Subject: :'( OH DEAR GOD.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-07-06 12:55:00 UTC
All I can say is this... Call a suicide hotline, any one of them. Right now. Knowing how far this has gone, this person NEEDS help, and he needs it IMMEDIATELY. D:
It's 8:22 PM PST, on the evening of July 5th, 2016 when I started writing this message. I'm on the verge of hyperventilating and possibly shaking.
I've spent four hours on the Plants vs. Zombies wiki, where users are currently engaged in a very tense issue right now. One that could potentially kill someone if it doesn't work out in our favor.
Because we're dealing with a suicidal moderator who's dug himself so deep a hole we literally cannot get to him.
Seriously. We've tried all viable forms of anti-suicide advice (before referring to the resources) and it hasn't worked. Every time, he goes back to the same thing, the root cause of the situation: a mere block after he snapped for a bit and ranted at another user for talking behind his back, and continues to fight with the user and openly talks about killing himself. (From analyzing his messages, I can tell he's dangerously close to accomplishing this. He's within 100 paces of any potentially lethal object like a meat cleaver right now.) And every time I tell him how much I care about him and how I want to wish away the person causing his trauma as much as he does, it's almost as if he ignores potentially vital words of caring, by not responding...
I'm seriously considering referring him to /r/SuicideWatch. It's simply the last thing we can do now that everything has proven so hopeless.
I just want this to end peacefully. It's starting to weigh me down more than I expected. I'm so scared...
I've decided to pull out from this situation while the wiki staff can assess the situation and perform the actions necessary to facilitate a recovery for this individual, as the root cause of the problem is a person who I swear had the charisma of a Fallout character before yesterday, as opposed to straight-up depression (the perpetrator is a discussion mod who happens to also be a repeat offender and is currently beating his psyche in without any sense of common self-restraint.)
I'm still holding onto the plan of making an /r/SuicideWatch post, so that's still there.
All notable members of the wiki community (comparable to how quite a few agents are more well-known than others) are currently pitching in to help, and they're all staff and admins. Unfortunately, we're not getting anywhere, likely because:
a) No one's actually taking action,
b) Our person of interest (i.e the one that's been bullying the victim) is going to be incredibly difficult to deal with or even reason with. How do you talk to a person who can't restrain themselves from talking to their victim despite being dumped wall after wall of text about the grim circumstances, and only truly feeling sorry after the damage has been done, anyway?
All I can say is this... Call a suicide hotline, any one of them. Right now. Knowing how far this has gone, this person NEEDS help, and he needs it IMMEDIATELY. D:
But yes, refer him to a specialist. You do not have the training to take care of him, and it's more likely to traumatized you in the ensuing . . . well, trauma. I know it's tough. But you are in control of your own actions, and no one else's. You can neither stop him from hurting himself, not enable/force him to do so. All you can do is reach out to him and talk to him, and get him to talk to a more qualified form of help.
For what it's worth, I've been on both sides of that line, at various times of life. Talking will help with most people - if it is not helping, it is not your fault, but definitely get more professional help.
I don't know what to do in this situation, and I don't know enough about the current situation. You need to say more.