, its called 'natural' or 'accidental'... THAT, to me is JUST as awful.
 
Interesting, Metasegue, thank you for posting.
I, too, have witnessed so much of this for having 'served god and country' in those stupid wars... I see so many returned from this 'service' in which the killing fields ruined their minds... which simply could not heal. These men (mostly) and women constitute over 65% of the mentally ill homeless on our streets.
I understand the reaction to his invitations, but how miserably, horribly, devastatingly sad... Thank whatever is good that he is now free from his misery.
 
Debby said:
Nobody deserves to be so unhappy that they resort to this. It's a tragedy.
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The evil so and so had been importing drugs via drug mules, and had served some time in prison for that offence. I have absolutely no sympathy for someone like that he deserved his fate. I am very glad his father, a favourite uncle of mine, didn't live to see it though!
 
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When we were in high school, the group of guys that I hung with decided we were going to hook off school the next day and go to the county fair. One of our friend's family caught wind of it and told him that if he hooked off they would ground him for a month. So, the next day, he did hook off, but he sat in a chair, put a shotgun in his mouth and the rest you can guess.

The first company that I had worked for after college, I took an engineering job. The plant manager for a DuPont site came home from a meeting in Wilmington and committed suicide in the garage with the car running. Being a young and new guy, I wasn't told much.

Then, I also have a friend who's son shot and killed himself in the state of Washington. He was teaching English in China at the schools and met and fell in love with another teacher. He came back to the U.S, to get a job and then she was to come to the U.S., so they could be married. While he was "setting up shop," he received a Dear John letter and committed suicide. They never did recover all of the remains because he drove into the woods, climbed to the top of a mountain or hill and shot himself in the head. They did find the skull. They said the animals drug the rest away, but some of the bones were located. The unusual thing about this incident was that the son came home and told the parents what he was going to do, but he wanted to come home to say "Good-bye." They called the police in Seattle, so when he arrived they picked him up and took him to the hospital. My friend said that his son convinced the people at the hospital that he was OK, so they released him and the next day he did the act. Such a sad story.

My last one is about a fellow co-pilot who found out he had the early signs of ALS. He was to retire in two years. Those of us that knew him and his situation did everything we could to keep his spirits up. He lived in Dallas, which was a city that I did not fly into very often, but when I did, I would always make sure that I visited him without calling first because he was one of these types that didn't want pity, which I tried to explain to him that we were not visiting him out of pity, but because we loved him. He was a great guy. He had confided in a couple of us that when his disease got to the point where he just could no longer handle it that he was going to take care of it. We did take him seriously and had told this to Hospice. They did counsel him, but one night at bedtime, supposedly, he took an over abundance of whatever sleeping medication he was on and was dead by morning. He slept in a hospital bed in his home.

I read a book on suicide when I was in college and taking my psych course. The book stated that if a person is going to commit suicide, they will accomplish it. It also stated that never think that because someone may say they are going to kill themselves that they are joking or just running at the mouth. Usually, it is a cry for help. We should take them serious and alert a family member and get that person to the ER immediately. I know in Florida there is a rule (for lack of a better word) that if someone threatens to kill themselves, you can call the police and they will pick up that person and take him/her to the hospital for a 3-day evaluation. I think it is called the Baker Act.
 
I remember a lady years ago I worked with..her husband was totally dominant..she said he would demand sex 2 or 3 times a day..and made her wear the most ridiculous clothing for her age..e.g. miniskirts..really high heels..and really low tops.(not a good look when you are 50!)

Anyway..one Sunday afternoon she was watching soaps on the TV..he came in and said ''you want something to watch?...I'll give you something to watch!'' with that he tied her to a chair so she couldn't move..

He then went and got a cord...tied it to a doorknob and jumped off a stool and strangled himself in front of her!
 
Sorry not making light of this in any way Twixie, but I'm having a hard time trying to imagine how someone can jump off a stool and hang themselves with cord attached to a door knob? Genuine question!!
 
There was one girl in my class when I was in high school that committed suicide; she was only 17. There was a second one, my sister-in-law's daughter who took her life about 15 years ago.
 
hollydolly said:
Sorry not making light of this in any way Twixie, but I'm having a hard time trying to imagine how someone can jump off a stool and hang themselves with cord attached to a door knob? Genuine question!!
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Doorknob on the other side of the door?..tight cord?
 
I have known two people. One was a physician friend that shot himself in the head. Might have been due to the drug he was taking for Chronic Depression. The other was a good friend that was about to be arrested and indicted for a huge financial scam. He shot himself in the parking lot of a big Mall.
 
A dear friend in my teenage and early twenties years shot himself because he was in horrible pain from a a back injury and failed surgery. He struggled with the pain for several years but his doctors either could not or would not prescribe enough or the right kind of meds or find another way to keep the pain at a tolerable level. I was horrified that he had taken that route, but I must say it did not really surprise me. He really was in agony.

An attorney I worked with/for made arrangements for his dogs to be cared for, paid up his bills and went home and shot his wife and then himself. The investigators said he evidently shot his wife, sat down and had some brandy and a cigar and then blew his head off. I was totally shocked, because he had always seemed like the calmest, most together guy on the planet. His wife had asked for a divorce, but he seemed to be handling it well enough and was muddling through. I really liked and respected him (he was quite a character) and to this day I can't really believe he did that, but he did. Evidently he had been planning it for some time, arranging for the dogs (whom he loved fiercely), paying his bills, setting his affairs in order, and maintaining an apparently calm facade. And he did it very early on a Saturday morning so no one would probably notice anything wrong until the following Monday. His grown children found them.

And a teenage relative (a sweet and talented young man) decided life was too much to cope with, left a note to that effect, and cut his wrists, seemingly out of nowhere.

I can understand why the friend with the unremitting pain killed himself, but the other two, NO. And never will.
 
Unfortunately a few years ago a younger cousin of mine committed suicide. She was Beautiful,owned her own business and was doing great. Then her husband told her he had met someone else and left her. She talked about suicide ,even went for therapy and was on an antidepressant. She struggled with it for 4 years and then her husband finally started divorce procedures. That was probably why she hung herself on Valentine's day,which was their anniversary. Even though she mentioned suicide to me many times I did not think she would do it, but I was wrong and I wish I had done more to help her.
 
Sorrowfully, yes, several, one a close friend from our childhood whose first attempt we were able to foil, but not so fortunate the second time round.
 
nwlady said:
I had a friend that seemed to have everything in the world going for her. She was pretty, smart, the only female manager in a big company in Portland, she could bake & cook without ever measuring a thing. A group of us did a lot of activities together, like camping etc. One time she rode up with me, and we visited a lot of course. She told me then "Denise, sometimes I just feel like putting a gun to my head". I wasn't shocked because she often mentioned it. She said she had a brother that committed suicide, and she believed she was destined to do the same.
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Suicide tends to have repercussions beyond the one who kills themselves.

The only suicide that I can think of was woman who was mentally ill, schizophrenic I think, and she crawled under the house and shot herself. She had four children who were mostly young adults. The eldest walked in front of a train 12 months to the day after his mother died. He was a medical student. Hard not to think that the first death triggered the second, given the timing.

Anyway I took it in as a lesson.
 
Yes Warri, I had a b-in-law that came home from the Army, and he had changed. This good looking kid of 22 just decided that America didn't see what was ahead. So he didn't see any reason to stick around. I talked to him till I was blue in the face. But one morning, he didn't open his door, and I had to go get his parents. He had taken a double barrel shot gun, and left us.
 
Yes. A friend was diagnosed with cancer at 20, and his mother went into hospital for a biopsy at the same time. Their father just couldn't take it and committed suicide. The mother was OK, and the son's cancer went into remission. However when it started to progress again, he also committed suicide. Such a shame - a lovely family.
 
I've never known anyone who committed suicide, but my wife did. Her second husband did after they were divorced. He was a pretty bad alcoholic and she just couldn't take it anymore. No physical abuse done, but DUI arrests were there. His handsome looks and that he loved outdoor stuff was a major attraction to her when they met. I've seen photos of him and "yes" he was a good looking dude.

After divorcing him, she met a guy that seemed nice (she says), but he had a pot habit that he done where he lived with his brother. He wouldn't stop and she could smell it on him when he came to see her. She ended up ending the relationship. He, while his brother was at home, went into the bathroom and put a gun to his head. She didn't even know he owned a gun!
 

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