georgette12 thank you that in your moments of despair you thought of me and gave advice for possible volunteer positions. What a wonderful person you are that even in your grief you thought of someone else. georgette12 you did not do stupid things--you were a person hurting and in depression and that makes us do things we do not normally do. We all understand. If someone had a high fever and acted deliriously we would not call that stupid so we all understand how depression works. Please keep coming back as I will. I have not given up. My depression goes up and down, but never manic so I am not bi-polar; however, when I go down I can get really depressed and everything seems hopeless. Then in a matter of days I come back up some. We will all be a community together knowing that we all struggle with this thing called depression.

georgette-thanks for sharing, and you are so right about having a safe place- we all need to feel safe, I remember in war- I felt safe in my foxhole-really, might sound stilly I guess, but it was a place I could breath for a few minutes. JJAMES

I was going to quit interacting with the group, but I had a thought that I want to share. Of course, I can only speak for myself. The last thing I want to do when I'm close to acting on the suicidal thoughts is to tell someone. I'm not going to call the suicide hotline or a friend or a counselor. I know they'd try to stop me. I'm not thinking rationally at that point, and logic doesn't mean anything. It also doesn't help to be reminded that "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem." Or some other such statement. When I'm in a safe place, I'm thinking rationally, and understand all of the reasons for living.

The one thing that I can do when I'm in an unsafe place is to tell myself to wait an hour, or wait until tomorrow. I can now look forward to something that I don't want to miss, like seeing my granddaughter, and put off ending my life.

Jim

Hi jimhd....I hope you will consider to KEEP SHARING. we never know what we say that has meaning to another person. I have found that true so much in this life. Everyone's comment is beneficial, even though we might not know it. Hope to see you on here a lot. Even if it is just a few words.
PEACE & LOVE....JJ

JOHNJAMES......i cannot imagine how anyone can go through an experience like you and others are still having. I ache so much for those. I think of men and women who are parents,, children, brothers,sisters, aunts uncles......but the unbelievable fear that must be experienced is so hard to understand, how anyone survives. The mental has to be a bad as the physical to a person and those that love them. I am sure you here "thanks" and I pray that you will take this as true as I know how to be.."THANK YOU
PEACE AND LOVE ...JJ

@jimhd Thanks for this important idea, Jim.

Jimhd, is there a reason you want to stop being part of this group that you are willing to share?

I didn't mean to say I wasn't going to stay in the group. I just meant it was time to go to bed, and had to get off the computer. Sorry for the miscommunication.

@jimhd Thanks for explaining that Jim. I'm sure you will hear a collective "sigh of relief" from everyone in the group! We value your sharing with us. Teresa

I was wondering if we can have any ground rules for this group that go beyond the Mayo connect ground rules. For example can we agree to not attempt or commit suicide while we are engaging people on mayo connect? Can we agree to not self harm like cutting or burning or hurting anybody else while we are talking to people on connect? It's going to be impossible for me to be in mental health group if I'm going to have to worry about people killing themselves while I'm learning about them on connect. Learning about people makes me emotionally attached and it's not going to be easy for me to just forget about it if somebody goes and commits suicide or even threatens it or jokes about it. In my opinion we lay people can't substitute for professional mental health care. I already said that I have a psychologist that I see every week. I already said I have dissociative disorder. There's just really good reasons why I can't take ups and downs of worrying about people hurting or killing themselves day by day. I am not a mental health professional. I never made a living in mental health. I'm just a sheep. So if we can't make this agreement can somebody take me out of this group? I originally signed up for endocrinology. I don't remember how I got in mental health. But I do know if somebody tags you that you get an email. If you click on the email link you're transported back to the discussion. I don't control the emails I get or don't know how to control them. Thanks.