I hate to beat a cliche' to death , but people who say they are depressed and suicidal are NOT to the point of doing it YET but it is a "cry for help" and should not be ignored. They are suffering but have not come to the "resolution" phase.When their mind is made up to commit suicide, the pressure, the pain subsides, and they are deceptively happy and seemingly pain free. I have both suffered from depression and in My law enforcement career have seen many others who suffered from it. The ones who cry and carry on concern Me, and definitely need help. The ones who are happy, giddy, giving away possesions, visiting all their friends are the ones that scare the crap out of Me and warrant immediate and intensive intervention. I have only seen a few of the latter category, but when I have it was very unnerving knowing these people were really close to doing "it". Glad to hear you found a way out.
God bless,
CC
I lost a very good career in the Air Force because of depression. Military and law enforcement are pretty close. I've met a lot of people who enlist to get away from their problems big mistake. When I was a volunteer firefighter, I knew a lot of NYPD guys I thought should not be on the job. These guys were good people BUT they had a lot of issues. The men I most identified with were the Vietnam vets. I learned a lot of copinbg mechanisms from those brothers.