What are your thoughts on suicide?

[Esotera]

I'm fairly sure that I'll die either by killing myself as I approach old age, or by some form of sudden accident/unexpected illness.

I'm of the opinion that everyone should be allowed to kill themselves, whenever, for whatever reason they feel like, as long as they show that they are not going to budge in their opinion, and that they have tried treatment for mental illnesses etc.

 

[Scrustle]

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.

 

[Gizmo]

I would say that it isn't for me, but as a whole I have no problems with it if someone truly wants to die who am I? Or who is anyone to decide that for them that's my opinion on it.

 

[DarkRyter]

On the subject of suicide, I don't really have any previous suicide experience.

 

[phylline]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think if there is a right to life, there should also be a right to death. It may be selfish, it may not be, but IMO that's irrelevant - it's your life, your choice and your responsibility.

If you have a child, however difficult it may be, suicide for them is a possibility. Same goes if you befriend a person. I think (feel free to take it up with me if you think I'm wrong!) the 'it's selfish' argument comes from it affecting others negatively, but I think it's illogical to live solely for someone else's sake if a person really wants to die. Of course suicide is overwhelmingly accompanied by mental illness, which should of course be treated and suicide /is/ a tragedy, but I don't think that takes away from a person's life being that person's responsibility.

 

[Bertylicious]

People who commit suicide tend to be the mentally ill, the unfortunate and the downtrodden. These people harmless and don't deserve to die, not by their hand or anyone else's.

Still, freedom is freedom.

 

[Freechoice]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think if there is a right to life, there should also be a right to death. It may be selfish, it may not be, but IMO that's irrelevant - it's your life, your choice and your responsibility.

If you have a child, however difficult it may be, suicide for them is a possibility. Same goes if you befriend a person. I think (feel free to take it up with me if you think I'm wrong!) the 'it's selfish' argument comes from it affecting others negatively, but I think it's illogical to live solely for someone else's sake if a person really wants to die. Of course suicide is overwhelmingly accompanied by mental illness, which should of course be treated and suicide /is/ a tragedy, but I don't think that takes away from a person's life being that person's responsibility.

No, it's the reasonable thing to say. Richard Epcar once said in relation to life "how I choose to waste it is my own damn business."

People say suicide is selfish. You know what's selfish? Ignoring someone that's suicidal. Not like it's an easy thing to do. Science tells us suicidal people broadcast it like a fucking HBO special.

 

[Leadfinger]

For you folks that are saying suicides are selfish, if I were you I wouldn't judge until I've been in their shoes.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

As a once suicidal person, I must say, you can't truely understand unless you've been pushed to the brink like that.
I'm not saying it's a good answer to anything, I just believe it can be justifiable.

Now, let's talk about rainbows.

 

[Doneeee]

Suicide is selfish if you do nothing to try and look at the "other side". I don't pitty those will not try help themselves, though I do believe you shouldn't judge people if you don't know the whole story. I have a friend who recently took his own life. I do not know whether or not he seeked help but I seriously doubt since no one could tell he was depressed or knew why he did it. The bottom line is be smart, think ahead and make the right choice. Try to not let depression cloud your decision making, no matter how bad the situation is.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I'm pretty lenient on it. If someone really hates their life that much they no longer want to live, then go for it I say, just don't expect any sympathy from me.

 

[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?

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

I can understand suicide/assisted suicide if you have a degenerative disease, like one that takes your mind and body and leaves you five years to live... technically, but without memory or motive force. There are some times when it's all over but the crying, and people shouldn't be forced to stick around after they feel they're simply a burden on the people they love.

Aside from that, though, help beats the sweet release of death. If you can still act, if you can still think and feel and talk, there is redemption to be had. There's a chance to make something of your life, no matter how hopeless things look, and counseling and medication can get you there.

Just remember... by all accounts, whatever comes after life goes on forever. You'll be dead a long time, there's no rush to get there even if it is better. That step's a doozy, though, and you can't take it back.

 

[RaikuFA]

I think people are too quick to judge people who commit suicide. I'm not saying it's an answer, and if you know someone who is suicidal then of course you need to intervene, but you don't know what was going through their heads that made them do that. The fact that someone is so miserable, so devoid of hope that they decide death is a better option is not something people should be mocked and judged for.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head right there.