THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!!!

Please, if someone you know or love is showing signs of utter hopelessness, do something about it!  Right now I'm beating myself up inside.  I just got an email from someone I care about very much.  He's been struggling for a long time.  About a year ago he was in a hospital program for a number of weeks.  The only reason he was there was because I'd insisted he had to do something to help himself.  For a while he was doing better.  He went off to school, got a job, seemed to be doing okay.  He was certainly doing a good job of making things look like he was doing okay when he really wasn't.  Now things are extremely bad.  He has no hope at all for himself.  When I told him to go to the emergency room at the hospital, he said it was pointless, he was never going to get better.  The next step to that kind of attitude is suicide.  I'm sure the only thing that has kept him alive this long is his religious beliefs.

Now I feel sick inside because I didn't see things for what they are sooner.  I'm blaming myself for not catching on to how serious his problems really are.  Nobody wants to have mental illness.  Nobody wants someone they love to have mental illness.  It is so very easy to pass things off like they're a passing phase, or have the attitude that it will pass over time.  But to be honest, when you see signs of trouble, you've got to take them seriously.

I thought it was ridiculous the first time anyone told me to go to the emergency room due to my own mental health.  I didn't consider myself to be in the midst of that kind of serious crisis.  The truth of the matter is, a mental health crisis often ends in death.  Death is pretty serious. 

At least I know now that he's on his way to getting help.  He's alive.  I let him know something had to be done.  I've done what I can do.  I'll never give up.