Thanks, @tremendospercy - you're absolutely right when you say that listening can be incredibly powerful. Sometimes all they need is someone to vent to - someone to care about them, and to show it.

A lot of times, it's a cry for help. Too often though, the cries go unnoticed or are ignored/cast aside as mere attention seeking - and then, it escalates into something much darker.

The first pill. The first razor to the wrist. The first thoughts of harming others. They all stem from these beginnings - if we were able to catch the warning signs early enough, we could prevent so many senseless deaths and tragedies, so many homes and lives destroyed, broken, battered by addiction...

As a society, we need to wake up and start really paying attention to the world around us and those that are a part of it.