i hope the friend who sent this email is ok with me doing this. got back from a walk to the shore to watch the sunset, take some photos, found this email waiting for me:
i know you’re not my responsibility, but i am your friend and i care about you and if there is ever anything i can do to help, i would like to do it. i don’t know exactly what you are going through, but I do know what it is like to be on (or over) the edge of sanity and to feel pain so bad that you would consider doing anything to relieve it. i just want you to know that i am here if you want to talk or hang or im or just not be alone. i am especially good at hanging out without the need to interact with my company ;)
i am posting this because, if you happen to have a friend who is feeling suicidal or feeling very on edge, mentally, psychiatric-ly, and you’re unsure what to say, the above email is a pretty darn good way to phrase your offer of help.
Especially the last sentence.
What we would all do with friends like that.
That is truly ‘a friend in deed’ and a ‘friend in need’.
Please don’t cut me off. I am trying to help you, not to harm you. If I expressed myself badly, it was because I was desperate. I hate to see you destroying yourself, and I think I have a right to say that I understand a bit of what drives you to it.
PS: I also hate it that those who abused you as a child are allowed to continue their abuse all the way into your adulthood as you continue to inflict the echoes of their acts upon yourself. I want it to stop. I want to protect you.