Remi Cruz On Trusting Your Gut

Transcript

Hi, I'm Remi Cruz. I have a very close personal friend in my life who has struggled for the past four years or so with extreme anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and things like that. I kind of noticed something was different when they just kind of started acting a little bit strange, a little bit out of the ordinary. I didn't really think much of it, because I didn't really think that anything was really happening. But there was one specific night where I remember I went over to their house, and I noticed they had like dragged their mattress outside and were just laying randomly, which is like not a normal thing to do. So I went outside and I sat with them. I just asked like what's going on? Are you okay? What's happening? Like this isn't normal. And that night was the night that they were actually, like had extreme suicidal thoughts, and I had no idea. I didn't know that they were feeling this way for so long, and they just kept it bottled in. Asking them was definitely uncomfortable, especially because I didn't want to offend them in any way. I didn't want to make them feel like they weren't validated. That's a really big thing, I think. And it's an uncomfortable thing for sure, but it's something that needs to be done, too. After I realized that there was something wrong, I talked to my friend's family and I made sure that they knew what was going on too. By turning to their family and sharing it with them and other people that they love, it just became like this community almost, a loving, supporting community that just wanted the best for my friend and just to get them the help that they needed. My friend, to this day, is so incredibly thankful they got the help that they need. Now they go to therapy. They have their medication. I try my best to just keep up with them, make sure that they know that I love them, and that I'm here for them if they want to talk to me about it, and I just want to know and I want to learn, and just be there for them. My piece of advice, if you're in my shoes and you have people around you start acting differently or just like a little bit off, I feel like just keep your eyes open, be very aware, you know, because a lot of times they just kind of bottle it in and you can't really tell until you really like watch and you observe. And just make sure that you, the people that you do share it with are people that they trust and that love them and just want the best for them. That gut feeling that I had, it just kind of like, it was something you can't shake. I was just like, this weird thing where you're just like, it just like pushed me to go talk to them, and something that I just couldn't ignore. Honestly, if it weren't for that night, I really don't know what would have happened, so I just thank my lucky stars every single day that I was at the right place at the right time, and I said something.