I didn't see specifically where he said he was considering it. I thought I read that he thought about it often. We all have had thoughts, daily thoughts about things that we would never consider doing.

You did well, grasshopper.

FAX

I'm not a psychiatrist but the phrasing and structure were a lot more ominous for me than they were for you. Combine that with his immediate departure and I was genuinely worried.

That's the problem, though. He talks about it, then bails on the board.

You don't really know what he's thinking or doing. All you know is that he's in a dark place and thinking about it.

My concern was heightened when I looked up some old threads of his and found the one where he talks about his long-term battle with alcoholism. As I'm sure you are aware, there's a link between alcohol and drug abuse and suicide.

Regardless, the right thing was done under the circumstances and even if he was just ruminating, this might lead him to start dealing with some of his problem(s) ... which he obviously has.

FAX

You're right, it's really not that difficult. ;) Yet, you didn't confirm the phone number I sent to you was the same one you found. I had a 90% match on current info based on that email. But if your number matched mine, that would pretty much close the 10% gap.

Either way, well done Phobia! :D

I just don't know about giving kudos and claiming a personal victory for someone calling if the person gets the help they need. And then saying on the other other side of the mouth if any thing bad comes from it, it is all his fault.

Who said that?

FAX

I think you did the right thing. Its a whole lot easier to live with thinking "maybe I did too much" than "maybe I didn't do enough."

Maybe that was all he needed to vent. Maybe he really is considering it. Too little information to make a determination for me.

I hope he gets the help he wants and is able to overcome his issues. But it will be solely up to him to accomplish that. Not a phone call.

I don't care about kudos over this thing. I think when you're faced with tough decisions, you just make the safe choice. If I had waited until morning to call and something awful happened over night I wouldn't want to live with that.

Was anybody really making the phone call sound that epic? We were just telling him we thought it was the right thing to do when there were a couple of posts wondering if somebody should call or not.

I'm just speaking in general terms since not much is factually known.

Didn't say you cared about getting kudos. I said I don't know about giving kudos.

If you say, "I think about killing myself all the time" and "It's the right thing to do" it went a little beyond venting for me. I'm going to reach out personally.

Had an acquaintance post on facebook a few nights ago that his life was over because his baby momma took his kid away from him. He said he was gonna go out with a bang and "look for me on the news". I called his ass up at 1:00 AM. Told him that if he was serious then I would help him find some professional help but if he was just venting that he needed to delete that crap from facebook because all it proved was that the judge made the right decision.

These situations are tough but I'm not going to spectate if somebody needs help. That's definitely not the right thing.