Fogbow

Posted: **Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:21 am**

Thought a general suicide topic might be helpful

This is something my brother Mark is involved in. There's several people shown in photos at the article (read the whole lot) but he isnt one of the people shown. He has some stories.

http://limerickvoice.com/news/an-evenin ... er-angels/

Sounds and symbols mean different things in different places. In Dublin, the sound of a helicopter can signal a thermal imaging sweep for illegal grow houses in the drugs trade. Across Irish motorways, the same sound may be a sign of a collision and a note to drivers to expect heavy traffic. To the people of Limerick, the whirring of a helicopter’s rotor blades overhead can often mean someone’s in the river.

Over the last decade, Limerick city has almost consistently had the highest suicide rates in Ireland. The city maintained the grim title exclusively from 2012 to 2016.

In 2014, the average suicide rate in Ireland per 100,000 people was 11. In Limerick it was 27.1. In 2019, the Irish average was 8.5. In Limerick, 16.7.

These figures represent the city alone. A separate tally is kept for the rest of the county.

One group that’s been working tirelessly to help fight these worrying figures is Limerick Suicide Watch (LSW).

Limerick Suicide Watch

Limerick Suicide Watch was founded in 2016 in response to the growing suicide crisis in the city. Its members can be seen four nights a week patrolling the banks of the Shannon in the early hours of the morning dressed in bright orange.

Since its foundation, the group has clocked up more than 800 ‘interventions’ – its term for providing aid and assistance to those contemplating, and often attempting, suicide.

Between May 2020 and May 2021, the team clocked up 87 interventions alone.

To date, LSW is believed to have directly saved more than 180 lives. Its team of more than 70 volunteers patrol Limerick’s quays a collective 5,540 hours each year.

In a single night, over four-hour shifts that regularly run far longer than their allotted time, LSW volunteers will walk more than 10 kilometres searching the quays and banks of the Shannon for signs of people in distress or worse.

Limerick Voice reporter Adam Leahy took to the streets with the Limerick Suicide Watch team, shadowing its members on patrol on a cold, rainy night in the Treaty City.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm**

My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:30 pm**

I'm so sorry.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:34 pm**

I dealt with a clinical depression about 28 years ago. The psychic pain was severe enough I could understand the desire to commit suicide.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:39 pm**

Chilidog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.

SAY very little and DO just by sitting with him. Let your son show you what he needs as he navigates this trauma.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:44 pm**

Chilidog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.

OMG

How old is your son?

So sorry

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:46 pm**

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:51 pm**

OMG -->

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:52 pm**

neonzx wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:39 pm
Chilidog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.
SAY very little and DO just by sitting with him. Let your son show you what he needs as he navigates this trauma.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:53 pm**

My brother's best friend in high school and college committed suicide during his junior year in college.

That was fifty years ago and I still don't know what I should have done or said.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:04 pm**

Chilidog. As a survivor of family suicide, I would say to make him feel totally accepted with no blame placed on anyone. After my father did himself in, we, as his young children were made to feel unacceptable by other children in the neighborhood, not good enough. So sad. My heart goes out to your son and to you.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:06 pm**

neonzx wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:39 pm
Chilidog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.
SAY very little and DO just by sitting with him. Let your son show you what he needs as he navigates this trauma.

Excellent advice.

SAY I'm here
DO listening

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:27 pm**

Off Topic

Suranis wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:21 am Thought a general suicide topic might be helpful

This is something my brother Mark is involved in.

I don't think I knew you had a brother or else my demented brain just forgot. Is he anywhere near as tall as you? I do remember that the top of my 5'4" head came just about up to your arm pit.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:08 pm**

MsDaisy 2 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:27 pm
Off Topic

I don't think I knew you had a brother or else my demented brain just forgot. Is he anywhere near as tall as you? I do remember that the top of my 5'4" head came just about up to your arm pit.

Off Topic

This is a photo of Mark and I with my Brother in law at a wedding a few years back.

: Wedding.jpg (69.95 KiB) Viewed 1061 times

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:20 pm**

I have to admit- in my 57 long years the thought has crossed my mind a time or two, but I am a coward

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:28 pm**

Suranis wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:08 pm
MsDaisy 2 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:27 pm
Off Topic

I don't think I knew you had a brother or else my demented brain just forgot. Is he anywhere near as tall as you? I do remember that the top of my 5'4" head came just about up to your arm pit.

Off Topic
This is a photo of Mark and I with my Brother in law at a wedding a few years back.

Wedding.jpg

Good picture.

And you're the OP. So, it's only OT if you say so.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:33 pm**

sad-cafe wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:20 pm I have to admit- in my 57 long years the thought has crossed my mind a time or two, but I am a coward

It's something I struggle with on an almost daily basis. And yes, I see a therapist and it does help. As for your son... as other's have said, when he wants to talk about it, reassure him it is not his fault. There is nothing he could have done.

Some attempts are a cry for help and (for lack of a better term) half-hearted. They don't really mean it, or are too scared to actually self-delete, but they need to find a way to tell someone they are hurting. It's when someone that has been severely depressed in the past suddenly seems at peace with themselves that you should begin to worry. That means the decision has been made to get it right this time.

For myself, I'm too tired to live or die, so I do my best to find things that make me want to continue on this mudball. My dog is a really big portion of it.

Chili, just be there for him to cry, rage, yell, blame himself, blame her, blame the color of the leaves. Then let him know he is loved and it's not his fault. Sometimes the psychic pain of being alive is just too much for some.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 8:10 pm**

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 8:55 pm**

So, so sorry, Chili.

All you can do is just be there for him with all the love I know you have for him. Peace to you all.

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:23 pm**

Posted: **Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:33 pm**

So sorry to hear this,

Posted: **Sat Feb 10, 2024 8:27 am**

sad-cafe wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:44 pm
Chilidog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:26 pm My family is devastated right now.

My son's girlfriend killed herself this morning.

I don't know what to say or do.
OMG

How old is your son?

So sorry

He's 25, she was 24.

She was dealing with a lot of stress from dropping out of a grad school program that was unsuited for her.

She was in therapy, and there were no outward signs. Everyone thought vthat she vturned vthe corner on that part if her life and was moving on.

Posted: **Sat Feb 10, 2024 8:55 am**

Heartbreaking.

Posted: **Sat Feb 10, 2024 11:55 am**

Oh, Chilidog. I am so, so sorry. I have no words.

Posted: **Sat Feb 10, 2024 12:15 pm**

Oh man. Sad day.