Got irrationally angry today...

[James Joseph Emerald]

Children do have the right to choose suicide. Everyone does. Don't believe me? Try and take that right from them. You'll find it's extremely difficult to do so, unless you strap them to a bed 24/7, and then you're taking away far more than their right to suicide.

I don't know what jurisdiction you're in, but legally I don't think that's true.
And morally, even if you considered your life of no value and the damaging effects on your friends and family to be of no consequence, at the very least by jumping off a bridge you'd be polluting the water and causing a public nuisance.
It's not really a justifiable decision.
Especially for a young (i.e. not fully developed) person, who are mentally unstable by definition.

I didn't say people are justified in doing so, just that the decision is theirs and theirs alone.

I know that suicide is illegal almost everywhere in the US. Almost no one is ever prosecuted for it, because if you succeed, you're dead, and if you fail, people don't want to rub salt in the wound. I'm all for compulsory counseling, after the fact, if there is evidence that the person in question is suffering from mental instability.

That's completely contradictory. You're saying that people have a right to choose suicide, but if they attempt it and survive they should receive mandatory counselling? So then, people don't have the right to be left alone to kill themselves? Or they do, until they actually try to do it, and then the right is taken away? What happens if they don't attend mandatory counselling?

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Also, I immediately read into it way more than you did. Anna isn't real. She's not a living person.

She's death, come to grasp the guy's soul.

By talking him into "playing" with her she is actually convincing him to jump off the bridge. The end of the comic where he seems to have found a dream girl, he's actually dead, convinced at last that suicide was indeed the end of all his problems.

Or she could represent insanity. Appearing at the moment of utmost desperation to make the guy escape into a dream fantasy world and making his problems disappear. Like Sucker Punch, but without it being a really shitty and boring movie.

I have no soul apparently.

What I like to think happened is that the girl is a representation of the boy's split personality that he develops in desperation and he really does go back to school and kick the crap out of the bullies and perhaps even injures them so much as to kill them. Sort of a Fight Club deal but with teenagers.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

And here I thought I was about to see a racist, homophobic, sexist comic or something.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

As I took extra special care to specify, "if there is evidence that the person in question is suffering from mental instability", than counseling should be compulsory. Sick people should be healed, right?

That really comes down to how you define mental stability. I assumed wanting to kill yourself would preclude the possibility of being considered mentally stable.

I really can't imagine someone being like, "I'm a perfectly normal, upstanding father of two who is of sound mind. I think I'll just hang myself now. I sure am glad I'm not depressed or anything or someone might try to stop me!"

 

[Yuuki]

It's when a completely healthy and privileged teenager with caring parents and a decent life goes into suicidal depression anyway, that's when I feel they need to be slapped in the head instead of being given "consoling kind words" etc.
I can sympathize with people suffering from mental disorders, or having violent/abusive parents completely twisting their mental state as they grew up...they genuinely need external help.

However if you don't fall into the above categories and STILL somehow get depressed enough to commit suicide, I won't stop you. Feel free to get eaten by Darwin -_-

 

[Vale]

I want to commit suicide every time i dont do everything perfectly or dont get perfect scores in uni or lose a match in LoL or stub my toe or drop something or remember my father dying or remember that i am a worthless shit who will never know human company and nobody cares about me because i am wrong and shouldn't exist and i creep out everybody and i look disgusting and everything is disgusting about me and i should just die already jump off a roof get a knife slit the jugular

There.
Did that sound reasonable to you? I sure hope it didn't, because even I realise it's demented gibberish. But there you go, those are some of the thoughts going through the mind of one suicidal person. It's not reasonable, it's not really justified, and it's certainly not understandable. I'm not saying mental illness is the only thing that can lead one to suicidal behavior (and i'd say, suicide is entirely reasonable in certain situations eg. you sustain some injury that cripples you horribly and permanently or whatever), but you should probably treat suicidal people with a degree of acceptance. It is more difficult to fault somebody when mental illness makes their decisions... less deliberate. No, thats not the right term. It is certainly quite deliberate, its just not according to the accepted rules of behavior and thinking that a healthy person would act upon. I dont know how to put this without sounding patronizing and condescending, i really dont. Someone can probably explain better.

 

[default]

Meh, it wasn't even well written. Quite pathetic in fact. Not worth getting worked up about my friend.

When I was in that situation myself about 10 months ago I was talked down by a random older woman who just so happened to be passing by. I didn't want to go with her, but I felt like I couldn't step off in front of her. She didn't really talk to me, just made me walk with her to hospital where I spent nearly 10 hours alone in a corner of the emergency ward crying my eyes out and being treated like shit by the nurses before my mother found out and drove two and a half hours down to get me. I fucking hated it there. I asked so many times if I could leave, just to go home, but their 'duty of care' enforced me to be held there and I was told I would be sedated if I continued. We had to talk the psych on duty into letting me go, and I've had to live with my parents since with ongoing treatment (both pharmaceutical and psychological).

I mean of course this comic is a work of fiction, but it's so stupid, so cheesy, so unrealistic and dumb it's not worth getting worked up about. Kind of insulting in a way..

 

[Fox12]

This isn't so uncommon. Yes, the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope is stupid, but is it worth getting angry about? I think it was just saying that, if you're going through a rough patch, if you stick with it, people may surprise you.

I've known people with real depression, and it's not something they can control. Telling them they have no right to feel that way will only make matters worse, because they'll feel guilty about something they can't control. They probably already feel alienated as it is. Clinical Depression isn't the same as feeling sad. It's a real mental condition in itself, and in my opinion they should give it an entirely different name, because "depression" isn't really an accurate term. It suggests that it's a mood that can be controlled, and it's not. To the above ass-holes who think people should just stop complaining, stop being part of the problem.

Also, the world isn't as dark as people think. Yes, there are problems, but there's a lot of good too. We're living in the least violent time in world history. And thwarted suicides happen all the time. Heck, I read an old Cracked article about an old man who walks by a popular suicide spot every day to make sure no ones there. He's saved dozens of people. Sometime he doesn't succeed, but he keeps going out there anyway. Our perceptions are influenced by our experiences, which is why it can be hard to see the good amongst all the bad.

 

[BQE]

You do realize the comic was just saying that the right person could shine light on another's bismal day, right? You are taking the comic too literal and getting mad over this? Seriously? It is a cute little comic, nothing insulting in anyway whatsoever.

Also a little tidbit: Comic's generally aren't realistic.

If you'll permit me my dear:

You do realize the comic was just saying that the right person could shine light on another's bismal abysmal day, right? You are taking the comic too literal literally and getting mad over this? Seriously? It is a cute little comic, nothing insulting in anyway whatsoever.

Also a little tidbit: Comic's Comics generally aren't realistic.

I'm sorry, it's just somewhat of a compulsion.

Children do have the right to choose suicide. Everyone does. Don't believe me? Try and take that right from them. You'll find it's extremely difficult to do so, unless you strap them to a bed 24/7, and then you're taking away far more than their right to suicide.

I haven't seen the comic, because FunnyJunk is a terrible site that I can't view in my place of employ. I just really want to underline this statement. I've dealt with a diverse spectrum of suicidal behavior, and the ultimate truth people find is such: When somebody wants to do it, I mean really wants to do it, you won't know, and you can't stop them. The tales of averted suicides describe those who lacked a true conviction to orchestrate their own end. Those who reach out, don't truly want to end their lives. They just feel powerless, overwhelmed, and want support that they find difficult or don't know how to ask for.

Am I encouraging suicide? Not at all.
Do I think many suicidal people can be helped to feel different? I think so.
Do I believe that I should have the right to take my own life at any time? Yes, it's my life. Not yours.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

I would have jumped if someone told me to "Chillax"
Stupid word. I'd rather not get to know anyone who uses it either.