What are your thoughts on suicide?

[The_Blue_Rider]

I big meh.
Most of the time it just attention seeking from the cases I've seen of it, no one actually having the balls to go through with it.
I've been pretty depressed at times, so much that the thought does enter my head. Instead of bitching about it I go out and make my life better for myself and I get over it. They're cowards, too weak to to get past whatever their temporary problem is.

This essentially, I know it sounds cruel, but there is always a better alternative.

Theres always something worth living for

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Those who actually go through with it were obviously very troubled and more than likely weren't thinking ahead as to how it may affect those around them.

I wonder about this. Mostly because I'm the kind of person who has read lots of spiritual, religious, or philosophic texts, and has found a recurrent theme among many of them: namely, the shedding of the mortal/physical in exchange for a spiritual or celestial. We tend to see suicide as a coward's way out, and it most certainly can be that. But that's not all it can be. It can be a release for those that have no other avenues left to turn to for reprieve. If you turn to god, only to find that god isn't there for you, and turn to science, only to find explanations and not meaning, are turned away from friends and family because of the choices you or they have made, then the crushing isolation of the world would certainly weigh on you. Living for the sake of living seems shallow, then, doesn't it?

However, I sit curious on something: if you have found a place where you truly want for nothing, find the necessities of the world something purposelessly repetitive, find yourself unwilling to wait through a long period of unfortunate coincidences and circumstances, and feel confident in the idea of either something beyond this, something around this, returning as atoms to something else, or taking control in whatever way you can, would not removing yourself from the world, that you need not spend your time in menial unhappiness, be an elegant solution?

If you find yourself even remotely spiritual, the idea of ascendance, transcendence, or even rescendance must be either confusing or blissful for you, and if you have embraced the idea, then all that stops you is your ties here. If one were to make it clear, and on no uncertain terms, that this is your decision, that you are happy in it, and that you want to say thank you and goodbye, then it would seem to cease to be a cowards way out, and is instead someone doing the best thing for themselves, is it not?

That's a new perspective on things, I've never seen it explained that way before. I'm not a hugely spiritual person myself but I can certainly see what you're saying and I must say it's an interesting take on things.

It's fascinating, really. We spend our lives terrified of the subject, understanding it to be something that could happen at any time, in almost any way, and obsessing over trying to prevent it in any way, living sometimes just for living's sake. But, we rarely consider allowing it on our own terms, reigning it in and controlling it. And yet, we mire ourselves in the tedium, unhappiness, and regretful living that is said to accompany life, just to stave off the idea of it.

For those who do end things on their own terms, however, society looks upon them as cowards. "They choose the easy way out" you'll hear, or "I guess they couldn't bear it". And those are reasons, certainly. But it's worth contemplating that such a thing could be a bold act, a defiance of letting a colorful exuberant life slowly fade to gray, of not letting everything that "is bound to happen to you, too, if you get old enough" actually happen. Though, if one were to go out in such a way, I highly suggest saying goodbye to your friends and loved ones in a personal visit, and letting them know that this isn't out of desperation, but out of happiness, curiosity, enlightenment, spirituality, whatever reason it is you have. There is a strong stigma around suicide, but there are many conceivable ways in which it could be a positive affair.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

My thoughts on suicide? None.

I have no intention, nor interest, in taking my own life because there are still many things that I must do and many things that I wish to explore on my own.

 

[KyleXYZ]

I believe it's selfish for people to use the infamous "that's being selfish" line. True mental torture can be a living hell and problems are unique to every individual. Most people seemingly cry out for help, to be shown value or self-efficacy, but there are the few who plan it out, take care of their earthly matters, and let go in a planned fashion. The latter I can understand. In my opinion, a six month (minimum) evaluation should be performed by the party in distress to really get a grip on such a permanent decision. Not to mention going against the most basic instinct of your being is next to impossible without doing something irreversible (such as jumping off a building or pulling a trigger).

I took a class on death and have talked to numerous people online and off who have considered it. The serious ones gave themselves a timeline, using self-deliverance as a type of motivation, and spent it seeking help. Those looking for an open ear and honest heart were commonly emotionally distraught and healed in time. Attempts are one thing, but commitments to the end are in a separate world altogether (exit bag as a fail safe!?).

In my eyes, it is an option, albeit only for a miniscule percent of the truly broken. The questions create the most hurt within the surviving social circle, but no amount of answers could ever stop the curiosity of the human mind. Without death there could not be life, which can be excruciating. Thoughts & feelings are relative & different to every individual; problems heed solutions. Sometimes demise is the result, the answer...and the world moves on.

 

[Solid Reece]

I think if someone absolutely gives up on life, says to themselves there's no point in living, they should able to commit suicide when they want to. Everyone should die happy, so maybe by painless, lethal injection in a bed surrounded by family/friends. By choice, of course.

I agree with you.
Who wants to end up locked up for therapy when they just want everything to end?

There is only two types of death I agree with and that is by the own persons choice and If it is done by nature.

The only life a person has the right to end is their own.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

They're one of my favorite bands! I like that song about Ghost Rider.

It is a permanent solution to what is most of the time a temporary problem.

I think it is a permanent solution to a probably temporary problem.

As someone who has harbored serious suicidal thoughts a time or two (don't worry, I've obviously decided against it) and has known people who have killed themselves, I've found this cliche to be lacking and it doesn't give enough credit to the perpetrators of suicide. Killing yourself isn't as easy as one might think and deciding to do it is agonizing. I don't think it's the smartest solution ever (especially when one really looks into the methodology - it can be messy), but one can't deny it is a "solution" of sorts. The thinking being "I do not like living so therefore I shall discontinue living." It's not always "I have a problem, fuck it, gimme a pistol."

The fact of the matter is that everyone posting on this is going to be vaguely anti-suicide, seeing as how we're breathing, thinking, and typing. So if you do kill yourself, you won't be doing any of these things. If it does "work," you won't be around to know. Nonexistence is a difficult concept to grasp.

Pro-tip, I'm pretty sure those suicide hotline things really only exist so they can call the cops on you if you threaten to kill yourself. I've had some productive conversations with them and got some things off of my chest, but I kept feeling like I was monopolizing their time when they really wanted to be "saving" lives. Once I started being more careful with how I chatted, the interest level went way down. A lot of people need other people to talk to, and not necessarily in the crisis hotline sense.

The other thing about suicide discussions that annoy me are the alleged people who are "bullied" to death. I found that to be ridiculous. No one is driven to suicide by another person, unless they're really short sighted and self involved. Stop acting like that's a valid argument, internet.

 

[White Lightning]

Hmmmm, I've thought about it, I don't think I would ever do it.

Should people be allowed to do it? I say yes as long as it doesn't affect me, although with that being said I place little to no value on Human life, and really don't care about the feelings and/or actions of others so I may not be the best person to as about this.

 

[OniaPL]

Well, my girlfriend has had one of her friends commit suicide, and she is angry about it, saying that she doesn't understand how someone can be so selfish that she would do that to the people who loved her.

I think that people can commit suicide if they do it in private. It's not cool to jump in front of a train and traumatize the kid next to you.

 

[Austin Howe]

Suicide is not cowardly. It takes much more courage to face death than face life. That's why more people don't kill themselves.

Suicide is not selfish. The selifish people are typically the ones "pointing out" how selfish suicide is by pointing out how everyone outside of the suicidal person (including themselves) is affected by the death.

That's just my bias. (I have been suicidal in the past, full disclosure.)

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

In the VAST majority of cases it's the wrong call.

Some good reasons have been brought up here already. It's very permanent, the problems you have in life are transitory. There's also a concern as to "what's on the other side" to consider - some think you go to hell for killing yourself, some people think there's nothing at all, some people think they get another spin on the wheel and so on and so on, but since we don't really know for sure - it's leaving a known (albeit a potentially really unpleasant known, however temporarily it may be that way) for an unknown - you don't really know you're trading up, in other words.

In a very tiny portion of cases (terminal illness with lots of pain, post-apocolypse everyone's a zombie you're in the woods surrounded by death, some debilitating brain disease is about to set in and rob you of all your intellectual capability and memory, etc.) it's arguably a viable alternative.

I've been of the mind to take my leave, but obviously I'm still here.

 

[Gennadios]

I dunno, seems like a massive waste but at the same time I hadn't been able to shake the feeling that I've seen and done everything worthwhile for quite a long time. Just a grind to keep me occupied until the grave at this point.

I wish the US still had a west to conquer, just pull a Doc Holliday and set out to seek worthy enemies to fight or fall to. Closest outlet now is the military, but something about bombing Afghan wedding parties just doesn't agree with me.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I'd first have to ask, why would you?

 

[Austin Howe]

Also, the most important thing to remember when discussing someone who is suicidal to me is that, frankly, they shouldn't have to think about how their death affects the people around them. Other people should be thinking about it, and not mentioning it, because they're too busy trying to help that person out.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

I think it's fairly cowardly. Life is hard, no doubt, but just quitting is pretty fucking lame.

I wouldn't be so harsh on the subject were it not for the fact that I've seen the victims of it, which are naturally the friends and families of the people who have done it, and due to the amount of personal wreckage it leaves behind, wreckage that only time or heavy medication can clear, I'd say it's pretty fair to call it a selfish inexcusable act.

That said, as a strong believer in free will and the vast differences perspective can make I don't resent anyone for doing it or speak ill of them. It takes a lot to push someone to that, I know as I've stood on that ledge before, and I think to some degree we all have.

Still my life improved, and that's the key issue I have with suicide, life can get better if you keep at it and put yourself in the right situations.

However, I am okay with euthanasia on certain levels, such as when unending physical pain in unavoidable. However I will also say it takes a pretty strong person to live through that, and to me there is accomplishment in being that strong.

Also: if all the owners of the world banks and all of our corrupt politicians wanted to commit seppuku for their treasonous acts against humanity, I wouldn't complain.

 

[The_Echo]

The way I see it?

Things won't get better if you don't give them the chance.

Some people call it cowardly or selfish. I call it lazy.

 

[Don Savik]

I can't stand it when people say suicide is selfish. It's so disrespectful and self centred. In the mind of a suicidal person killing yourself is the most selfless thing you can do. And if someone has a mindset like that then it should be pretty obvious that the person needs real help. Dismissing them as being selfish is the worst thing you can do. And when I hear people say things like this they often explain their views by saying things like how someone jumping in front of a train is selfish because it's an inconvenience to everyone because they have to stop the train and everything. As if being late for work means anything compared to the crap that's made this person get to the point at which they want to end their own life. Others say it's selfish because they hurt people close to them, which I can kind of understand. But if they were so close then whey didn't they help this person who obviously really needed it?

Another thing that people say about the suicidal is that people who kill themselves is that they are only doing it for attention or as a "cry for help". If someone is truly suicidal and actually goes through with it then they are not looking for attention. The mindset of that person is that they want to erase themselves. They don't want people to pay any attention to them. They just want it all to end. Attention is useless to a dead person. It's the complete opposite of what these people say. And I don't understand how anyone can think that suicide being a "cry for help" somehow negates the seriousness of the situation. If someone is in so much need of help that they end up killing themselves then how the hell is the fact that they go past the point at which they can be helped somehow make them undeserving of it? It's complete madness.

And it's terrible how these views seem to be normal and seen as correct. It disgusts me. I think that the way the media makes a policy of not reporting suicides might contribute to these kind of opinions. People aren't aware of the kind of things that goes in in the life and the mind of a person who commits suicide. These people need help. They're not attention seeking emos. I know. I've been there. I find this attitude in the media to be completely hypocritical too. They say that they don't report on suicides because they are afraid of people copying what they see on the news, yet they have no problem on reporting on murderers and other criminals on a daily basis.

Bravo good sir. I applaud you. Selfish? Like you being sad is worse than someone DYING and being gone FOREVER. The nerve of some people I tell ya. What makes it worse is the people saying "yea, if someone wants to kill themselves then they can go ahead, its their right" <---you aren't even going to help the poor bastard cope or get help from a professional doctor/psychiatrist? Its so messed up I just cant stomach it sometimes to be honest.

 

[Austin Howe]

Never let depression cloud your decision making, no matter how bad the situation is.

What makes you think it's feasible for people to just not let it cloud their decision making? Just being tired does that to people and they can't just force themselves to ignore it.

Then I guess I meant to say is to try your hardest to not let depression cloud your judgment. I probably should have worded my post better, sorry if I urked you or anything.

I just felt that what you said didn't seem fair to them. I've seen people express the attitude that people who fall victim to that just are weak or not trying or whatever, so I came in viewing it with the existence of that attitude in mind. Even though it seems that wasn't your intent I see.

Speaking as someone who copes, depression clouds your judgement every day of your life. Unmedicated, you'll often end up doing things just to continue justify being depressed. Because what happens when you wake up, life is good, and you're still sad? And then when you take meds, it tells you not to take meds.* For me, bipolar has been like a corollary personality that has it's own goals: it wants me to suffer, it wants to feed on the sadness that only I can produce for it. It has it's own values, it's own ideas about life and politics and such, all of which serve solely as commentaries on human suffering.

Which brings me back to the Cracked article someone linked. I mean, I realize they're Cracked, I usually love those guys, but what the fucking fuck? Also, it means I must address a point here. I love the people who argue, specifically, that you shouldn't kill yourself because you might end up being a famous artist. Ok, true, it's an extremely slim possibility, but still, have you listened, through and through, to Morrissey's discography? Yeah, the world is better for it, but he's certainly not. And he doesn't really seem to improve at all until, at best, if at all, 5 years ago. The guy's been singing for what, 30? I mean cut it out with this "it might get better" crap. I mean, if nothing else, many suicidals feel like what would make their life better is out of their control, (inability to make friends, hold a career, in my case, most of it comes from an inability to find love) so to a degree I kinda have to say "Give us what we want! Give us something worth living for!"

. . .

I'm sure all that sound and fury meant something to someone in this thread.

*NOTE: MEDS ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE. IF YOUR MEDICINE CAUSES YOU TO HAVE EVEN WORSE DEPRESSION THAN YOU HAD BEFORE, OR SUICIDAL THOUGHTS THAT WERE NOT PREVIOSULY PRESENT OR ARE WORSE THAN BEFORE, IMMEDIATELY STOP TAKING THE MEDS AND TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT OTHER TREATMENT OPTIONS. (KEEP IN MIND THIS MAY CONSTITUTE OTHER MEDS.)

 

[MPerce]

...well, I'd much rather people didn't do it.

I'm not gonna give an all-encompassing judgment on suicide because absolutes are silly. Every situation is different, so I have no right to say that people who want to kill themselves are selfish or whatever. But I can give some thoughts based on my experience with suicide (my father suffered from clinical depression and had to be placed in mental hospital for a bit at one point...he's much better now!)

I think that it is clearly an unhealthy way to think, and it usually takes an incredibly shitty array of circumstances and mental health issues to reach that point. And most of the time, the person that reaches that point is a shell of their former self, suffering from chemical imbalances in the brain without realizing it. My father watched his son break down and sob in front of him, and did nothing. That is not him.

So...no, they're not selfish. They're ill. Mental health is the same as physical health: if you get depression (the flu of mental illnesses) and you don't treat it, it will get worse and eventually kill you. So go see a doctor, or at the very least talk to your friends and family about it. There's no reason to be ashamed of it.

The human mind was not designed to cope with the environment we've built for ourselves. We still have a lot of hard-wiring from our cavemen days, so stress, depression and other such problems are almost a guarantee. So the belief that having poor mental health means you're a crazy person is really unfortunate in this day and age.

 

[Black_Phoenix]

as someone who is currently wrestling with suicidal thoughts (my dad died of cancer in 2008, and my brother was killed in Afghanistan in 2010), I can attest to the effect of depression on those who have suffered tragedies.

Often people classify those who take their lives as cowardly, selfish, or lazy. That is often not the case. I am aware of the fact that it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but thoughts of suicide have a tendency to be bizarrely persuasive. I have had numerous conversations with people in which they expressed how much they love and care about me, and yet I can't help but feel as though death is the only solution, even though I know deep down that that is not true.

As long as I have friends who care about me, my remaining family members, and video games, I hope that I will remain unable to convince myself to end my life. If someone you know talks about their desire to end their life, talk to them immediately, as they almost certainly have doubts themselves. Don't be quick to call them lazy either, put yourself in their shoes first, as they have often suffered terribly in their lives and deserve respect.

Suicide is preventable, but it requires time and patience, patience from both the suicidal and the person who is supporting them.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I don't think I'd ever be able to do it myself, even if I had a very good reason to kill myself I don't believe I could ever find myself even contemplating suicide. That said, I believe that it should be an individuals choice whether or not to end their life, I think it is very selfish to stop another person from killing themselves if that is what the person wants. Just as every person should have the right to live, every person should have the right to stop living if they desire.