On Discussing Depression And Suicide With Your People

Great article. I almost lost a sailor to suicide, but managed to stop it and get him into treatment. I spent a lot of time with the psychiatrist that was treating him to try and figure out what went wrong. It turns out all the signs were there, we just never saw them. But to this sailor, everything kept piling up on him (personal and professional) and it got to be too much. He was very forthright in his treatment in helping us understand what was happening, and we realized had just one thing changed he probably wouldn't have felt like suicide was his only option. We managed to keep him in and he stayed in for his 20.

Tough subject. It takes counselors a long time to get used to asking the hard questions.