Posted 2:58 PM by Blah blah

Carlos wrote this about yesterday's incident. Thank you, Carlos!

Thank you

I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked on talking to, calming, and encouraging Mr. Sparkle today. People involved included Carlos, Frostee, Brandon, Ami, Arnold, Eugene, and I. Brandon posted an especially touching story about the death of his girlfriend in a car accident.

Most of my thanks go to Corine (aka Babysakura), who spent at least TWELVE HOURS working on this problem. (See her website for more details.) She helped calm him down, encourage him, and open him up to talk. She didn't eat. She prayed for him. When he finally realized that people DID care about him, that he WAS making an impact, he slowly started to change and think about others instead of just his own problems. He said he'd go see a doctor---a breakthrough!

I was very impressed by Corine and applaud how she acted in this crisis. She was persistent, compassionate, and very sweet and caring. She was also clever and made wise decisions. Three cheers for you, honey!!! You were his guardian angel.

I also asked Sandy if she would share, with the man, some of her experiences with deep depression. She wrote a long entry on her blog about her story. Read it. An excerpt:

Life is not worth living if all I feel is pain. I carried the same mentality with me into the psych. ward where I was kept for 2 weeks. The notion of "finding happiness within myself" seemed inconceivable.

And I won't lie and say that I'm fully recovered from that incident. I still have my "bad" days, and a bad day for someone who is depressed isn't just waking up late in the mornings and not having a cup of coffee. Some days I feel like I weigh 300 lbs and everyone I run into is staring at me, silently mocking me behind their cold stares....thanking the dear lord that they're not me and they don't have to face that wretched reflection everyday. And yes, I feel like that often...just a few days ago actually....

Suicide came to me like a evil force digging into my brain, whispering its deluded promises of resolution to me. I don't know how, but I drove those voices out.....I rode it out on my mountain bike, I smoked it out, drank it out, cried it out...did whatever it took to get me into the next day. That's all it takes to start your new path. First, baby steps...soon you're striding along and you won't look back at suicide as a option... I often laugh and make jokes to my friends that everyone should be "institutionalized" at least once in their lifetime. It really opened my eyes to many things and forced me to realize that life is precious and having to shave your legs in front of a guard is NO fun!

Thank you, Sandy! Of course this story is not over. But we all accomplished something important today. And I am very proud of that.