I keep seeing the same retorts, here, on Reddit, Gawker, and whatever outlet treating this as if it's Kurt Cobain.

That if only someone had talked him down, or that if he had opened up more, that the DOJ was bullying him, so on, so forth. The most egregious offense I keep seeing is how selfish suicide is.

That, to me, is a very intimate and personal thing to say. That's something he shares with him, his family, and close friends.

But my conclusion is this... emotional guilt tripping someone to say their suicide creates pain for others thereby he should never choose to commit suicide doesn't perpetuate healthy growth.

Moreover I think it's interesting as to how a community responds. The first thing people are doing is to find a solution, to problem solve depression which has many variables, vectors, causes, and results.

I believe this is our challenge oriented engineering brain at work. But maybe that's not the right approach, maybe like dealing with your girlfriend in a the relationship, the point isn't to immediately jump to rescue, just listen.

Just say hi.

Having spent some time on and off the past few years on suicidewatch boards I keep seeing the same pattern over and over again. The majority of people just want to talk, a sign, and they'll take anything, that they are worth it. There's a minority of people, though, that just wants the pain and suffering to stop. Death is incidental.

To those people, I don't wish it, but if it is what they want, I don't want to ever be further trapped than I would already feel.

I think the best you can do is to show them that you understand the illness, share your own experiences and describe things that helped you in the hopes it might help them.

Overall I feel the key advice is to see your doctor. Get help, go + get the most help you can, and don't be ashamed by it. I have got so much better and dealt with things so much better with the help of my doctor and others. No need to go through it all alone.

I've been tempted to write something about my experience with depression recently, but have been worried about the impact it might have on my hire-ability as there is such a stigma to mental illness (I've even been wary of commenting on HN on the subject, in the past.) The sad and tragic news about Aaron tempts me to go ahead and write it in the hopes that maybe somebody will find it useful.

Up to a point, yes, but "inevitable doom" can also have a walls-closing-in kind of effect. In particular, it's not that uncommon for people facing long prison sentences to kill themselves.