I have attempted suicide and am VERY glad that I was unsuccessful. I personally believe that every life has value, and to tell people that killing themselves is fine and dandy sends the message that their life is valueless. Mental illness DOES cloud judgment-that's a big part of what makes it so difficult to deal with.
Last year my 19 year old cousin hung himself with an extension cord in the basement of my dads house. Most of the family was out of town at a relatives and my cousins girlfriend hadn't heard form him for a while, so called his mother. My cousins mother searched the house and discovered his body. No note, nothing. His death has had a ripple effect on the family. My dads brother, who was close to my cousin, was a diabetic who stopped caring about his diet and health after the suicide. He died very suddenly 5 months later of complications from diabetes. One of my dads sisters who was very close to my cousin has been very depressed since this happened. My cousin's girlfriend and friends were devastated-there was standing room only at his funeral. His younger sister, who is in therapeutic foster care and has several developmental disabilities is probably suffering the worst effects. Her brother was the last bit of family she was close to and she talked to and visited with him frequently. He was cremated and it was especially difficult for her to find closure without seeing his body.
As for me, Brandon's death effected the way I look at a lot of things. I had a crisis of faith, and became obsessively terrified of my cousin burning in hell after all he'd been through in life. There were several mornings DH found me in near hysterics after being up all night searching the web for articles pertaining to suicide, hell, faith, and death. I find myself wondering if there was something different I could have done or said along the way to have kept him from doing this. I wonder often if in his last moments Brandon changed his mind but it was too late.
I pray to God Brandon has found the peace in death that eluded him in life, but what he left in his wake was despair, sadness, doubt and turmoil.