[quote]An attentive Thunder Bay teenager is being credited with helping a 14-year-old autistic Texas boy who was threatening to harm himself during an online gaming session.
The unnamed Thunder Bay teen and online friends were playing over the Xbox Live service in late February when he noticed a fellow gamer’s cry for help, Thunder Bay Police spokesman Chris Adams said Wednesday.
“He was just indicating that he was feeling pretty down on himself, feeling pretty worthless, and it was a cry for help,” Adams said of the Texas youth.
When the Thunder Bay gamer heard that — the two were acquainted in the sense that they had gamed together in the past, Adams said — he asked his parents what he should do. They contacted police immediately, and an officer arrived.
The officer — a modest person who didn’t want to be named nor speak for purposes of this story, Adams said — has experience in crisis negotiation.
It took 2 1/2 hours of conversation before the officer was able to determine where exactly the troubled youth was located. Xbox profiles often contain very little information aside from a nickname and a person’s country.
“It was very intense, and a lot of back-and-forth to gain the trust of the kid at the other end of the headset,” Adams said, adding the officer stayed in conversation with the Texas youth the entire time, not wanting to separate the pair whatsoever, as he tried to determine the youth’s location.
“It took a lot of digging, asking the right questions, trying to narrow it down,” Adams said. “More importantly, it took building a rapport.
“He was definitely going into his toolbox, and trying to come up with as many options as he could, but he described the experience as being ‘emotionally draining’ because of the level of intensity that he had to go through to build that rapport.”
Turns out the Texas youth was in his room and his father was at home, Adams said. The Thunder Bay officer was able to convince the Texas youth to put his father on the headset.
“The father was shocked, but very grateful,” Adams said. “While he was aware his son had some issues involving a form of autism, he didn’t realize that his son was in a crisis.
“He was very grateful,” Adams said. “These . . . games involve a lot of conversation and relationships; most of them are very superficial. But occasionally you might come across something that’s more serious and somebody is actually crying out for help.
“It was nice to see two things: the youth up here that was involved . . . taking it seriously enough to ask about it, and then, of course, it was really great to see the officer being able to negotiate a really great ending.”[/quote]
Well that's nice. :3:
Source: [url]http://www.chroniclejournal.com/content/news/local/2011/03/17/city-teen-reacts-gamer%E2%80%99s-cry-help[/url]
Meh probably just angry at the fact people kept killing him on Call of Duty.
This is touching really. I'm glad someone took the time to help. We definitely need more people like this.
[quote]It took 2 1/2 hours of conversation before the officer was able to determine where exactly the troubled youth was located."[/quote]
Damn, that must have been a shitty Halo match
:unsmith:
Its good to know there are some nice people on xbox live.
Were do u live so I can kick ur ass i am a mafia boss and will shoot u ded.
Maybe this applies in the short term I used to have a blast for years on Xbox Live but when I finally grew out of it and stopped playing all together I found out just how alone I really was.
Than I just went out and made friends. Everything is good now. But Xbox Live is no a long term solution for depression.
This is why Canada is awesome. We help our neighbours to the south
[quote]threatening to harm himself during an online gaming session.[/quote]
Nice story but what a retard. If you have to announce to people that you're going to harm yourself then you're just asking for attention.
I've helped tons of random people online with depression and you don't see articles written about me.
[QUOTE=Ninja Duck;28671527]Nice story but what a retard. If you have to announce to people that you're going to harm yourself then you're just asking for attention.[/QUOTE]
Nice job being a complete moron and not realizing that some people are mentally unable to ask for help, they don't even know the option is there.
The guy did good however.
[QUOTE=BlueFlash;28671544]I've helped tons of random people online with depression and you don't see articles written about me.[/QUOTE]
Maybe because you aren't modest.
[QUOTE=EzioAuditore;28670972]Meh probably just angry at the fact people kept killing him on Call of Duty.[/QUOTE]
Are you a professional idiot or just a gifted amateur?
[QUOTE=Samiam22;28671920]Are you a professional idiot or just a gifted amateur?[/QUOTE]
Probably gifted then again I get off being an idiot.
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