re: How bad can it possibly be? How can someone with their whole life ahead of them

It's a mind boggling subject. It's final for the folks who leave, but for the those left, trying to figure out they whys, it's never ending sometimes, particularly if the person wasn't in any type of treatment or hid the signs well.

My best friend's ex boyfriend who lived a few doors down from her shot himself while he was on the phone with her in high school. Unbelievable. Her Dad ran down the street and found him, immediately. He was involved with drugs, but I don't know what type. He was a dark person and now we believe it was much more than whatever drugs he may have been on. A combo, I suppose, but my gosh, I'll never forget that call from her. I was so angry with him for doing that to her. Took a long time for us to realize his pain and it wasn't about her. For the life of me, though, I don't know why he had to do it on the phone with her. It just wasn't really him. It was the illness. That's how we came to deal with it, anyway.

I have a few friends who are bipolar and live very happy lives until their meds get off kilter. They go to dark places I can't begin to understand. It's a challenge for them to even call the doctor to get help. They're so forlorn that this seemingly simple task is not the first thing on their minds. Their descriptions of how they feel are incredible and so hard to digest or comprehend. They will tell me they're happy and there's really nothing worrying them before this happens, but when it happens, everything changes beyond their control. Everything is horrible. Usually someone gets them to the doctor when it happens, somehow. One was almost successful in leaving. It's hard to imagine. Devastatingly dark.