Dilemma

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Some background, to help people understand why this is a dilemma.
My father is verbally/emotionally abusive. He often drives me over the line between "just coping" and "suicidal". I lost all feeling/respect for him a long time ago.

Anyways, the dilemma itself...
My father has a couple of physical conditions that cause him to be in pain when he walks. He also has a job that requires him to walk a lot. He hasn't made any effort to get another job, though; all he does is complain. He also claims to suffer from depression.
This morning, I heard him muttering something about suicide.

I don't know what to do about this.

The "right" thing would probably be to talk to someone such as my mother, or, better, his doctor, because my mother would just freak out and then do nothing, and his doctor might have some idea of how to treat it.

The thing that I'm tempted to do is to just do nothing and have him out of my life forever.

I don't even know if he was serious or not. He turns misery into a competition whenever he thinks someone is getting more attention than him.
Examples: when I got treatment for depression and told my parents, he later told me that he was so depressed that he had planned his suicide.
: when I got stitches for a self-inflicted cut, his response was "You think you're depressed? I'm depressed."

It's difficult to take someone seriously when they play one-upmanship games with their children with mental illness.

My worry with the telling-his-doctor option is that I don't know if she will tell him that I saw her. That would just cause more problems. Even if I told her that, she might, with the best of intentions, say that his depression is causing problems for his family. He doesn't care how many problems his family has. He only notices things that affect him.

What do I do?

I say tell the doctor how much your father craves attention, so much he is always claiming to be depressed and you don't know what to do. Of course make it more diplomatic that's just the basics

I agree with Zeek... tell the doctor. Clearly your father has issues that need to be addressed. Something needs to be done. I doubt he is serious if he pulls crap like that, but his behavior is beyond dysfunctional and unacceptable and getting help would be in his best interest... and if it works, it will be in yours as well. I hate it when parents misbehave. I am sorry your father acts this way. I wish you strength and patience in this.

I would tell his doctor. Even if you don't care and do want him out of your life, you would still have enormous guilt if he did that and you didn't do anything to stop it. Some people just talk about it a lot. Hell, I say it all the time, but I don't mean it. I say stuff like "oh forget it, I'm just going to find a nice tall bridge" or something like that.

He may just be talking and saying suicide because it's an attention getter. Or he may seriously mean it. Cover your own *ss and tell the doctor. That way he can get the help he needs, and his dr may be able to put him on meds that actually help the depression and make him easier to be around and happier. Win/win situation there. Also, if he does end up doing it, you will know you did what you could to help, and that will alleviate the guilt that you would have, whether you think you would or not.

PaganMom