Very candid. Suicide is a choice that requires action, sometimes significant action. Many people are too depressed to act – they just want to go to sleep and not wake up. A lot of things can push one over the edge but unemployment is a biggie, particularly for men brought to believe that ‘providing’ is what gives them value.
His blog needs to reach as wide an audience as possible.

I like how it ends with a happy beginning. That’s the kind of perspective we need more in the world. Those that can see things in a way that may be seen literally as kind of funny but are actually rather profound and insightful once looks past some humor.

I’m worried that the so-called “conventional” job-hunting methods exacerbate this. Sure, they have the advantage of being easy and don’t immediately require you to face rejection, but when they don’t work it’s so easy to think that it’s you that’s the problem.

I know someone who is, I think, starting to spiral into depression for this reason. Getting them to understand that maybe they need to use another method seems to be just about impossible. It’s almost as though they’ve been hypnotised into believing that the “conventional” way is the only way.

I’ve encountered this on several occasions with different people, and it’s frustrating.

thank you, everyone, for your kind comments

to Jane A, you are totally right about your perception. this is the key reason I fell into mental illness. 20 years ago, this would not have happened to me–the conventional way still worked. it took me 8 months of therapy, 5 of them on meds, until I could regain my confidence. encourage your friends to click onto ATH and help them find a work search support group (not a “job club”)to help them put networking into practice. were it not for these two things, my psychotherapist would have had to work a lot harder a lot longer to pull me out of the hell I fell into because I couldn’t accept the new world.