Trigger Warning: Suicide. I'm going to post a brief thread about a friend of mine, because these things need to be talked about. I'm not going to name names, because that's not the important part here.
1/

A little over a week ago a friend of mine from high school attempted suicide. We don't yet know if he succeeded and we may not for some time to come, but his odds are not great. He's a good man, smart, funny as hell, a talented actor and vocalist.
2/

I've known him since we used to act together in high school almost 40 years ago. We weren't close, especially in later years, but we've kept up with each other as we can. My hippie school was a tiny K-12 school with graduating classes in the high teens to low 20s.
3/

A lot of us were in school together from kindergarten or the early grades on. When you're together like that you become family in a way, even if you're not particularly close in any one moment. My friend is as much a cousin to me as he is a friend.
4/

I know he's had some rough times in the past. He's spent decades battling the disease that is depression. Not just his own but that of a parent as well. A lot of us hippie school kids had parents with mental illness. Not exactly a surprise.
5/

The school tended to collect a subset of the kids who didn't do well in the mainstream schools. Bright. Talented. Quirky. All words used to describe us. We produced a LOT of artists and thinkers, and we carry a lot of mental illness among us.
6/

Mine is mild. I have a fairly light case of OCD/anxiety, but a lot of my peers got dealt worse hands. Like my friend with depression. He has struggled with an absolutely deadly disease for years. And, maybe, he has finally succumbed.
7/

I'm going to hope that he pulls through. But if he does, he's going to wake up and go right back to the struggle. Like any chronic illness, the next round is always waiting.
8/

Depression is a particularly nasty disease because it lives inside your skull with you and it lies to you all the time. It's easy to say "don't listen." It's much harder to do. Still, I'm going to say it again. Don't Listen. We need you.
9/

You may not feel it now, but your life is a light in the all-devouring darkness of time. An incredibly precious and unique light that can never be replaced. We are too brief as it is and the dark is vast, but for a time we can each hold it back.

Stay.

Burn bright.

10/End