[Magpie_Tendencies]

A very close friend of mine has recently been talking about suicide. Yesterday she said, more than once, “Oh my god, life means nothing to me, I’m going to kill myself”.

I have very strong views on suicide and I think that it’s cowardly and selfish.

This friend is experiencing some personal issues at home that she’s spoken to me about and I can understand that things aren’t going great for her at the moment. However, recently she’s been saying a lot of stuff along the lines of “I’m depressed, I’m gonna kill myself, etc.” and I happen to think that a lot of it is attention getting. She’s always been a drama queen and now she seems to be playing on her personal issues in an attempt to get a little more “look-at-me” time.

I have no doubt that she has issues or that she needs help sorting through them. I have tried to be supportive but now she keeps bringing up this suicide thing. Whether it’s an attention getter or a serious cry for help is irrelevant. I really want to help her but I don’t feel that a 14yr old is in any way able capable of dealing with this sort of issue – or being held responsible for someone else’s life.

To complicate matters more, my family has a long history of cancer and depression. None of my immediate relatives have ever committed suicide because they’ve fought so hard to stay alive. For this friend to say that life means nothing is a slap in the face. I personally find it really offensive. I really want to help but after having seen the shit that other people have gone through to stay alive, I can barely look at her when she talks about how much her life sucks.