tink1970
DCL Platinum
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2012
Totally off-topic comment... Today began National Suicide Prevention week in the US.
Unfortunately that day for me was marked by heading to a local funeral home to attend the visitation for a former HS classmate. I am not close enough with this person or family to truly know the details, but all of the indicators of this "unexpected passing" are suicide. It's sobering, unsettling, even disturbing to think that a father of 2 who married his HS sweetheart found himself in such a situation that this was "the only way out". I think of 2 elementary aged boys who will grow up without a father, I think of a wife who has to deal with a gamut of emotions that I can't begin to even fathom, I think of a mother who has to bury her son. All I can do is pray for this family who now has to find a way to put one foot in front of the other and somehow move on with their lives now.
It feels odd to me to be somewhat shaken by this event given that you'd almost describe this person as an acquaintance at this point. It seriously has shook me - How this happens is just incomprehensible to me. If anybody here is struggling with thoughts like this - reach out to somebody. Find help - call the suicide prevention lifeline 1-800-273-8255 or if you aren't sure who to talk to PM me right here on the DIS. No family should have to go through an unthinkable tragedy like this.
I am so very sorry for you and your acquaintance's family. I practiced for years and have many thoughts on the subject but will be succinct and say we never truly know what someone is experiencing. William Styron (author of Sophie's Choice) wrote a short but very helpful (to many of my male patients) book called Darkness Visible which, if anyone wants to know how deep and dark the well of despair can be, assists in that understanding. I am sorry for your loss.