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My cousin killed himself last week (not the one who got stabbed in the neck by a crazy coworker, and not the other one who got cancer at 37, a different cousin...) He and I weren't very close, but I totally didn't see it coming. The cousin who is close to him (his half-brother, aka cancer-cousin) very much did see it coming, and did everything he could to prevent it, but with the backstory he has now revealed to me I agree that there really wasn't anything more he could have done.
But as I was hearing the news from cancer-cousin, and listening to him describe everything that was going on that the rest of the family didn't know about, the thought came to me clear as day that, "That's going to be my brother someday." My brother is very, very much like suicide-cousin. Minor depression, moderate drinking problem, but full-blown, lifelong expectations of what the world owes him. Ultimately this cousin killed himself because the universe never lived up to his ego, and this is 100% the path my brother's heading down.
Welp, dude's 33 and everyone's tried to help him and he listens to no one. We'll see, I guess. Still sucks pretty hardcore for cancer-cousin, though. He knows he shouldn't feel guilty but one always does.
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