a serious inquiry:

[moominmolly]

How do you help someone feel like life is worth living when they've basically just given up and decided to wait to die?

You'd think I'd be good at solving this one, but I'm not.

Comments

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

mine three.

[diatom.livejournal.com]

mine four! I also like "The Journey"...I'm not sure if it helps or hurts, but it speaks to separating the wheat from the chaff:

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

...

and... I think there's a good selfishness that comes, in valuing one's self that last bit, enough to "save" one's self... Maybe this person forgot they were worth saving.