Re: my 85 yr old friend attempted suicide -- Unofficial Chris Cornell Forum

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Date Posted: 06:55:58 02/08/06 Wed
Author: a light
Subject: Re: my 85 yr old friend attempted suicide
In reply to: chrys 's message, "my 85 yr old friend attempted suicide" on 16:02:57 02/07/06 Tue

Chrys, you know I'm hearing you and feeling for you in everything you're saying. I just wanted to add this thought about trying to understand and make sense of your friend's behaviors. It's more than possible that all the thoughts you've had about it contain a lot of truth, but I'd also guess she is in a condition where it's likely she'll be acting in ways that aren't going to make real sense to anyone with a normally coherent mind.

From what you've said about her, it seems that until fairly recently she's been an alert and sociable woman, probably even unusually so for someone in her mid-eighties. Even for people so blessed there is usually some fragility, with the mind as well as body, that does come with advanced years. If she was prescribed and presumably taking pain-killers they might have altered her usual thought-patterns and mental/emotional states, affecting her more than they would a younger person. The traumas of a suicide attempt, the stresses that caused it, a drug overdose and prolonged unconsciousness could all have been extremely detrimental to her mental condition. As she recovers, it seems that parts of her personality and various 'old selfs', even chipper and blase ones, crop up, sometimes seemingly incongruous to the current situation. During those times it might seem 'all is well' with her mental functioning, disregarding the questionable or unseemly behavior you've noticed. My guess, as awful as it is to say or think about, is that it isn't. I don't think she has as much awareness and control of her own mind as we've come to expect people to have.

That's what I'm picking up from this, anyway. No doubt it could be completely off-base. Still, when you consider it, maybe it could make the situation a little less uncomfortable to deal with in a certain way-- seeing her as a person in a vulnerable state of recovery, even if she outwardly appears to be anything but.

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[> Re: my 85 yr old friend attempted suicide -- lump, 08:46:12 02/08/06 Wed [1]

Weepy - Chrys that's a great word and I've been right there with you - and I normally don't cry at all. I can go years without crying normally.

Anyhow, also, she was on painkillers, do you know which kind? Could she also be on a depression medication?

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