I hope but doubt you will see him on the bus tomorrow. The color ofJaundiced yellow is very distinctive and someone, like family or school mates has got to notice that he doesn’t look right today.
I hope he’s been cared for and taken to a hospital already.
I would never doubt anyone telling me they plan on killing themselves soon. I’ve known of too many people who have told others, done test runs and finally ended their life.
My friend swallowed a whole bottle of regular Tylenols right in front of me 23 years ago yesterday and I called Poison Control who told me to make him throw up which I did. I wish they would have told me to get him help since this was a common trait of an eventual suicide. I didn’t realize, I was very young. He ended his life by carbon monoxide poisoning a month later.
I am anxious for an update. Please do all you can to help this poor kid.
This is a teenager. She didn’t know where else to go or who to talk to. (ETA: Didn’t read further and didn’t know this post got an infraction.)
I second calling 911 the next time she sees him. This is not something to fool around with.
I also wonder how he’s explaining his yellow skin to his parents. 
p.s. A local suicide prevention hotline can help, too. You can get a number through Google.
Valleygirl, you’re a good person and a good friend. Keep us posted.
See if you can “cross paths” with him on the bus again. If you do, invite him to have coffee/hamburgers/whatever and offer friendship and a kind listening ear. Many suicidal people simply need a true friend in their lives, and that problem ain’t solved by calling in the police/whoopee squad.
I hope you’re joking. When you find a live bomb, you call in the bomb squad. You don’t mess around with it yourself.
The guy probably does need a friend, but that’s not valleygirl’s job. This isn’t like a adopting a stray puppy. He’ll be a huge drain on her emotional resources, and a potential danger to her safety. And then there’s the guilt she’ll have to deal with if he does off himself, especially since he’ll probably blame her after she fails to requite the inevitable crush he’ll have on her.
Maybe the cops and the head doctors isn’t what the guy wants, but it is what he’s getting. That’s just how this works. Threatening suicide isn’t the way you make friends and influence people.
No, I’m not joking, and it is a basic human responsibility to be there for those in need, including those in need of friendship–one that way too many people shirk, citing exactly the same stuff you did in your second paragraph.
“Safety”. The exact same ‘reason’ why I can’t go through the Jack in the Box drive through on a scooter and some people insist our civil liberties be eroded even further. Whomever have mercy.
There’s many a societal ill that will not be helped until more people drop this “pass the buck” mentality and realize that those in need of simple friendship–something that can only come from the community–ain’t gonna be helped by way of what is effectively being arrested.
**valleygirl **is already fulfilling that responsibility is spades, and then some. She actually cares. She could have chosen to simply ignore the guy and stay out of his way, writing him off as a random weirdo. The first three cute girls the guy tried opening his heart to probably did. Kindness in this case *is *“passing the buck” to professionals who know what they’re doing.
**valleygirl **is already doing well. She isn’t qualified to be the guy’s (unpaid) therapist, and I’m sure she already has enough problems of her own. Don’t put this on her shoulders. It doesn’t help.
Do you want her to make friends with every homeless person she passes on the street, too? Do you cozy up to the ones you pass?
As for the community you speak of, that *is *the cops and the head doctors. “Community” isn’t an unqualified individual trying to solve the personal problems of random strangers.
The real problem here is that a stranger on a bus could play the role of a provisional for-the-moment friend – which suicidal guy probably does really need – but that is nothing the same as a true long-term friend.
The OP (and her other friend) can befriend this guy (if they ever encounter the guy again), – and it’s great that this OP is concerned enough to do so – but only in the sense of a good-samaritan total stranger doing a good deed, until the guy can get into some better long-term situation.
It’s a total crap-shoot if the OP herself (or her other friend) would actually become a good-and-true long term friend to a suicidal total stranger on the bus – and all the more unlikely since, as others above have noted, being openly suicidal is not the best way to make a new good-and-true friend. Yes, the guy probably does need a true friend, but the OP isn’t a likely person to be that.
Sometimes, ‘therapy’/‘professionals’ is precisely the last thing that’s needed. That’s what you’re missing.
Question Answer 1: No one person can befriend “every” homeless person, but each person can sure as silk befriend a small handful. Such small handfuls add up. 
Question Answer 2: I do my part. Just last weekend, in fact, one approached my BF and I while we were at Taco Bell, seeking conversation. Rather than shoo him off, I showed basic human decency and obliged. He and I turned out to share several hobbies and interests. He frequents that Taco Bell, just as we do, and I intend to invite him into conversation on future visits. He’s a cool guy–something I’d not have known if I’d have just done the ‘shoo fly’ hand.
Everyone’s qualified to show compassion.
Anyone can share long-term friendship. It just involves putting aside some of the backwards societal ideas that’ve become, unfortunately, ingrained.
This. Acetaminophen poisoning is a slow and painful death, and he might not be able to make it to the bus in a day.
you know folks - I apologize - I actually had a point I was trying to make, but I let the snark get the better of me and I handled it very badly.
Mea culpa.
The guy collapsed on the bus and the Ambulance had to be called. I told then what he did. Hopefully he’s still alive
I hope everything’s going to be OK, valleygirl233.
I agree that friends are a great help, but how could she be a true friend to him in these circumstances? They are friendly acquaintances. True friendship comes from years of sharing your life with each other, through good times and bad. She has none of the past history and context and closeness that are required for the sort of friendship that would really be required to help him. If he’s in this bad of shape, it wouldn’t be possible for him to develop a friendship, either, because there’s no way he can support his end of the give-and-take of friendship. It would just be take and take and take. This is not the way you establish a healthy relationship.
Given the relationship dynamic that exists between them then and there, where he is badly in need of help and she would be offering it, the best she could hope for would be to be his untrained, unpaid therapist. I think we can all agree that he would be better off with someone who did have the training to help him. And having to muddle through as a suicidal person’s untrained therapist is as miserable as anything.
I agree of course, but don’t forget that he is the one who approached her and told her of his intentions. That might suggest that he doesn’t have any ‘true friends’ to go to. And even if he did, sometimes it is easier and more refreshing to bond with someone who doesn’t know you and who brings a fresh perspective.
I am not saying that the OP has to get involved in any way other than to get him to the right people, but just wanted to note that strangers can be valuable as well.
Valleygirl, I hope it goes well with the boy. Let us know if you hear anything more.
Yeah, I completely agree with you on the value of strangers-- I was just arguing against DoggyDunnit and his insistence that strangers (and only strangers) could fix everything if only they’d care more.
Is this a detail that was left out of your original story, or did this happen later on a different bus ride?
I have to wonder why this guy is even bothering to ride the bus while he’s in the midst of all this suiciding. Gotta keep busy, I suppose.
If his homelife is part of the problem, getting out of the house to go to school may be a brief respite for him. But not a cure.
This happened today on the bus.
The first thing I would do is find one which one of your so called friends gave a stranger your names ! I won’t be along with the guy for one second he sound
too creepy who know what he is planning on doing . I really feel you and your friends should be more concerned about your own safety . There are too many nuts out there. I would had been bullshit if a friend gave my name to a stranger. I knew of a teenage girl that kidnap this by a pimp, some her so called guy friends gave a pimp her name for $500 . The girl was lucky and able to get away.