[CaptainCrunch]

Financial reasons to me are like a match to a fire that's already set up and ready to be ignited. A lot of times, people that have thoughts of hurting themselves are moving towards that point long before money even enters the equation. It becomes another reason why Life isn't worth living.

Its recognizing those steps that important when your talking to friends or neighbours or work mates.

When you talk to people, its important that if you see certain signs that you either act to engage them, or get someone else involved

- Anger or sadness or a constant basis. Mood swings
- they indicate that things are hopeless in their lives, beyond the ability to control, or there is no chance of change.
- Withdrawing from social circles, this can be combined with a sense of finality or a feeling that this is the last time your friend is going to talk to you.
- Changes in how they're looking or acting. It might not even be dramatic, just little changes that seem to be out of character.
- Self destructive behavior. Are they taking risks, drinking more then they usually do for example.
- They suddenly go from frenetic to calm. I talked to him two weeks before and he told me that he felt his life was out of control. Now he's calm and nothing bad is bothering him. This usually comes after a lot of other signs.
- making preparations. If your friend suddenly gives you something because you indicated that you liked it, if your friend suddenly becomes obsessed with things like house cleaning or paying off bills and the expense of other things. Or here's a big one, if they have kids and they're suddenly with his or her encouragement spending a lot of time at friends and neighbors places for extended periods like sleep overs, that's a big warning sign as they're making preperations for life after mommy or daddy.
- This one rarely happens, but if your friend confides in you about suicide or starts becoming fascinated with death.

At this point, you don't have a lot of options, outside of having a tough conversation. Hey man, I'm worried about you, are you alright, you seem to be depressed about things.

Usually when these signs start happening, they happen pretty quickly like a machine gun firing, be prepared to make the tough call if you see it happening and your conversations are going nowhere. If you have reason to think that a friend is going to hurt themselves, there's nothing the matter with calling in the police, or reaching out to the distress line yourself to ask for help and advice.

I can also state this, suicide is a trigger for depression in others. If you have a friend that hurts themselves, its going to dramatically effect your mental state if they go through with it, so don't be afraid to do what you think is right even if it does cost you the friendship over the long term. At least your friend or family member will still be alive.