man just call 911 and get the police to take you to a psych ward for suicide watch then claim disability and get SSI because you hear voices in your head telling you to kill yourself.
Unfortunately the emergency services tend to be quite useless with people merely feeling suicidal - they MIGHT respond well to an actual attempt, but for mere suicidal ideation (the medical term for "thinking about suicide and thinking it's a good idea") you're better off going straight to a psych.
Not to mention most people who are suicidal do not have "voices in their head" but rather a severe lack of serotonin triggered through a random biochemical glitch or from a life event - or for the truly unlucky both (for example, someone with bipolar who has a bad life event).
The nasty part about depression is it hijacks self-esteem and makes the victim believe that nobody will care (it's a common pattern to see people claim they're doing their friends and family a favour by removing themselves from the situation), when in reality most people have SOMEONE who does care and would be hurt - which is why the best approach is always to encourage people who talk about suicide to talk to their friends and family in person.
Of course some threats are just attention seeking or even plain old trolling, but from personal experience it's best to assume the threat is real and encourage people to seek help - i'd rather be fooled by a few trolls than see someone die who could have been saved, especially as i've had friends who took their own life after people thought they were joking.
You sir are 100% INCORRECT!!! Law Enforcement WILL respond to situation like this. It's amazing that this thread went 5 pages and no one bothered to mention that maybe, just maybe, they should ask the Mod to notify ANY law enforcement agency (even anonymously by friggin email). All the Mod would have to do is obtain his IP, Google its location and anonymously send an email containing his post and his IP to the local police. If the IP is valid and not a proxy, Law Enforcement would be able to obtain the posters address expeditiously without a warrant because it would be considered "Exigent Circumstances" and negate the need for warrant - at least if it's in the US. I can't speak for any other country.
I did my part and notified the Mod --"report to Mod". It's now in the hands of BitcoinTalk since I can't obtain the poster's IP myself.
Maybe I'm over reacting, but it's outrageous that someone would be posting information about things that they truly aren't knowledgeable about rather than attempting to actually do something about the situation to help the individual. Maybe he's just a scammer trying to get free coins with a sob story, which is more likely the case, but what if he's not.
You're right, perhaps. I was one of the first to respond and advised OP to seek help away from this forum. It didn't dawn on me that this could've been the warning before the bang. I usually don't miss much, but it was 4am. Even so, there's no way we could predict the outcome. What if we got the mods involved (they probably wouldn't anyways) in this situation, send LE to his home (or place of work), when all he was feeling was a little down and wanted to spark conversation? LE's doing an incident report (he'd never know), but this reference would follow him forever.
Most of the responders tried to offer reassuring words of encouragement; and for most, that's as far as it goes... it is the internet after all. What I found sickening were all the people who automatically thought this was a scam or tried to bully him into moving forward with it. Yet another reason why we heart the bitcoin community.
I can't say either way whether this poster is scamming or not. But what if he isn't. Our concern as a community shouldn't be that he'll have an "incident report" to follow him around. Our primary concern should be that someone went to his door and asked if he was okay and wanted to speak in person. The "incident report" actually WOULD NOT follow him around, since he's not committing any crime. In NYC, the "incident report" is known as an "Aided Card". One would be prepared if you fell and broke your arm on the sidewalk or as in the case of the OP, if you had suicidal thoughts. He's not committing any crime and therefore would not be treated, categorized or reported as a criminal. And the Aided Card is not public information, yes like most other documents that the government possesses it can be FOIL-ed, but you'd have to already know that the incident took place and you'd have to have some really specific information (name, dob, address, etc) to even attempt to obtain a copy of it. And if you already knew that why would you FOIL it.
Sorry to digress, just in short, as you've said, rather than ridiculing and bullying, we should have done more as community to ensure that we did everything possible to assist the OP.
No need to apologize... it's still informative nonetheless
It's no one concern that OP would have a report (no matter what it's called) follow him around, it was an attempt to show you that sometimes the right thing to do isn't always the right thing to do in some cases. Just because a report was written about you doesn't make you a criminal. There's no crime in thinking or attempting to take your life, but it is a crime (literally) against society if you succeed. For further thought, not necessarily discussion....
Should we begin making inquiries like this when we see these types of comments pasted on boards on the internet? Would about the youtube comments, or CNN? At what point do you use better judgement to determine whether someone is serious or not? Actually I'm not sure I had to go there because it's pretty evident that's something most in this community lack.
And about the report following one around... they do. I take it you've never had a serious inquiry into your background before - believe me, they find everything! Not that it's a real baddie... but what if he didn't want 'they' to know he engages in bitcoin activities?
Again, I actually agree with your position, just trying to give a different perspective is all.
OP, so sorry for high jacking your thread. But at least you know there are those of us who care
