I worked in a psych hospital for 5 plus years. Had a chance to see a few suicides and interacted with a lot of severely depressed people. I was over the forensic building for a while. There was 100 beds of criminal population there.
One thing I always found interesting was the way different patients handled it when a suicide happened. The most interesting were the sociopaths. They always had the attitude that the deceased was just a puss or not man enough to hack it. It was also interesting that most sociopaths were rarely if ever suicidal and never sympathetic or empathetic in anyway.
I've seen enough depressed people to know that it is a physiological condition. Although I know there are things depressed people can do to help work through it and I know that making poor decisions can make it worse.
I relate it to diabetes. There are different types and some is preventable but you have to manage it right and make good decisions. Some people are more genetically prone than others but most people can put themselves at risk to some degree by making bad choices.
Problem is there is such a negative stigma to mental health problems and people often don't realize what they've got and what they need to do. And then you've got the tough guy sociopath types telling them they're just wussys and to man up.
A few things to remember if you get down is that industry is the best remedy. Force yourself to get out and do something productive and if it can be service oriented thinking of others and not just yourself helps too. Mental illness has a way of making people focus intensely on themselves and their own problems. It takes a focused intentional effort to break through that so service is good. Also talk to people and get help. There are always brighter days ahead even though it doesn't seem like it at the time.
