Oh no! Oh, how tragic. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones. Rest in peace, Andrew Koenig. So sorry for your loss of life. It's such an awful juxtaposition--the world being stunned by his death at the same time everyone is screaming for joy over the Canadian women's gold medal hockey win. Talk about the highs and lows of life.
Beth 

Thank you for including information about where people can get help. 24/7 phone support is available - in Vancouver area, you can call 604.872.3311, and 1-800-SUICIDE is a province-wide service operated by a network of crisis lines around BC. There is also an online crisis chat service at YouthInBC.com, that is available noon-1am every day.  

The guy is gone. Only his family and friends matter now. We should never accept suicide. It's a horrible thing to do to your loved ones. The rest of days of his parents will be hell on earth. Don't do it! 

"It's a horrible thing to do to your loved ones. The rest of days of his parents will be hell on earth."

Excuse me, but it's quite common that people who want to end their lives feel like they are already, PERSONALLY, living in hell on earth.

I think you should also take in to consideration that some people with such intense suicidal thoughts can also be mentally ill, and thus do not necssarily have the capacity to just flip their feelings around and put themselves in the shoes of others (who are not suffering, and are perhaps as ignorant and selfish as I feel you have presented yourself to be)

And even if someone can, or could, remove themselves far enough from their suicidal thoughts to take a moment and just care about what their parents are thinking, it doesn't mean it will change a thing for that person. In fact, it may just add to the pressure and itensity of their thoughts.

In general, I think it's time for better mental health support in this province... country... planet...? Mental illness and even just the general unhappiness/depression people experience is as much of a plague as HIV/AIDS or Starvation and so on. It should be treated with as much care and attention as anything else we hope to improve/change/eliminate.

As above, more thanks to you, Georgia Straight, for posting some help line info. So many media outlets just hype up the news and move on to the next tragedy without attemps to support.

Rest in piece, Andrew.

 

My heartfelt condolences go out to Andrew's family and loved ones; my heartfelt pain goes out to him. It is not enough to just say to anyone, "don't do it, it's horrible to do to your loved ones." To be driven to that point where you honestly believe that dying is better than living, THAT is hell on earth. 

committing suicide takes great strength and courage and often has nothing to with mental ilness etc. it can be a very conscious decision.
it is neither good nor bad. it just is. for people left behind it's all about them, how they are going to miss that person etc. and that is irrelevant as it is their ego talking. maybe they should be happy for the person who has departed as maybe they are in a better place and free from living on this not so pleasurable planet.maybe people should be happy for him that he maybe has found peace now.  

In response to some of these comments: As a person who was hospitalized several years ago for being suicidal, I want to explain that being suicidal is not "voluntary" in the way people normally define the word -- much as being depressed is not voluntary. When I was suicidal, there came a point where I was no longer in control of my thoughts and I knew I would not be able to prevent myself from killing myself unless I was hospitalized. This was terrifying enough that I went through the ordeal of waiting in Emergency for several hours (the Emergency waiting room emptied out 2-3 times before I was called and many people with minor injuries were seen before me). The triage nurse had obviously assessed my situation as not a priority due to the fact I hadn't brought my method (a knife) with me to slit my throat.

As I waited, the only thing that kept me from leaving the Emergency at VGH and jumping in front of a car was the suicide counsellor I'd contacted by phone, who called me back regularly and encouraged me to stay. Weeks later, the counsellor told me many suicidal people leave Emergency (and kill themselves or attempt to) due to the wait, feelings of not having a "real" problem, and the perceived indifference of the hospital staff. Once I did get into the Psychiatric Assessment Unit, the staff and doctors were great and helped me tremendously. But I'll never forget that Emergency room wait. Our whole society really needs to take depression and suicidal behavior more seriously - or the tragedies will keep coming. A victim of suicide may be no more responsible for their condition than a victim of cancer. Don't believe it? Well, you don't KNOW unless you've been there. By the way, in my case what led to my suicidal feelings was constant daily pain and disability from a medical condition, as well as underlying depression. I had to endure years of often-unsuccessful treatment for both before making a full recovery.

Who knows what this man was going through? May he rest in peace, and my deepest condolences to his family and friends. 

When I think of how many others have it so difficult in life and they don't commit suiciide and yet they could but don't. I honour them for having the strong spirit to continue on.

Those living with hunger, the poor, the abused, those living with chronic illness & pain and the homeless and I just can't help but think how brave these people are and so I tend to think that suicide is a cowardly act since it inflicts pain and suffering onto others.

While it is indeed tragic that this Man allegedly took his own life, I think about how good he had it compared to so many others in society. He had work, a home, cell phone, friends, money in the bank and it looks like great parents yet he chose to take his life which will cause enormous pain for others and so we should be really careful here of painting the individual as a victim.

It seems like there is a mental health issue at play here and one must wonder why nobody intervened to get this man help, especially if according to the reports that he was off his meds for over a year. And if he refused help should other measures be enacted to ensure safety for himself and to others?

It seems a ton of money went into finding this man and the costs associated I think would have run into into the tens of thousands and I can't help but wonder how this money would have assisted so many others in life who have it really bad.

So while it is sad that someone took his life, the question is who winds up paying for the costs associated with this profound act? For certain it is not Mr Koenig. 

Due to the incontrovertible fact I can be a real asshole occasionally I took the opportunity this week to run a scenario past my adult, post grad children who happened to grow up watching a show they lovingly referred to as “Farting Pains”.

I said “ I don’t suppose Boner might just have had a bad case of gas?

I got icy stares to which I responded”¦” Too soon?”

The point I’m making has to do with what each of us does to cope with the upsides and downsides of life. I’m loathe to leave the solution to this issue in the hands of so called mental health professionals as their completely unsatisfactory mode of treatment revolves around using unbalanced and dangerous pharmaceuticals which, more often than not, tend to do more harm than good over the long term. Common sense tells me that wide spread denatured, processed and unbalanced diets over a lifetime cause deficiencies that make it difficult and sometimes impossible for people to cope with stress.

Of course the food processing and pharmaceutical industries and their bought and paid for civil servants and politicians don’t want you to know this so they have mass media running cover for them. Some might say it’s all about deliberately making people sick for profit but I think it’s much more than that. They know that a debilitated populace will be too concerned with survival to notice all the atrocities committed around the globe to maintain our super power status.

Too soon?

SMBs