I lost my wife to leukemia 7 years ago and have never really gotten over it. I have been unemployed three times since and this time have been unemployed for 11 months with no prospects. I live with my two daughters who are also unemployed and unable to find a job in this economy, even flipping burgers. I have never seen things this bad so we have decided that if we come to the end of our unemployment benefits, we are going to buy as much booze as possible and spike it with enough sleeping aids to drug a herd of cattle and have a good old suicide party. Afterall, once the bad starts outweighing the good in life, there is no good reason to continue living it.

I hate to admit it but I really felt bad when recession occurred. For two reasons, 1st my sister who had been working to Korea for almost 4 years had been laid off from the job she has suppose to work for another 1 year but with this economic slowdown unfortunately she had not been able to finished the contract. The 2nd reason was, I was planning to work abroad while in the midst of processing my paper there is the recession that just arise. But Iā€™ am still hopeful that despite of this I can still cope up with the disaster brought by this recession, that sooner I can still work abroad but never came to my mind to commit suicide just because of frustration. I am very optimistic by the end of 2009 the economy will became stable again, more investment more job opportunities abroad. Anyway there is Books (Pt .1)" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/04/02/fasb-mark-to-market-toxic-pt-1/">FASB that will take charge of the future investment that the country maybe engage in.

My husband lost his job just before Christmas and didn't know how to tell me (his wife of almost 30 years). He went all through the holidays living with his secret...acting as if he were going to work every day - opening presents on Christmas morning - 'celebrating' the new year at a party with our friends.

Then, one week after Christmas, he attempted suicide by overdose. When I found him he was in a death rattle (the barley breathing sound one makes as they cease breathing just before death). He was in the intensive care unit for several days. In the hospital for 11 days before being moved to a behavioral health unit for 3 more days.

So I can tell you first hand, that yes....hard economic times increase suicide. We saw it in the 1920's with the great depression. Men were jumping off buildings to their death because they couldn't face the economic conditions...couldn't handle not providing for their families.

I loved the previous comment about how we are our brother's keepers. We should all work harder to help our neighbor - and to let people know that if they loose their jobs, we will be there for them and that we care.

It is a time in America when we need to quit being stingy with our time and reach out to our brother. I know that I will pray for God's help to start a support group in my community so that if someone feels like they need to talk to someone - but don't feel they can talk to their family, that they will have a place to go.

We are our brothers' keepers. We are not fed until we all are fed. We are not sheltered until we all are sheltered. We are not clothed until we all are clothed. Hard times arise that we may form closer bonds by helping one another. A culture is judged by how it treats its poor, its sick, its downtrodden.
"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these the homeless, the tempest tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
I believe these are the words carved into the base of the Statue of Liberty. This is America, folks...where we are supposed to take care of one another. That's how the country was established in the first place. If you still have a place to live, open your doors to those who don't. God is as close to us as our own skin, remember the lillies of the field and trust in Him. If we share, there will be enough to go around. It's amazing how little it actually takes to survive. We have 4 extra people living with us and they have been a blessing beyond description. It can be done. Just stretch out your hand every morning and say, "You and me, God...You and me." He'll be there. Go to your families, your friends, your church or some church. There are good people out there and I will pray that we meet.

I don't know if it is the hard times or the attitude of those around them. I have been more depressed this passed 6 months or more than in a long time. I won't say I had thoughts of suicide, but I have thought how much better off my family would be without me. I have written page, after page. I have even gotten to the place where I made up a pro and con column of what I contribute to the family and what a minus I am for them. I worked with teens for 12 years at our church, before I got so sick). I loved it, I loved the kids and that group of kids have grown up to be good adults. Some are deacons, preachers, preacher's wives and I am proud of them. But one Wednesday night, I didn't get to go to class, I had to take my son who was in college a computer that night. He needed it bad. So I was not in class that night. We had a young boy in class (bipolar - now we know). I could usually talk to him and take some special time and talk about things and get him over his latest problem. Well that night, when I got back from my son's college about 2 hrs. away (about midnight) I got a phone call. He had shot his self while on the phone with a girl. I know and saw what that did to parents, the group of young people, our church and I don't think I could ever kill myself. But some days I really think this family would really be better off without me. The only thing that keeps me is the memory of Don, and those 6 little grandchildren that live at the end of my road. The adults would get over it but I couldn't do that to them.

Appleby, You cannot have ever been in the shoes of someone facing the kind of economic trouble people are facing today. You unkind attitude is uncalled for on a site like this. We are here to help and support each other, to lend a hand of friendship, acceptance and understanding. I'm sorry you are so bitter about the people who are suffering around you. My daughter works as a volunteer in Alabama at a homeless center and I know from her and the increase in services they have had to provide how difficult things have gotten there. I know first hand how difficult things are for us, though by the grace of god, we are not at this point, in danger of losing our home. Suicide is obviously not the answer, but when it looks like there is no where else to go, believe me, it looks like a very good option, I know, I have been there many times. Please show some compassion and humanity. No one wants to be in this position and no one deliberately puts themselves there.

Suicide is not a solution to any circumstances. It is a tragedy that we must prevent actively!

Suicidal thoughts are a medical symptom that CAN BE TREATED SUCCESSFULLY WITH MEDICATION!

Please get to a hospital or call 911 if you or someone you know are suffering this devastatingly fatal symptom. THEY WILL TREAT YOU IF YOU ARE SUICIDAL - health insurance NOT required! Money NOT required!

If hospitals aren't for you please go to a convent or abbey - THEY WILL GIVE YOU SANCTUARY and feed you and co-ordinate with Catholic Social Services to care for your needs. I'm not Catholic - however they do so much good work - I've seen it when working in hospital administration. They do far more daily than the government does ever...it MATTERS to them!

God made each of us to live -- please hold-on one more day, for Him.

I've been suicidal more than once. I am a mother. The needs of my son kept me from giving in to the urge to end my suffering. I now have twin daughters who would not have been born if I had not gone into the hospital when my thinking was warped by illness. I still use medications today to manage my depression. I'm still alive, my kid's still have a Mom, and maybe the little bit I do each day is making a difference in the world. I believe God is proud of me for sticking it out - one more day.

Also, avoid the trap of alcohol. It is a DEPRESSANT and WILL make depression worse and worse. I've been off alcohol for about 6 years (on my Mayo Clinic psychiatrist's orders) and this has made a HUGE difference in managing my illness.

Lastly, maybe there is one book that can help you get through one more minute alive when you feel suicidal - The Bible. Open to The Book of Job, who lost everything but his faith and gained more than he'd ever had in the end.

Once when I needed immediate help in getting FREE pet food, I went to Craigslist.com and "posted" a plea for help. I received many kind offers of help. When it comes to all your bills, there are priorities: electricity (min payment allowable to keep services on). I have used the "Time Payment" plan every chance I get. You pay $10 down and they move the balance of your account to the next month. However, the next month your bill is higher so this is just a quick fix if you know you'll have money coming in. I have donated blood to the blood bank for money-usually $40 the first time and $60 the second time. Garage sales have helped to get over $100 one weekend. You'd be amazed at what people buy! If you offer to sell other people's stuff, you can charge a 10% fee for yourself. Most people would go for that rather than wait around all day for buyers. Offer to pet sit if people want to go out of town. A gal who pet sat for me once, charge $19 per trip to your house, no matter how many animals you have. Perhaps you could help others organize a garage sale of their own. Or provide decorations for a party-I love to do the decorations:streams and balloons are festive for anything and Valentine's Day is coming up, as well as St Patrick's Day and Easter. Perhaps we could all come up with ways to provide services for those willing and able to to pay for such help. Not everyone is in dire straights and it's those people who can help us make a living in the interim. There is always yard work needing to be done in our neighborhood, especially since we have had 60 mph winds for the past 4 days. Tree branches need removing, yards need to be prepped for Spring, gutters need cleaning, lawns need raking, etc. Maybe older folks who live alone
would be thrilled to have company or to go shopping or to a moving and you could be a paid companion. Dreams require work but there are thousands of people in history who have proven the dreams are attainable. For those considering suicide, consider this:you are the makers of your own destiny, no matter how destitute you are feeling now. Don't let your emotions get the best of you. There are sometimes demons that need to have a good talking to before you can move on to a better life.

To Mike 1954 - my husband came from a dysfunctional family that actually had a bit of money from parents who were educators. Unfortunately, the 3 boys in the family were made to play sports because their dad was a football coach, counseling and math teacher at their high school. Their mother was a P.E. teacher and although more educated than the dad, was nonetheless subservient to him. He ruled the roost with an iron will and the boys never felt they measured up to his expectations. Those kinds of parenting tactics usually backfire and the whole family suffers. He'd bark out orders to them and life couldn't have been easy for any of them. Interestingly, the father suffered a stroke 3 years ago in which his ability to speak disappeared. To this day, he can't speak in any intelligible way and we all think he got his just rewards. The Lord works in mysterious ways. One thing the bible teaches is that God wants propsperity for his "children" and that he is already working miracles in your life. It's like gardening. The earth is damaged from snow and rain and nothing looks like it's growing. However, underneath the trodden earth, a new plant life is beginning to sprout. Just because we can't see it, doesn't mean something miraculous is brewing beneath the earth. When you go to sleep at night, say this prayer (what can it hurt?):

Father, thank you for all the wonderous and miraculous things you are doing in MY life right now. Thank you for keeping my children, wife, friends (whoever you like) safe and at peace during turbulent times. I know that you are bring abundance and joyfulness into our lives each and every day. Please steer my feet in the right direction to make things happen in my life that will bring me peace and joy. Amen

Even if you have no faith or feel funny saying the words, try this for a week and see what happens. Keep a journal of what happens in your life, no matter what happens. You will start to see changes take place. Call all the people you know and thank them for being there when you have needed to talk. Not to ask for help but just to acknowledge them for their kindness. This simple gesture will bring you joy, too. The person who donates time at soup lines is the one blessed, more so than the one being helped. The giver is more blessed than the give. And these are not simple platitudes, but actual events that have been proven. Mike, do not give up hope, your life is just beginning anew.



I guarantee that if you say that before you go to bed at night, you will wake up much more hopeful each day.

yea. ecomic crisis! I'm finding myself in that for hte first timein soberiety and all I feel is like getting drunk, escaping while others sale my house. WHay I realize from a lot of AA is that I am the maker of my on doing I really wantt to check in a 30 day facitliry because I want to escape! Does anyone raate. Do you know thge thoght accured to me o marry someone so I could keep my 300,000 home - but the thought run away to trueatmetn (even though I have a job) seems more AA like!!!

At least homeless animals have a chance at being rescued and adopted. Homeless people are another story.

I have just lost all hope of keeping my house due to the economic climate. I have no work and am living in constantly rising debt. I have never been wealthy but to become what I have is unbearable. It's nothing to do with a sense of failure as I have always done my best in life.
The thought of being homeless and not being able to get another job, the loss of my already low self esteem is too much and I have already planned my suicide.
When life has no quality then it's time to leave it. We wouldn't let a starving, homeless animal suffer, so why should we humans?.
I live in the UK where things are different to the USA. My spouse who doesn't have depression also cannot find any kind of work and we have made the joint decission to go together the day we have to leave our home of nearly 30 years.
We understand that our children will feel pain but they have their own lives and families to be concerned about.
We will be sensitive in the way we leave letters of why we did what we will do and hope they will have some understanding of our reasons.

I have just lost all hope of keeping my house due to the economic climate. I have no work and am living in constantly rising debt. I have never been wealthy but to become what I have is unbearable. It's nothing to do with a sense of failure as I have always done my best in life.
The thought of being homeless and not being able to get another job, the loss of my already low self esteem is too much and I have already planned my suicide.
When life has no quality then it's time to leave it. We wouldn't let a starving, homeless animal suffer, so why should we humans?.
I live in the UK where things are different to the USA. My spouse who doesn't have depression also cannot find any kind of work and we have made the joint decission to go together the day we have to leave our home of nearly 30 years.
We understand that our children will feel pain but they have their own lives and families to be concerned about.
We will be sensitive in the way we leave letters of why we did what we will do and hope they will have some understanding of our reasons.

I know that is right, when you are backed into a corner and can not seem to find a way out, you can go off the deep end.

Thank you Kenny. I appreciate your kind words. I've had friends who killed themselves, including a 16 year old DS member. She'd lost her parents on 9/11 (she was 9 at the time) and her life spiralled out of control soon after. She had a baby which died soon after birth and at the time she killed herself, she was living with her brother and there had been no food in the house for two days. How could any of THAT be solved by getting a book from the library? Where were social services for her? She wasn't looking for handouts or an Audi or anything like that. She was out to end the tremendous amount of pain she was in.
She did. Was it selfish? Maybe but I think it would have been more selfish to force her to stay in this world just to make US feel better. There was just too much for her to overcome. Not without a tremendous amount of help which wasn't there because the government is short changing services she needed.
And I agree, comments about Obama and Audis etc were totally unnecessary. I have a car. It's 10 years old. It's not fancy but it runs and it's paid for. That's all I require of it. I wouldn't get an Audi if I could.
Last year my mother died (was that my fault?) I lost my job (not my fault.) and through careful budgeting I've been able to make it this far on what money I had. That's gone now I still have no job (not my fault...I've been looking)and if something doesn't come up soon I'm going to be living in my little car with 2 cats. Of course once I can't pay the insurance on the car that'll be cancelled and that will automatically cancel my car registration and I'll lose even that little bit of shelter. That has nothing to do with being lazy...that's reality. So what do I have to look forward to.....?

Appleby thank you so much for vallidating the way I feel most people look at me. Yeah, Maybe I am a pathetic loser who has brought all of this on my self. So much unlike your compassionate oh so intellegent self. I wish I could be a perfect person, I really do. I thought I had worked really hard to become that way, but obviously if I had just tried harder, prayed harder, all that... Just too lazy I guess. You should be glad that folks like me die. Then you don't have to listen to us whine so much. I'm trying to wait until a certain Aneversary to leave this world, but people like you make me wonder why I should wait at all.

Thank you ALC67. I could have not said it better if I tried to myself. Suicide is horrible for all involved. I don't have much money at all, but I care for all good people. Rich or not. The Obama comments served no purpose here at all.

To Appleby; This is a site for people to help eachother and talk about their issues. It's not Facebook or MySpace. It's for people to network and find strength with eachother. If everyones problems were so simple to solve as going to the library and getting a book there would be no need for this site to exist. Nor would there be any need for 'social services', such as they are. None of us here is expecting anyone to pay our bills or buy us an Audi or anything of the sort. Nor do we all watch Oprah and Dr Phil (I don't).If you're not willing to listen and contribute constructively then kindly direct your hostility elsewhere. Not everyones problems are 'their own fault.'. And telling people who have trouble MOVING to begin with to 'get off the couch' is not just mean but downright abusive. Those of us here have or have had enough abuse in our lives to last 5 lifetimes, or more. We don't need more here. To quote something my mother used to say; 'If you can't say something NICE, don't say ANYTHING at ALL.'

I am one of those people who is in dire serious trouble. One of the hardest things about this is that some of it is my own doing. I want to get right but I find that there are not a lot of people who want to be supportive when someone is in trouble and any part it is "their own fault"

I am on my own, in all senses. I have called every public assistance outlets I could find . I am not old enough, poor enough, employed anough. I am on my own.

This is a support board, yet I find people extremely harsh. Do we tell someone who is drowning that they are whining and deserve to drown because they wouldnt be drowning if they didnt get in the water? Pain and suffering is real and yes, I actually DO feel for people who are in trouble. It is all so sad. But worse is that there is very little if any help out there.

And even here, most input is "too bad, you did this to yourself"

I am not suicidal, but I completely understand. When you think about it, in a world where there is lots of blame and very little real assistance, maybe it people who lose hope to that extreme feel like it's at least something they can DO.

I live in NY state and I am in dire straits. I have asked for advice and direction as to where to go for help. I am open to any real advice. Thanks.

Anything of significant importance can spark an increase in the suicide rate. Losing a home or a loved one or all your hard earned savings can make you feel destitute and alone, without any hope.

Please, don't let money become the reason you give up hope. You will survive and you must believe that.
Your life may take a different path after a major upheaval but if you look at the circumstance as an opportunity to do something new in your life, perhaps be of assistance to others in worse circumstances, you will not only survive but become stronger, more in tune with your personal value to global good and you can be victorious in ways you never knew existed for you,.

I truly believe that upsets in our lives sometimes come about because we have become complacent in
our lives. We amble along from month-to-month and year-to-year with the same, boring job that we no longer appreciate or feel excited about. We are scared to make any changes because we are in credit card debt, have car payments, maybe we have mortgages that need tending. We have so many more opportunities to explore but will we ever take that chance?

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."

- Agnes Repplier

The amount of whining, finger-pointing and blaming of others here is breathtaking. Get up off your Oprah=swilling backside and find something to do! Suicide is the most self-centred of all actions and you will find much less inclination toward it (and especially toward murder-suicide as is happening around here a lot) if you find someone worse off than you are AND THERE ARE PLENTY OF PEOPLE WHO ARE, to assist.

Yes, it is wearying to be told that TheChildren of people who never even once thought about how they would care for children before they produced them come ahead of you in the line-up. But it was ever thus. We have a lot of beggars here in Toronto and if the ones that are not alcoholics or mentally ill would devote even 10% of the time they spend whining, blaming other people and watching teevee to helping themselves they would be much better off than they are.

Yes, times are tough. Yes, there are people who are better off than you are and you hate them bitterly. But what good is it to you to dwell on this kind of thing?

Put down the remote control and go to the library and find yourself a book that will help you cope. Say your prayers and mean them. And look around you for someone you can team up with and share resources, tips and encouragement.

If you convince yourself that it is not your business to help yourself, you will soon find no one who wants to help you. And by the way,you will soon discover that Prince Obama is not going to pay your mortgage, buy you an Audi and fill your gas tank, and give you a tax free income of $100,000 per year. In fact, he is going to line his pockets and those of his cronies, and turn your country into Canada. So quit blaming President Bush because you cannot be bothered to stir a step to hit a lick at a snake.