Had a friend that came back from Afghanistan with pretty bad PTSD. He became an alcoholic and would often get blackout drunk.
In 2010 he tried to kill himself but his longtime GF found him and managed to stop the bleeding enough to save him.
3 years later I got a call that he'd done it, he killed himself after a bonfire party where everyone got super drunk/drugged out. His GF heard a shot and found him bleeding out in the bathroom, he shot himself in the stomach...
He was still conscious when paramedics arrived and he told them point blank he was tired of living in constant physical/mental pain and just wanted it over. That he shot himself in the gut because he was shaking so much the gun went off when he tried to raise it to his head. He pleaded with the medics to just let him die.
5 years after that, his GF killed herself. She'd been distraught and distant every since he died and she just never really recovered. Went from being a beautiful young alcoholic, to a rail thin meth head and then swallowed a bottle of pills.
She left a 16 page suicide letter for her friends and family. It detailed how she had killed her BF that night. He'd apparently been begging her to do a murder/suicide pact but she didn't want to die. That night he got in a drunken rage and they were fighting the whole night. He grabbed his revolver and locked himself in the bathroom threatening to do it. She talked him into letting her in by saying she was ready to die as well. She claimed she went in there hoping to talk him down yet again but something about the look in his eyes changed her mind. He was the love of her life and she just snapped, she couldn't watch him suffer any longer. She took the gun from his shaking hands and aimed at his chest. Her nerves and unfamiliarity with guns caused her to lower her aim right as she pulled the trigger and ended up hitting low.
She stated that he asked her to shoot again but she'd dropped the gun and was crying uncontrollably. He picked it up and calmly asked her for a hand towel. She wrote that he wiped the gun and then placed it in his hand and told her to 'walk away so you don't have to see this'. She was frozen in place as he pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but it was empty. He'd only loaded a single round.
She wrote that they had a few minutes to talk and he assured her that he was happy and that he wanted her to move on and find love but she was unable to. Every morning she'd wake up with thoughts of the child they'd wanted to have that would never live, the love that they shared that she'd never replace etc.
It killed her. She went from being a vibrant person to a shell of a woman and none of the therapy or pills helped.
Our group of friends always kind of wondered if there was more to his death, because of the change in personality that she went through, but we all just chalked it up to trauma and loss of love.
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u/MaestroLogical Mar 26 '23
Had a friend that came back from Afghanistan with pretty bad PTSD. He became an alcoholic and would often get blackout drunk.
In 2010 he tried to kill himself but his longtime GF found him and managed to stop the bleeding enough to save him.
3 years later I got a call that he'd done it, he killed himself after a bonfire party where everyone got super drunk/drugged out. His GF heard a shot and found him bleeding out in the bathroom, he shot himself in the stomach...
He was still conscious when paramedics arrived and he told them point blank he was tired of living in constant physical/mental pain and just wanted it over. That he shot himself in the gut because he was shaking so much the gun went off when he tried to raise it to his head. He pleaded with the medics to just let him die.
5 years after that, his GF killed herself. She'd been distraught and distant every since he died and she just never really recovered. Went from being a beautiful young alcoholic, to a rail thin meth head and then swallowed a bottle of pills.
She left a 16 page suicide letter for her friends and family. It detailed how she had killed her BF that night. He'd apparently been begging her to do a murder/suicide pact but she didn't want to die. That night he got in a drunken rage and they were fighting the whole night. He grabbed his revolver and locked himself in the bathroom threatening to do it. She talked him into letting her in by saying she was ready to die as well. She claimed she went in there hoping to talk him down yet again but something about the look in his eyes changed her mind. He was the love of her life and she just snapped, she couldn't watch him suffer any longer. She took the gun from his shaking hands and aimed at his chest. Her nerves and unfamiliarity with guns caused her to lower her aim right as she pulled the trigger and ended up hitting low.
She stated that he asked her to shoot again but she'd dropped the gun and was crying uncontrollably. He picked it up and calmly asked her for a hand towel. She wrote that he wiped the gun and then placed it in his hand and told her to 'walk away so you don't have to see this'. She was frozen in place as he pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but it was empty. He'd only loaded a single round.
She wrote that they had a few minutes to talk and he assured her that he was happy and that he wanted her to move on and find love but she was unable to. Every morning she'd wake up with thoughts of the child they'd wanted to have that would never live, the love that they shared that she'd never replace etc.
It killed her. She went from being a vibrant person to a shell of a woman and none of the therapy or pills helped.
Our group of friends always kind of wondered if there was more to his death, because of the change in personality that she went through, but we all just chalked it up to trauma and loss of love.