My boyfriend [23m] came terrifyingly close to ending his life the other day. I’m [22f] not really sure what to say when I get to see him again tomorrow. Advice?

Just loke the title says.

Backstory: I’ve been with him for a year. When we met he was just out of the Army and going to school part time at the college I was already attending.

This year has been one of the best of my life. I really have never known someone to be so kind, affectionate, and sweet to me. He’s cared for me when I was sick, come to find me when I was scared, he has helped me be an all-around better me.

I love him infinitely for all of the above.

And he has always been a very happy guy. He will sometimes get a little bummed out, but I don’t think I have ever seen him sad. And he has overall transitioned pretty well to being a civilian, but he will, very occasionally, run into some odd issue that makes him miss the Army.

The other day I was at his place for a little while and he seemed really, really down about something. I asked him what was wrong but he said he wasn’t really sure himself. He said he was “tired” and made some comments that got me a little concerned. I asked him directly if everything was kosher and he said not to worry and he would “be fine.”

I didn’t really want to leave him alone, but I had to go to work so i just made him promise he’d be okay and I left.

Something felt off while I was at work because he wasn’t responding at all to messages I sent, that wasn’t really like him. I eventually asked if I could leave early because I was really gettin worried.

He finally answered his phone after I called him about five times and I told him I was coming over.

When I got there I found him sitting in the freezing cold on his balcony with no shirt on, smoking a cigarette.

I asked him if everything was alright. He just told me there was a gun in his bedroom. I asked him if he had planned on hurting himself, and he just nodded.

I went with him to his bedroom and he did, indeed, have a gun there. I asked him to please unload it for me so I coukd take it, and he did so. And then I told him I was taking him to the hospital and he got dressed and followed me to the car.

I stayed with him in the ER as long as they allowed me and then I left him there. Drove straight to the police station and basically told them about what happened and that I didn’t know what to do with the gun, and some cop came out and took it for me.

With all that being done, I kinda broke down. The love of my life was about to shoot himself and gave zero warning to anyone. I would have never seen it coming probably.

He called me today and said he has been transferred to some VA hospital. He thanked me for what I did and apologized for the whole incident. He also told me I can come and visit him tomorrow if I want to.

Of course I am going....but what do I even say? This is way out of my element. I don’t want to make him feel any worse, but I don’t think pretending nothing happened is very helpful either.

What do I talk about? How do I help him best?

TL;DR Boyfriend was moments away from ending his life last time I saw him. What do i say or do when I get to see him again tomorrow?

Submitted December 30, 2018 at 07:29PM by Excellent_Section http://bit.ly/2BSLPpm