Re: [RayLosli] Well . . .
In reply to:
Well I say. Ha Ha...Funny girl
I won't tell you how many of my friends have committed suicide, Ray. Numbers are useless. The real number is "too many," but my most painful recent experience was losing my very best friend in the world last June.
Please just take my word that I have knowledge of the subject at hand.
I have another, very close friend who is alive today only because of a lot of therapy and a shitload of luck. I wrote to him about this, because I was so frustrated by the reaction of some of the posters here.
I asked him this:
What does one say to those who believe that suicide is a) a "fuck you" gesture or b) the act of a nut or c) "psychopathic manipulation."
Here, with some editing, is his reply:
Suicide is never a "fuck you" gesture. It is a fuck it all gesture. Suicide is a reaction to intolerable psychic pain that one's coping skills can't relieve. There is always an underlying ... problem--generally severe depression, a deep feeling of hopelessness.... Substance abuse is a pain indicator. A "nut" is someone in serious psychic distress. They need help not scorn. Suicidal ideation begins the process. A half-hearted attempt is someone asking for help. This is hardly manipulation. Pop psychology and "the common wisdom" say a lot of things. Most of those things are wrong.
Every single time someone chooses suicide as a solution, everyone says: "I'd have helped him, he should've asked me." Or they claim they didn't know.
But the reason most people never ask for help or let on that something is wrong is a direct result of their expectation that they will receive a response similar to those seen here in these threads.
I've come very close to killing myself on more than one occasion. This is the first time I've ever made such a statement publicly, and I do it only to make this point: the times I have suffered in silence were because I'm not willing to set myself up for the judgments that fly fast and furious when those kinds of thoughts are voiced.
I can't speak for Nick. I have no idea what he was thinking or feeling because I don't live inside his head. And the rest of you don't live inside his head either, so it takes a lot of nerve to disparage him the way you do. He is not crazy, he is not manipulative, he is not any of the negative things that have been said here, and it infuriates me that people who do not even know him at all are making generic judgments based on what they think they know but do not know at all.
In reply to:
You are a BASE jumper Right ??????
I've actually posted about this, Ray. You weren't paying attention, and that's not my responsibility. Yes, I have a few BASE jumps. No, I am not a BASE jumper. But there are still people in this community I care about deeply, although as time goes on, it seems to me that more and more of them are dead.
In reply to:
Hey ... You better be careful there, You might end up as labeling yourself as ,,,Opinionated and ( self proclaimed expert) on my human worth and existence.
None of my comments have anything to do with your human worth or lack thereof. I will say, however, that you're about nine years too late with the label, and I've been flamed by people a whole lot more clever than you. Spend a year or ten on usenet and get back to me.
rl
) of it's worth listening to. Just buy 
for the folks you know that you scared and I'm sure it'll all be ok. 
i can forgive you and acsept your apoligy. 
)