When is Enough Enough?

Oh, how very sad, that there was no one your friend's sister who saw the signs. A terrible loss! I have known people, who really exhibit no outside signs and seem perfectly fine, but then . . . it is always such a mystery to me and devasting, obviously, to that person's family and friends they leave behind. One never really knows what is going on in another one's mind.

Thank you for this excellent advice and bringing awareness to such.

Voted up ++++ and sharing

God bless you. In His Love, Faith Reaper

i have known several people who have chosen to end their stay here on earth. It is when they find no joy...not necessarily what is going on in their lives. We have all had those very dark days...but choose to plunger ahead. Sorry about the loss and I know how difficult it is for those left behind..wondering if they could have helped.

I have lost five friends to suicide. There are no easy answers. I can say with certainty that I never saw it coming with four of them....no signs at all. I don't have the answers, Sha! I know there is pain and suffering out there and all I can do is be receptive and compassionate to those who let me know that they need it.

I hear your words.

bill

Bravewarrior I am so sorry to hear this and understand your distress. Life can be so very painful and we can feel so alone and hopeless at times that choosing to leave can seem like the best option...except then it never has the chance to get better. I am sorry for your friend to. I have no wise words, just a little cyber compassion.

Suicide has a terrible effect on those close to them. There are huge guilt feelings - people always wonder if they should have seen it coming, and why they didn't. One thing that can be a cause is prescription medications, because they are so powerful. It is really important that people on them feel they can talk about it if they have suicidal thoughts.

But for those who are left behind, it is also very important that they receive counseling, and also join a support group. This is such a worthwhile Hub, Shauna. By writing it you draw attention to the fact that we all need to reach out and communicate with those who are suffering with depression. Great writing, my friend.

Find comfort in th Lord

Inexplicably, there can be a great deal of physical pain associated

with depression. At some point, it can simply become too much to bear.

Would you fault a man whose leg was ensnared in a death trap or

silently give him permission to end his unspeakable pain?

Most will never let you know how precariously close they walk the razor's edge. They view death as the only way out of the pain when they can no longer stand the dissolution of their life.

"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem."

God bless the family and friends of this woman who chose to end

her life.

DJ.

Hi Bravewarrior, I really feel for your friend and her family and I hope time passing will help ease their pain.

Your hub is straight from the heart and I can feel your own pain and frustation at our powerlessness through your words. You have done a really good job of highlighting a terrible illness and the tragic circumstances it can lead to.

I know it is little comfort but by you bringing the subject out in the open like this it may encourage someone reading to seek help before it is too late. Take care, Anna.

Oh, I've been there - Completely negative in total despair. I had no desire to see the sun, or any human being. My urge to die convinced me that Death was the only way out. Life seems to be totally senseless for the person who is suffering a mental disorder like depression.

When something goes wrong in our brain, it goes terribly wrong. A leaking valve in the heart can be replaced. But the brain cannot be entered. Medical scientist are still fiddling in the dark, trying this, trying that. Apparently in vain when it comes to certain types of depression.

My heart goes out to people suffering depression. We understand the pain of Cancer - physical pain, but when it comes to the pain caused by depression - we have no idea.

My condolences to you and the family of your friend. Take care, Shauna!

I have been suffering from depression recently. I just keep trying to take a step forward each day. Right now my online work, especially Hubpages, is a kind of therapy for me. My feeling of overwhelming loneliness doesn't help matters, but I am trying so hard to keep myself from falling in to a deep chasm. One day at a time I suppose.

It is a very hard thing to understand for most of us. We just lost a lovely girl here where I live by suicide a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately she didn't show many signs of it. The ones she left behind are constantly going over what, if anything, they could have done differently or paid more attention to. It's so terribly sad that people can feel so horrible that they want to escape life or themselves. It never hurts to tell someone you care or give an extra hug. xo

I suffer from situational depression and anxiety and I have high blood pressure. I have no money (or very little) and no family by blood in this world and if it were not for my cats who are my two best friends I would have gone to sleep and never woke up again. I have felt at times I've been a failure in life but the pills I take have helped me immensely and of course so many people have reached out to me in order to help and offer support. Ironic to say that I was crying too much and now I can't cry at all - the plumbing has been turned off and that's what the right pills and a good doctor who is also my friend - can do for you.

Thank you for listening to me my friend and esteemed colleague and thank for coming back into my life here and supporting me as well.

Sending to you my warmest wishes and good energy from lake erie time ontario canada 2:35pm

I've known of 3 people who have committed suicide. The first, a grade school student when I was in elementary school. He ran on to the train tracks. Second, a friend's dad. He jumped off of a bridge. Third, someone I had met only one time. She took pills.

What drives someone to do this? It must surely be a lonely, longing place for someone to do this. They must question their existence every moment until they finally give up. It's just awful. It leaves such a hurtful trail behind for the ones that are living without them.

I just had this conversation with a girl's mother that took her life. The mother has been very depressed herself since her daughter's death. She started talking to me and I just listened. She told me there were warning signs. Her daughter never thought she was good enough. She said that as a young child, she hated school. She got D grades, while her siblings got straight As. She always compared herself to her siblings.

Then when she got older, she married a man who had an affair. She had several children with him, and one died in a car crash. After that, she spiraled out-of-control and no amount of financial help or emotional support seemed to cure her. She was admitted to a hospital and stayed there for months. Her other child came down with a terminal disease.

Unfortunately, it was too much for her to bear. She took pills and passed away. Leaving behind her children, one who is suffering so badly from a disease.

It's so sad that she couldn't see her daughter needed her. Instead, she focused on her inabilities in life. She focused on the daughter that died. She couldn't see how much she was loved and needed. She took her life to get away from her own pain.

But it brings me to a thought. Starting as a young child, it was torment for her to be a D student and no matter what she did she couldn't get her grades up. Our school system just started a new program for testing. It doesn't go by grades, so it's not a competitive system. The child takes a test on the computer. It goes by the child's knowledge. If the child finds the questions too hard, it backs down on the questions. If the questions are too easy, the questions get harder. At the end of the test, the computer generates a report to show how well the student did compared to other students in their age group. So far it's worked out great for my children. While my son has special needs, he's actually above grade level for his intellectual abilities. So that's a really good step forward I think for helping solve a stigma with young people today that they are not good enough or not as smart as the next kid in their class.

The older we get, the more exposure we have to this sad tragedy. I can name several people who acted on their impulses and took that irreversible step - a former boss, an ex boyfriend, a coworker's son. What a terrible loss for both your friend and her daughter who succumbed to her depression. I'm so sorry for your loss, for her family and for the daughter of your friend.

Through your sharing the story here, you may never know how many lives you've touched, how much you have helped someone, who might just need a dose of compassion and understanding at a critical time.

I believe that we may never know the positive influence that one word, smile or gesture may have on someone who is so depressed they are considering suicide. I read several stories in the early "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books which indicated had it not been for that one act of kindness, they might have gone through with their intentions at that moment. Reflecting on it later, they attribute their choice to remain on this earth to the influence of specific actions by one or more people.

From personal experience at an all-time low in my life, I know that one visit to a professional counselor made me see things in a new light and sent me on a brand new path (thankfully) following a close call.