A Friend in pretty bad shape. Get out the rosaries.

[SierraLea]

I got this email from a friend, and it seemed urgent. I asked her permission before posting it here.

I just wanted to ask you for some *really, really hard* prayers right now. One of my friends tried to hang herself from a tree in her backyard last night. This is her 15th suicide attempt and she's almost fully succeeded a few times before, but her mom has always found her in time.

I've known this girl since I was 10yrs., and she is one of the best people I know. She's a really *good* kid, she's just trying to find where she fits in. She was adopted when she was a baby, and her dad died unexpectedly from a heart problem when she was little. Her mom didn't take it well and has been living a really hard life. Her mom's really always been one of those parents that will lecture/yell at/embarrass her in front of other people (she's done it in front of me countless times), and go *way* overboard when she screws up at all, and that hasn't exactly helped with the whole situation. And when you talk to each of them separately, they're both trying *really* hard to do the right thing for the other - they just don't "get it".

Everything was going okay for a long time, but in the last 4-ish years, everything has just seemed to continuously go downhill. We found out that she's been doing drugs for a long time (Heroine, Cocaine . . . ), drinking with "friends", failing in school, she's "decided" that she's a lesbian and her mom has been letting her "girlfriend" live with her in their house, and she's been really struggling with depression and has been in and out of the psych wards at Children's, St. Peter's, and some other places for awhile.

But you know, we know her really well, and we can totally tell that there's still hope. You can see that depending on what group she's in, a flip switches and she goes right back to the kid she used to be, she's so sweet and respectful to everyone around her, and she still *wants* to be good. Shewas over at the house today and she said that she knows no one cares about her or what happens to her or what she does, so she does anything to fit in *somewhere*. She said it was actually really hard being here because all the girlfriends were over and she was watching them and seeing how happy they were, and she really wished she had "it". She wished she could just be the "good kid" and have a loving/happy family, someone to care for her, something to be happy about, something to live for, and not have to always be trying to change what/who she is to please other people.

There's still a bit of a light in her, and we've just *got* to storm Heaven for her because I/we *really* think there's still a chance for her to turn back the other way.
So if you could just kinda keep her in the back of your mind and pull her out now and again it would mean *so* much!

[ClaecElric4God]

I'll be praying.

[Panda4christ:3]

I'll definitely be praying, Sierra :<

[syphon]

Will be praying

[Vracer111]

Will pray for her and situation.

[yukoxholic]

Praying!

[Mullet Death]

Praying...

[DaughterOfZion]

Sierra, I know you're just relaying a prayer request, but do you know if ANY of this girl's "friends" has tried to get her actual, real, tangible help?
Someone really needs to get off their butt and talk to a proper authority who can actually help this girl. She's addicted to multiple hard drugs and has tried to kill herself 15 times? I wonder why this girl hasn't been institutionalized or put into rehab? Obviously her stints in psych wards have done nothing to help her. Are you in any position to at least SUGGEST to your friend that she might do more than JUST pray for her friend?

I'll pray a rosary for her. I've kind of came to the conclusion that I could probably be accurately described as "sexually confused," so I won't pretend to know exactly what she's going through regarding her same-sex-attraction but I do think understand a little bit how hard that is, much less everything else she's going through.

Pretty sure any real or imagined problems with her sexuality you may have projected onto this poor girl is the least of anyone's problems, most importantly hers. The fact that she has a girlfriend suggests that she isn't all that internally tortured by her feelings towards women. If any of her problems stem from her sexuality it's because of people around her keep insisting that she's just "confused" or she just "decided" she has become what she just is.

[Xeno]

Sierra, I know you're just relaying a prayer request, but do you know if ANY of this girl's "friends" has tried to get her actual, real, tangible help?
Someone really needs to get off their butt and talk to a proper authority who can actually help this girl. She's addicted to multiple hard drugs and has tried to kill herself 15 times? I wonder why hasn't this girl been institutionalized or put into rehab? Obviously her stints in psych wards has done nothing to help her. Are you in any position to at least SUGGEST to your friend that she might do more than JUST pray for her friend?

I'll pray a rosary for her. I've kind of came to the conclusion that I could probably be accurately described as "sexually confused," so I won't pretend to know exactly what she's going through regarding her same-sex-attraction but I do think understand a little bit how hard that is, much less everything else she's going through.

Pretty sure any real or imagined problems with her sexuality you may have projected onto this poor girl is the least of anyone's problems, most importantly hers. The fact that she has a girlfriend suggests that she isn't all that internally tortured by her feelings towards women. If any of her problems stem from her sexuality it's because of people around her keep insisting that she's just "confused" or she just "decided" she has become what she just is.

Backing up everything DoZ has said here.

This girl needs real professional help. If you or anyone else wants to pray for her then that's fine and dandy, but she has real and tangible problems with drug addiction and depression/suicide. Just praying about this is not going to fix it no matter how hard you might want to believe that. Someone needs to step up and be an adult about this and get her to a proper facility that can meet the physical needs she needs met to get better.

And again, the whole sexuality thing. Just because you disagree with it or think she "decided" of her of free will to be a lesbian doesn't mean that's how it actually worked out. People are what they are, and shouldn't be condemned for it just because of religious ideologies that you hold.