you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]erockvillage 1148 points1149 points ago

Posted this before, but I talked a Random dude out of suicide in my town... Copy and paste (with typos left intact, because I don't feel like fixing them) below.

So my wife finished the half marathon, and we went home for her to relax a bit. After we decided that the city was back open, and we could actually get somewhere we decided to grab something to eat. Half way to where we first decided, we changed out mind, and went to a neighborhood we rarely go to and eat at a friend's restaurant. We had a nice dinner, and I remember a table of 2 women sitting near us (This comes in relevant later). So anyway we finish our dinner, and decide to get Ice cream and go look at the overlook.

Since I haven't said it yet, this was in Pittsburgh, and we were in Mt Washington. If you never been here, this is an overlook.

I am not sure if it is the one it took place on or not, but they all look the same, just the angle of the view is different.

So were eating our ice cream, enjoying the sun light, and we notice a man , a bout where the people are standing in the picture above looking very nervous. I am not exactly sure what brought him to our attention, but it was more something in the air around that area. He wasn't being obvious, but something was obviously wrong. He was on first glance just looking at the view, and looking around at all the people around him. Yes he looked very nervous, but that's not really suspicious.

So after a minute or two, and talking to my wife about him (basically saying something isn't right, yadda yadda yadd) I was watching him intensely (he couldn't or didn't see me) I noticed he had on gloves (it was hot that day) and there was a rope tied to railing.

I stood there for a minute or twowondering what to do, then decided to not leave until he walked away. I took a deep deep breath, walked next to him, looked directly at him and said "So how are you doing"

I really don't remember exactly what he said, but he really tried to brush me off, just saying oh enjoying the view or something a long those line. he asked me why I asked.

Well, i like to be blunt, and figured maybe the shock of being called out on it would stir something so I said "well, it looks to me like you are thinking about putting that rope around your neck, and jumping" He kind of gave me an odd smile, and was very quiet.

Now at this time, the ladies from the table next to us came onto the overlook, and they picked up on this guy as well. They helps my wife with my kid as I was talking the guy down.

I don't remember exactly everything I or he said, but I can give you the gist of it, and the thing that freaked me out the most/the changing point in his decision.

So after a bunch of silence, I really wanted to get him talking I said something a long the lines of "you know, I have no idea how long you've been up here, or how many people have been by, but I can tell you one thing I know is true. I am the only person that is going to talk to you. everybody here either didn't see you, or didn't want to see you. I am taking the time to tell you I see you, and I don't want you to do this". I also told him I was there on pure chance, and wasn't planning on going up there at all. So he really should take his chance, because that literally could be he last.

And there was some stuff about ending the pain, so I told him, that is just the start of the pain for everyone he knows and cares about, and it would create more pain than he thinks it would solve.

I remember a lot of him saying he had no friends, so I told him I would be his friend, and I was there right now. Eventually (this is the turning point) he looks at me with this weird "i'm very proud of myself" smile, and said "what do you think of the spot I picked, it's good right" freaked me out very much, however his whole attitude changed right then, and I knew I talked him down.

after a bit more, i got him to walk away, he started to tie the rope around the over look to leave it there. I made the 9 1 1 sign behind my back to tell my wife to call the po po, she missed it, but the people from the restaurant saw and told her. We walked about half a block down, I hear cop cars within minutes (under 3 good response time) coming our way, he sits down, the cops show up.

The bad part is he was going to refuse treatment, so they put him in handcuffs, to take him to the hospital. However he got the help he needed, and I had one hell of an intense experience

shit is intense.

Edit: thanks for the gold! Not why I posted this, but happy other people think it's worthy

LTDR; talked a random dude out of suicide, it was intense

[–]walterdonnydude 0 points1 point ago

so what is this 911 hand signal?