What an excellent post, Byker - your eloquence is something that I admire...succint and compassionate.

I must confess to having contemplated suicide on many occasions - my reasons are not important, but my restraint from such action is.
It would give me a great deal of pleasure to be able to sit here and talk about some inspiring philosophy that I draw upon during these times, but alas, I am unable to do that.

There is no rapturous sermon, nor is there any intellectual inspiration.
The simple reason that I do not carry out this tragic 'solution' is GUILT.

Guilt that my children would have to grow up knowing that I was too weak to fight against my problems.
Guilt that my parents would feel that they had missed the signs, or failed in their upbringing of me.
Guilt that, in my final act of selfishness, I would be the cause of a great deal of heart-ache and sorrow.

I know how it feels to be at the bottom, but I also know that my problems pale into insignificance next to those problems faced by countless others on a daily basis.
When I consider that in some countries, a family member has to walk 40miles a day, just to provide their family with a pot of water, or that the place in which they live would be considered by us not to be fit to place our cattle in - then I guess that I am being slightly ungrateful for what I actually do have.

I would imagine that the guy in question (no disrespect intended) had rather more on his mind than simply a detention issue.
Speaking as someone who has first hand experience of this terrible state of mind, and who has been witness to someone on the brink of suicide, I think that I can honestly say a decision like this, is not one that has been idlly thought out or concluded without a great deal of soul-searching.

It is a very sad thing to think that someone is so miserable with life, that they consider that ending it is the only way to peace...that's why the event is so shocking to us - it goes against our very fibre as human beings, because it goes beyond all the instinctive safeguards that we have at our disposal to survive.

But who can tell the mind-state of a person experiencing such anxiety and sorrow?
Even I, who has had a fleeting affair with such notions, cannot begin to guess.

I echo Byker's concerns for the 8year old boy, I hope that he is well looked after and can come to terms with this tragic experience...eventually.

Res...