There was a young man

of whom I did not know, a founder of a social networking site called Diaspora, whose name was Ilya Zhitomirskiy. He committed suicide the other day. He was only 22, and apparently hid his depression very well. There are some thoughts on this, as well as a plea to make the choice to reach out to others rather than to take one's life, at this: Please Reach Out

I have dealt with depression, in fact I've spent probably the majority of my life depressed, but never to that point. I've gotten to the point where I didn't care if I lived or died, but not where I felt like doing the deed myself. But I've known others who have been actively contemplating suicide, had it all planned, and it is a very scary thing, and I've seen what serious depression can do on a daily basis.

Please, if you are contemplating suicide, seek help. Call 1-800-273-8255 in the US. (If you don't have the number handy, put 'suicide' into Google and it will pop up at the top even before you hit search--thanks folks at Google.) Reach out to a friend, a family member, a member of the clergy, a teacher--anyone you feel you can trust to help you. And if there is no one, there is the hotline. There are things that can help, such as medication and therapy. And most of all, there are people who care, even if you don't think so right now.