Redditor u/Slow_Koala wanted to hear from those who have been touched by the sadness of losing others to suicide. Maybe anyone reading can find some solace or a reason to reach out. Life is often unbearable and lonely but there is always a chance for life to turn around. Extinguishing your life is an extreme you can never take back. You are loved. And to those left behind it can often feel like a prison sentence that never sets you free. We all need to check in on one another more. Be kind.
People who were mentioned in someone's suicide note, what's your story?
1.
My amazing cousin killed himself when I was 16. He was 26. We found the note a few weeks later. He'd singled out immediate family members with a love / good bye note. No one else except his 4 siblings and parents. Then there was my mum, my brother, and then me at the bottom. "You're going to grow up and be amazing; you're going to be a star."
You don't know weight till your fav person in the world thinks the world of you, and that's the last thing they think before they die. And you have no idea how to live up to it. Haunting and inspiring. You don't forget it. gmewhite
2.
I was a teenager and a close friend killed herself. She wanted me to have her music collection, leather jacket, and a screenplay she wrote. Eyeletblack
3.
My mom committed suicide after finding out that her tumor was malignant, she had just lost her father a year before and her mother died in treatment for cancer,she laid everything out notes to specific people and how she wanted things done. I have always been an old soul and she planned for me to find her as I would be the reasonable person I am. But that day I was invited to try out for the debate team so I came home late..... and my little sister was the one who found her. pootiemane
4.
He just got back from Iraq - Marine. He called me up. I wasn't very close to him but we both served. Michael. We talked for about two weeks before it happened. He talked about how much he loved his Mom; his brothers in the service. I thought everything was normal - that's crap we all talk about after coming home.
He shot himself over the phone. I still can't get the sound out of my head. Navy took two weeks to send a chaplain. Then NCIS was involved.
When I returned home I found out that he had left a ruck for me. He left a rucksack for me and I couldn't do anything for him. He gave it to his parents and had asked them to give it to me. DevilsAdvocate9
5.
One of my best friend's mother committed suicide and had a little message for her two children in her suicide note. It was mostly straight down the line apologetic, and an explanation as to why.
Spinal Cancer which metastasized and it was only downhill for her. She did her taxes, paid all her bills, got all her paperwork in order. Wrote a farewell note and swallowed a bottle of painkillers.
I only managed to see a small section of the note as I was the second non-emergency person on the scene (my friend was the first), but enough to know it was her way of trying to make things as painless as possible for everyone else. Engineer_Man
6.
Best friend hung himself in his room, New Year's Day 2015 - left one note saying "I'm so sorry mum." on his bed. She found him. So he didn't mention me, but it's the same topic I suppose.
His mum and I scattered his ashes together, and she gave me a jacket and necklace of his that he always had on. Haven't taken the necklace off since, and I have a tattoo of his birthday on my arm - it really affected me heavily, and I developed bad anger issues from it all. I'm much better now though. puffpuffpoo
7.
Even though nobody was mentioned, this specific note stays close to my heart to this day.
My dad is a retired detective, and one day a few years ago he came home from work visually distraught. I usually talk to him about his day so I asked him what was wrong and he told me a young man (I think around 22) had committed suicide and the note broke his heart. I asked what it said and it read something like "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I couldn't be stronger. I hope to see you both someday in a place that's beautiful". MikeCozzi
8.
I remember when a friend of mine for ten years died. It wasn't a traditional suicide note. He told me over Skype. I still have the conversation saved. He told me how good I was to him. he told me how I was like the angel Michael to him. He called me his brother.
I tried to stop him. I tried to contact his relatives. His sister didn't care. I still remember that night. I kinda remember him waiting for Diablo 3 to be released. He died before it did though.
I wish he was still alive. We would have laughed at the irony, Diablo 3 was @%& terrible when it came out. Oh my dear beautiful J, you would have really hated the piece of crap it was on release and we could have both laughed at the irony that you stayed alive long enough to see it. Illigard
9.
Used to know this woman, who's ex husband killed himself and used his suicide note to tell his children (6 and 8 yo) that their mummy killed him and not only was it her fault, but theirs too. And the police dealing with it had to be physically stopped by the mother from reading it to her damn kids. One of the more fucked up stories from where I live. CollaborativeKale
10.
My girlfriend killed herself a little over a year ago. We were fighting and I was planning to leave her. She sent me a message that she hoped her death weighed heavy on me for a long time while I was sleeping. She was dead in the bed next to me when I woke up. Now... regrets and nightmares. It's 4:30am. I'll go to sleep when the sun comes up, sleeping at night it's difficult. 502red428
11.
Around May two years ago, my mother tried to commit suicide and I remember finding the note after I found her. When I went to "find her" I thought she was somebody trying to break into our house so I went and grabbed a knife, it turns out the noise I heard was her body flopping against the door. I ended up being able to make sure she was okay but I think what killed me most was her note. She stated that my two sisters and I were all she had and (since we were growing up) she didn't have us anymore. She wanted to leave this world so badly. HedgeHog02
12.
I was thanked in my friends suicide note. I was with him the night he passed. I didn't know he was going to do it, he just said he was upset and wanted to meet up for a smoke and a chat.
I believe I was the last person to see him alive. It really hit me hard when I found out he had passed.
He was a good friend. We'd known each other for about a decade. Went to the same school and lived around the corner from each other. He told me his secrets that he couldn't tell his girlfriend or family. AJTwinky
13.
Not really a suicide one but a end-of-life-goodbye one. He was sick and almost got through it, but at the end with weak immune system, cold was enough to get inflammations on everything... He was almost 18. Till this day the perfect person for me. And most important of all, the only real rock i had who was there from the moment we first met. He wanted to make me laugh. He always did that. Made a few jokes. Terrible ones, dad ones. Still made me laugh, and made the pain more durable. I miss those lame jokes... hero3na
14.
It was my dad's note. Telling us boys that he is so proud of the men we've become and even just writing that now makes me cry happy and sad tears. It's been just over four years now.
He was a great dad and had such a profoundly positive impact on who I am today. Even with how it ended, I couldn't ask for a better dad. He was something else. I'm a lucky kid.
Wish he could see me now. I'm glad he knew my wife before he went. Wish he could meet my nephew.
I love you dad. I still miss the hell out of you, you ornery old hippie. You're still my hero. Thank you. For everything.
Welp, wasn't expecting that wave. Thank you. It's been a minute since I cried for him. aph0r1zm
15.
He sent me a separate note the day before he did it.
"Thanks for existing, i love you"
I just answered with "love you too, bud". I had no idea. Aenator
16.
My stepdad committed suicide when I was about 7 years old. In his letter he wrote he was lonely since my mother left him. He mentioned that he couldn't live anymore because I didn't want to see him anymore and didn't want to talk to him on the phone when he called my mother the last time. I found him hanging on my grandmother's attic where I played hide and seek with my cousin. At this time he was 3 weeks dead.
It's difficult to think about it. Even though I know I was just a child and I had my reasons (he was an alcoholic who was violent when he drank), I still feel guilty. And for that feeling I hate him. On the other hand I know he was a wreck, destroyed by his parents. But neither my mother nor I were responsible for this. littleweirdbutok
17.
No note, just a phone call to preteen me that had stayed up too late because my single-parent mother had gone out looking to score whatever pills would sate her addiction (kid me had no idea, adult me now knows it was obvious). I don't remember the call completely, but I do remember being annoyed she'd kicked me off the dialup by calling in.
She said and made me promise a bunch of things that felt very serious but also very confusing and then we hung up. Police officer knocked on the door a few hours later and everything changed. No one but me knows about that phone call, especially not my brother.
I'll be the exact same age she was, down to the hour, in roughly 500 days. I keep a countdown timer on my phone. One of the promises she made me make was to live longer than she did. Oceanis46dot1
18.
He wanted me to know he loved me. That it wasn't my fault. That I was "the best friend anyone could want or have." That I should have his car. That he thought he was going mad and was saving his brother and me from the maddness.
I showed the note to my therapist. She thinks he had schizophrenia. His Mom did.
Its been 6 years. Im still not over his death. Doubt I ever will be. DANDELIONBOMB
19.
I had lived with Craig for about eight months before he killed himself. I'd known him for four years before that. We met at a metal gig and he was a short, thin guy who almost got trampled in a mosh pit. We knew he was going a bad way as soon as he started hanging out with the group we all knew did heroin and similar regularly (maybe two months after we started living together). I tried to help him as much as I could.
There were so many nights when he got back, clearly out of his mind on whatever it was he'd been doing and he'd stay on the couch in my room instead of going to his own. He didn't like to be alone. I spent a lot of mornings cooking for him and generally making sure he was okay, but it was like shoveling snow in a blizzard. He'd just go do the same the next night. At the end of that eight months we found him in his room having overdosed. We realized it was intentional when we read his note.
A lot of it was about his family problems, his mental health and just generally how terrible he thought the world was. Then near the end was a little paragraph about me, thanking me but saying I made the decision to end his life more complicated. He asked me not to blame myself. He then rambled some more and it was clear he'd been high whilst writing it. I moved out a month later. FifthForestMonk
20.
When my stepdad, and the father of my three younger brothers killed himself last month, he didn't leave a note. What he did do (I didn't even know that was possible) was queue up three texts, so they wouldn't be received until the morning after. At exactly 8 am, all three of my brothers received a text from him.
To my two oldest brothers (19 and 17): "I love you forever. I'm sorry, I just can't live with this any longer."
To my youngest brother (13): "You are a very special boy and I'll love you forever xx".
I asked my youngest brother if it had made it better or worse. He said worse. LifeIsAKindergarten
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
People Explain Which Things Someone Can Learn In Under One Minute That'll Change Their Life
As much as academic scholars are held in high esteem for their higher education, so should those who have learned and applied valuable knowledge simply just by living.
Those with street cred have just as much of an advantage at succeeding in life, thanks to specific experiences that can't be taught in a classroom.
Curious to hear examples of what those might entail, Redditor WiSe_genX asked:
"What can you learn in 1 minute that will be useful for the rest of your life?"
Class is now in session.
A diploma isn't a requirement for being able to apply these life-saving facts.
A List
"Maybe not useful 'the rest' but very much so when it is"
"How to spot a drowning victim"
"Edit:"
"The basic warning signs of skin cancer"
– BirdsLikeSka
Worth A Try
"CPR: Lay person flat on their back on a hard surface, place your hands one on top of the other with arms straight, compress chest down to hell to the beat of 'Stayin Alive,' don't be afraid to crack ribs."
"Edit: Oh, and remember that if someone needs CPR, they're dead. You are working on a corpse. If they don't survive, it's because most people can't wake the dead with their bare hands. Talk to someone if you have to, but don't beat yourself up over it."
– mossadspydolphin
Take The Side Exit
"If you're caught in a riptide, swim parallel to the shore to escape it."
– trowaway7342
It's Easy To Lose Sight Over This
"Always wear some type of eye protection when dealing with anything that can cause eye damage. From connecting battery jumper cables to yardwork and everything in between."
"Protect your eyes. You only have two of them."
"Always unplug/remove the battery from your power tools before performing any kind of maintenance."
– wishIhadlistened
The kitchen can be a danger zone unless you're armed with these very simple bits of wisdom.
Damaged Goods
"A wet oven mitt is worse than useless."
– Robobvious
Get A Grip
"A falling knife has no handle. Can be very useful in preventing kitchen emergencies."
– theiciestb*tch
Fighting Fire
"Learn how to operate a fire extinguisher. Many people don't bother but so many lives are saved and so many fires are stopped by them. It takes a minute and can save your life, as mine was saved when my mother put out a house fire with one. Also always keep some in your house and make sure you know where they're located."
– liyexa7217
Let It Fall
"Also hot things. I pull out some weighty dishes out of our 550°C furnace at work and every time before I pull them out I repeat over and over in my head 'Don't catch it if it falls. Don't catch it if it falls.' I also usually put my free hand in my back pocket or behind my back."
– 1800generalkenobi
It doesn't take long to listen and apply these helpful instructions.
First, We Assess
"Pause and think before you respond."
– sparkj
Don't Be Impulsive
"Don’t put it down, put it away."
– Wishyouamerry
Make It Easier To Get Assistance
"How to properly as ask for tech support - 'Hi, this is [name]. I have a problem with [software/hardware name (to the best of your knowledge)]. I'm trying to [thing you're trying to do] and the result is [result] instead of [expected]. It started at [rough time frame] after [something significant you've done beforehand].'"
"How to do it badly: 'My keyboard doesn't work.'"
"How to do it better: 'Hi, I'm Noy. I have a problem with my laptop's keyboard. The L key no longer functions. It started yesterday after I spilled coffee on it.'"
"Your IT department thanks you."
– Noy2222
There is much value in the lessons shared here that can change your life or those of others.
Now that plenty of helpful information was shared here, the next time you're about to be swallowed by a riptide, swipe left!
We all pride ourselves in knowing random bits of trivia.
While "useless knowledge" is the common parlance for these little fun facts we, often randomly, know, that seems an unfair label.
After all, who knows when a subject comes up in conversation, and you might be the only one who can answer a group question.
All thanks to the fact that you know a random piece of knowledge almost no one else on Earth seems to know.
Redditor Just_Free_Tea7 was curious to learn some of these obscure pieces of trivia, leading them to ask:
"What is a fact that you think barely anyone else knows?"
Don't be fooled by their cuteness
"The nuke stockpile in Washington State is guarded by trained dolphins that seek out and clamp a balloon on unfamiliar divers."- Gothsalts
A possible STD symptom no one mentions.
"Boanthropy is a psychological disorder in which a person believes they are a cow and try to live their life as one."
"Medical explanations suggest late-stage syphilis as one of the causes?"
"Cool."- j451k4·
You mean, that wasn't flipper's real voice?
"The sound used for a dolphin in nearly every single tv and movie is actually the same Kookaburra bird recording."- HFXmer
You always wonder what goes through their minds...
"Animals and other creatures each perceive time in different ways based on their Critical flicker frequency which is almost like their minds refresh rate."
"Dogs, for example, perceive time as being slower than humans do, and it's perceived as a little faster by cats."- TwilightArcade
Well that's disturbing...
"No one has found a centipede with exactly 100 legs, because all centipedes discovered have an odd number of pairs of legs."
"They have found centipedes with 98,49 pairs, and 102, 51 pairs, but never exactly 100."- ZagreusD
If you take a closer look...
"Raindrops don’t fall in the drip shape popularly conveyed. "
"They fall in the shape of tiny parachutes or hamburger buns."- CBGville
Two iconic roles
"The girl who voiced Lilo in 'Lilo and Stitch' also played Samara in 'The Ring', both released in the same year, 2002."- ThrowRARAw
Um... how is this not better known...
"Before toilet paper was invented, the people of the USA used corn cobs."- Impossible_Cicada_75
"..I don't want to live on the moon..."
"Not sure how many people know this, but the moon has a sort of atmosphere."
"However, it is so thin that it's considered to be an exosphere."- JustAnotherAviatrix
They'r contributions did not go unnoticed
"More pigeons have war medals than horses, dogs or mules."- Global-Program-437
It's easy to laugh off most of this information, as our lives might not be changed one way or the other for knowing it.
But we should always be open to learning something new.
And hey, if we ever find ourselves stuck with scratchy toilet paper, we can at least be grateful it isn't a corn cob.
The world is an ever changing place.
In addition to continuing advancements in technology, human behavior also continues to evolve.
As a result, what might have seemed "normal" 50 years ago might seem far-fetched today, while things which we today consider "normal" might never have even crossed the mind of anyone back then.
Making everything we consider "normal" among the many things in this world that continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
Redditor Primary_Berry_3560 was curious to hear what "normal" everyday things were anything but normal fifty years ago, leading them to ask:
"What is normal now but wasn’t normal 50 years ago (1972)?"
We could just leave whenever we wanted to!
"Knowing where your kids are 100% of the time."- bradland
We're all wired up today!
"No one had a computer in their house in 1972."- tcharp01
Buckle up!
"Car seats for children."
"And most of the time we sat in the back seat with no seat belts available."- Rosemoorstreet
"Wearing seatbelts."
"There were no sensors- seatbelt were just shoved out of the way."
"Carding for cigarettes."
"Machines were everywhere for anyone to use."- factchecker8515
In the old days, we had one chance!
"Watching an entire TV series at a time that's convenient for you."
"VCR's weren't even a thing 50 years ago, so if your favorite show was on Wednesday at 8PM, you were either at home to watch it or you missed out on it forever."- DeathSpiral321
Music on demand!
"Listening to the song you want to where you want to, rather than whatever is playing wherever you are."- jfincher42
Being beholden to a landline!
"I am amazed to think about how disconnected we were."
"I could wake up on a Saturday morning and start calling friends."
"It was possible that not a single one picked up the phone and that was that."
"I would be on my own unless I waited a few hours and tried again."
"Also, in my area, the adults in the house almost always answered the phone so you had to get through them to your friends."
“'Hello, is Johnny home?'”
"'Hi this is his mother, what do you want?'”
“'I was wooooondering if he could come out to play'.”
“'Well he’s doing homework right now but I’ll tell him you called'.”
"As a kid, our times were divided between when we were 100% under adult control, which was when we were physically in their presence, and when we were free which was all other time."- Mrmidhoratio
"Asking 'Where are you?' when someone answers their phone."- brontosproximo
No wonder they were all so tan...
"Regularly wearing sunscreen."- dixius99
It's amazing to see how much the world has changed in such a relatively short amount of time.
Leaving us to wonder what things will be "normal" 50 years from now, which today the very thought of would make us burst out laughing.
Don't mess with the ocean.
Why is that a hard rule for some?
It's like people can't help themselves.
Though it is vast and beautiful, the ocean takes life every day.
RedditorDankestKush420wanted to hear from the people who have survived the darkness of the sea.
They asked:
"Deep sea divers, what are your horror stories?"
I almost drowned from a small but wave on the Florida coast. So a deep dive is a lifelong HELL NO for me. But go ahead... tell us some stories.
Poof. Gone.
"I was watching a documentary about saturation divers the other day. Absolutely scary stuff. They live in a dome under the sea for several days/weeks so they don't have to decompress every day."
"There was this interview where one diver told a story about a colleague just vanishing. He was right behind him at one moment and then was gone in the next. No signs of an accident on the safety line, no sounds, no light signals, he was just gone."
PenguinSwordfighter
Implosions
"I used to work at a dive shop, a regular customer of mine told me on one of his deep cave dives at around 300 feet his main light imploded, and both of his backup flashlights failed. While this happened he also lost his guide line (read: life line back to the surface)."
"He was in a large room, so he dropped a reel with line on it and swam back and forth basically fishing for the guide line. He eventually hooked it and located it, but then had to make a decision which way to follow the line. The correct choice would lead him to safety, while the wrong choice would lead him deeper into the cave system. He made his choice and slowly followed the line out."
"He reached his first spare air tank that he staged and knew he chose the right direction. He had a long wait at each of his staged decompression tanks. It took him, from what I recall, around 7 hours to properly decompress and make it back out of the cave, all while not being able to see a damn thing."
pwnstar
side-by-side...
"I went on a group dive trip with someone who was pretty experienced, and he was telling us a bunch of stories about his wreck dive down to an old WWII-era Japanese warship sunken in the Pacific. One somewhat morbid but funny story was when his group went into the ship and saw several pairs of shoes strewn about, lying perfectly side-by-side."
"After they all surfaced later, one girl in the group was like, 'Why did they leave their shoes behind like that?' and everyone else just looked at each other like, 'Oh man... who's gonna tell her?' Anyway, the real horror story is about a father and son duo who had decided to go on this trip as a bonding experience. So the thing to note about WWII shipwrecks is that after over half a century, they're pretty much rusted to oblivion."
"One bad kick will effectively disintegrate a perfectly-preserved captain's log, just from the motion of the water. Well, the duo was exploring the inside of the ship, and suddenly someone hears a loud CLANG! The father and son had wandered into an enclosed room, and the door had slammed shut with both of them inside."
"At that point, the guy telling the story paused, and someone else in the group was like, 'Wait, so what happened to them?' And the guy was like, 'What the hell do you mean, man? They got trapped and f**king died!' And in that moment, I decided f**k that s**t - I am never, ever diving down to go check out the inside an old WWII warship lmao."
yungbabo
Unreal
"For as long as I been around the internet 1 diver story stuck with me. Not because of paranormal or unexplainable events. This person's story said they were deep diving with their father and literally saw a Lovecraftian size creature envelope his father ahead. After all was said and done at the surface he come to find out later his schizophrenia had come to while he was deep sea diving. I couldn't imagine seeing something your brain was telling you was real. Especially in that setting."
SunnyvaleRicky
Vortex
"One time when I was on a diving boat with some friends, one of the guys on there told about a story about how he used to be an underwater welder, and one time he and some other guys witnessed someone getting sucked through a hole the size of a tic tac."
Dragon_King3199
Why do people even go that far down?
Everywhere
"I’m by no means a deep sea diver, but I am a licensed diver, sea urchins are massive and everywhere, like you really don’t expect their size and how common they are."
drewdreds
Wrecked
"Did a 60M/200ft dive on a wreck in a shipping channel. The dive boat skipper should call up the harbour master and check if there are any ships scheduled, and if there are not good to dive. Anyway did the dive. 25 mins bottom time so a fair amount of deco."
"During the 12M deco stop we could hear the rumble of a very very very large engine. Hmmm. Kept getting louder. And louder. And louder. During the 9M stop it got REALLY loud we looked at each other, gave two thumbs down and bolted back down to 18M and just hung there figuratively shi**ing our drysuits until it got quieter after a few minutes."
"We then resumed our deco. A small pod of dolphins came in to have a gander at us which was cool. A big f**k off panamax sort-a-size ship had come within 100M of our deco buoy. Never dived off that boat again."
thedugong
Gruesome
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but the [Byford Dolphin Diving Bell Accident] (https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/4x1a2c/comment/d6blno6/) is pretty gruesome and scary. Basically, when deep see divers were returning to the surface, they were in a decompression chamber at a very high pressure."
"And there was a catastrophic failure of the decompression room that meant the air depressurized several atmospheres almost instantaneously and killed a couple divers by literally exploding them from the pressure release. Not sure what could be more of a gruesome tale than that."
anon_e_mous9669
The Worst
"Not my story but still wanted to share: it's the story of a diver who was hired to remove and bring back bodies from a bridge that collapsed into semi deep water with numerous cars on it. Some people made it out of their cars and some didn't. But the worst thing that he saw was the bodies of children still stuck in the cars while the parents saved their own lives. The thought of going into murky water to essentially fish up corpses that are like a day old chills me every time I think about it."
sarper97
Nope!
"I went diving to a wreck around 200ft down, and I heard this terrifying roar and saw some creature almost twice the size of a blue whale. Noped right outta there as soon as I saw that, I'm not going there again, I'll stay in my lifepod."
Overgrown_fetus1305
Well that is all I need to hear. I'll stay on dry land, thank you.