I had a cousin that shot herself in the temple with a .22 rifle soon after her parents . She ended up living, but it took her a year and a half to recover and is about graduate from a university. I think she did that to herself when she was a freshman in high school, I remember rather vividly that I was in fifth grade. My brother woke me up and asked me how many people I knew with her first name. I was in a groggy state but he got around to telling me that it was my cousin who had shot herself the afternoon before. I also remember my aunt (not the mother of my cousin) came over to my house.
They asked me if I was alright to go to school that day, I said yes. It wasn't until a few minutes after they had dropped me off that it really sank in what had happened at which point I was a bit of a wreck. I ended up being picked up within an hour or two and spending a few hours at my house with my sister while my parents were at the hospital. They came back that evening and there was a fair amount of crying.
Over the next few weeks I went to the hospital several times (it was at the U-M hospital, about 60 or so miles away). Though I never saw her since she was in the ICU and I was younger than 14 and not allowed in. It was probably a few months after she shot herself that she was in a normal hospital room (though I think she had brain surgery several times after that), and it was then that I saw her for the first time after this. I don't remember saying much to her aside from saying that I love her. But the thing I really do remember is that half of her head being shaved and the staples running down one side of her head.
But the thing that I remember about this was all the grief it had caused in the family, and I guess that what I'm trying to say about suicide is that it is not only an easy way out as I see it, but it is also a rather selfish act. It not only kills you but it damages everyone else who is close to you.
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