My sons suggested I go on reddit, a trending social media site. I signed up a few days ago and posted one of my blogs.  I was noodling around on Saturday, reading different posts and trying to figure out how to NOT have my post flagged as “NSFW.” Don’t be embarrassed, I didn’t know either. NSFW stands for “not suitable for work,” a kind of a 14 A rating. http://roseseilerscott.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/white-lace-and-promises/ was definitely not that.

As I looked around the site a new post came up, “I am a suicidal teenager with a noose around his neck…”

Wow. Most of my social media time on is on Facebook, with people who post pictures of  trips to Mexico and their bright-eyed grandbabies. Of course I know life isn’t non-stop birthday cakes and fluffy kittens who pretend to say funny things, but I am rattled when someone I don’t even know invites me to peer into the darkest closet of their soul.

Was it real or just a teenager saying stuff? I don’t know.  My apple cart was upset. I know families who lost a child in this way. That kind of pain doesn’t go away.

My Mom instinct told me to stop it if I could, so I posted to him not to do this, he was loved more than he could know. People wiser than myself put up crisis line phone numbers. Others, thoughtless jerks, (name-calling justified here), told him to go ahead and do it.

A few minutes later, the moderator removed the post. Disturbed, I contacted my sons to see if they had come across this before and asked my husband for his thoughts. Finally, I realized I could message Deadlord_Zelguis through the reddit site. I did so, praying that he would hold on, but it may have been too late. I will probably never know if this young man took his life or if he took good advice and called someone.

Afterward I looked up what to do. Here is a helpful blog, should you ever come across someone threatening suicide on social media.  http://natashatracy.com/mental-illness-issues/suicide/person-threatens-suicide-facebook/

Next time I will know what to do.