Self-Destruction

There are no boundaries to the process of self-destruction... It’s up to you to stop it from happening. The sad thing is, plenty of people don't understand how such a feat can be accomplished. Yet still, I can't help but laugh at those that know what I'm talking about and say it can't be stopped at all... there is no way.
You see, the thing I've come to realize is that no one cares too much about one person that they know, to step in and cut a fuse. Of course not right? It would require getting closer to a person that is about to destroy themselves and everything close to them and no one wants to be in the blast radius. It's like trying to disarm a bomb without any experience. And on top of that, there are a hundred different wires. If you cut the wrong one then you're screwed...
But the really sad thing is that people would rather watch the explosion from a distance instead of run in and try to help. Sometimes people need a hero but most would rather wait until their friend is in pieces and then try to pick them up and put them together again, and those are only the good friends. What nobody understands is that at that point in the process the destructing doesn't want your help. They wanted your help earlier... but now that you've failed them as a true friend they want nothing to do with you. They would rather pick up their own pieces and reinvent themselves. They don't want the people that failed them to have any say in the new person that comes out of the rubble.
Ah but here is where it gets interesting. We have taken a look at what a self-destruct looks like from a third person point of view. Now let us dive into the mind of the broken person. What usually starts the countdown is not something huge. That is not to say that it can’t be. Sometimes it is. However, from personal experience I can inform you that most of the time it is a sequence of well-timed triggers that would have little to no effect if they were to come at separate times. In a sense it's almost like a key that fits the lock to a person’s pain receptors. Each of the multiple grooves on the key have to all slide in place at the right time to activate the tumblers and allow for an overwhelming flow of despair to come from within the mind.
Once that happens the process needs no further prompting. The momentum from that wave of despair can turn the happiest individual into the most doleful and melancholic being in the world. Yet just like anything that starts of and relies on momentum to build it usually starts small, like a snowball on a mountain, but increases at an exponential rate. It has the same effect. For days, the subject may walk and talk and act normal to the untrained eye. At this point only a true friend could really spy a difference in behavior. Perhaps the subject has gained a nervous silence, which is most often the case with me. Or maybe he or she has decided to do something radical that normally they wouldn't. These are early signs, but signs nonetheless... If one tries to contact the subject at this point he or she may only receive a normal response from them so as to indicate nothing is wrong. In fact, had someone realized something was unusual and asked what was wrong the subject may simply tell them that everything is fine, or okay. This trance-like state is a coping mechanism for most and the subject is most likely completely unaware that anything outside his or her mind is happening. They are way too busy trying to find the key and shut up all of the pain inside, practically waging war with their own mind. That, to them is how important it is to stop the flow.
As they continue to wage war with the process that claims so many, their outward actions and behavior finally starts to show it. For some it may happen overnight as if the snowball fell off of a cliff and began to role faster all of a sudden. For others, the snow ball may continue to roll down the mountain at a steady pace or even slow down at certain times indicating that the subject may be fighting a winning battle at some points. Still, for most people, this is not nearly enough to overcome the process entirely, because in order to do so, they must not only stop the snowball but reverse its progress down the mountain.
Now, the subject starts to realize that he or she cannot win. The pain becomes overwhelming. They will turn to their conscious existence outside their mind to ask for help sometimes. Other times, they will insist that they distance themselves from everyone around. The first kind are the ones that have not lost hope of defeating the momentum of their downfall but the second kind are those that have accepted defeat and given up, thinking that no one can help. Both are equally dangerous. For simplicity’s sake we will call the first kind "case one" and the second "case two."
When we examine case one, we find that these are usually more social people. They have always had friends and have found a way to trust them. Thus they believe that they can help now. They know of the power of unity and sometimes these people escape their destruction with a few scrapes and bruises, but whole nonetheless. Case two is much more of a lost cause. Even fewer of these are able to escape. They always tend to keep to themselves and have no one that they feel they can trust to help, even if they have friends or family that in theory could help if only they would trust them. However, they have a weapon that they can use in place of the friendship that case one uses. Most case twos have learned to deal with solitude, and in doing so, they themselves have become extremely resilient and can make a choice at this point to try to weather the explosion as a true stoic, or fight back with their acquired strength and some will even win. It is almost as if they have been trained to resist. They are callus and strong because of their endeavors...
Around this time people are trying to get away from the subject, waiting for it to happen because most can see it coming. Now, during the final stages, as the snowball either begins to overwhelm the subject or the subject begins to slow its progress they both approach the base of the mountain and there are myriad a ways that this could show in the persons behavior. Some will become even sadder, or worse, start lashing out at those around them in anger that can escalate to fury spontaneously. The subject only does this because he or she blames them for not helping or is now desperately trying to push people away to avoid hurting them. This can all be extremely confusing and no doubt deters people even more from helping. There are however, a few rare cases in which the subject will become overwhelmingly happy and jubilant, indicating one of two things. The subject has actually won the battle with his or her mind and is genuinely ecstatic, or they have lost against all odds and are overwhelmed to such an extent that they are in disbelief. Only the second one of these is extremely dangerous but the fact that they can be extremely hard to tell apart is the true danger. One might think it is safe to return to the subject right before they have their final breakdown.
This is the dividing line where those that will win finally emerge victorious. Yet, one that has been pushed that far usually does not escape completely well or unscathed. They carry scars and wounds that may even kill them later, and so in a sense they have not truly won. Others that win at this point will emerge seemingly fine, but inside they are torn apart by the fight. Questions and meanings to things the never wanted to think on or realize were what brought them out of it, and they can end up dipping in and out of the realm of sanity from that point on, burdened by what they found out about themselves and the “friends” that they thought they had. But for most, their battle with the snowball is lost…
As the snowball hits bottom the breakdown begins. For some it lasts a few hours, others, a lifetime. It all depends on the person and the triggers. It could display itself in the form of a small firecracker, a case of dynamite, or a supernova. By now it is too late for anyone to step in and help. The subject is spurred on by the sense of abandonment, much like some of those that have escaped but the difference is that when they break down with this feeling in their head they are more likely to act upon it. Regardless of the duration or the severity of the end result, the person ceases to exist and their heart and mind must then be collected and rebuilt and such a feat is even more hopeless then stopping what destroyed them in the first place.

Now I have but one request for you my reader:
Remember this process and learn to help others when you see it unfolding. You do not have to be an expert bomb technician to disarm this one. There is a way to help these people regardless of what type or stage they are in. Don’t run away. Why save yourself if you never get to see that person the same way again. If you care at all about them then realize that it is not necessarily your job to cut the wires. That is their job. But when someone has to fight that fight, or they have to cut that wire, and they can look over at someone standing right next to them. They can find confidence in the fact that that person trusts them even in such a state as they are to cut the right one… And they most likely will.