What are your thoughts on suicide?

[Vern]

I don't, or try not to judge people who commit suicide. It's well within their right to decide when they are done living, and if they feel it's their time to end their life, then it is that persons choice. I've most certainly been at that brink with a loaded firearm on a few occasions. I stepped back, maybe out of cowardice. But after witnessing a string of suicides by people close enough to me, I just saw how badly it hurt the people that loved them and cared about them. I used to think it was selfishness, but it's really not selfishness. Once a person gets to the stage that they're willing to commit suicide they believe it's better for everyone around them, they won't have to deal with their problems any more. That's the saddest thing to me, most people who commit suicide do have people that care about them. But they think they're a burden, and that all those other people would be better off if they died.

And really, the clincher for me is the fact that I think about a friend who committed suicide every day. And I just wonder what, if anything, I could've done to help her, and it eats at me. And I could never do that to another person. She had her reasons, I know, and at the time I'm sure they were good reasons. But it just gave me a kick in the ass to tell me "Hey, suicide is not painless, despite what MASH says". The choice was made, it was her choice to make, and I don't fault her for it. It just made me realize how important we all are to the people we have, and how taking ourselves away from the other people in our lives will damage them. And after that whole issue I realized I could never kill myself.

 

[Olas]

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

Ya, basically this. The idea that people should have a right to commit suicide overlooks the fact that most people who consider it aren't mentally healthy in the first place. Essentially they're planning to destroy their entire future because of their present issues. How often do you think elderly people look back at their lives and wish they had committed suicide as a teenager?

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

Disappointment. While I understand that some people may have problems that they just can't deal with and that I have no real right to criticise, I still feel disappointed that people would end their own life for any reason. I am firm of the belief that no matter what situation you are in, it can get better. However, I suppose there are cases where one person simply cannot bare it and so I won't judge but I am still glad that no one I know has committed suicide. I hope that remains true by the time I'm old and on my way out

 

[Sonicron]

I believe it's the cheap way out, and nothing worth having comes cheap - meaning it's not worth it. In my opinion, living in misery sucks marginally less than dying in it, and it always pays to stick around (one way or another).

 

[Sexy Devil]

As long as they don't plan to take a bunch of people with them by going on a killing spree or something, I have no problem with people committing suicide.

 

[JoJo]

Wow, I didn't think I'd have the controversial opinion here but...

I think it's the most selfish and cowardly act that someone can possibly do.

I agree. There are very few legitimate reasons to commit suicide, with a possible exception if someone was already facing a potentially more painful death. In most cases there are non-suicide alternatives to solve the problems which suicide are used for. Being bullied mercilessly at school or beaten at home? Why not refuse to go/run away, sure it won't be easy but it sure looks preferable to me than death. Girl/boyfriend you can't live without dumped you? Hang-on in there, in a years time you'll be well over it and maybe even found someone better.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

If you want to do it, then just fucking do it. I don't care. I've even talked with people that does nothing but complain how bad their life is and I'm amazed I've never told anyone to just kill themselves.

 

[JochemHippie]

Just because someones live is in the gutter doesn't mean he should stop living. Which is often why it happens, those people need to be helped.

For some people, who have just lived their live are elderly and have absolutely nothing to live for or people with incurable and painful diseases or returning ones like cancer tends to do. Well we've got euthanasia for that.

 

[lokun489]

It's selfish. Commitin suicide is ignoring all problems but your own. Ignoring the problems you leave behind.

 

[manic_depressive13]

I think people who don't kill themselves are selfish since everyone who doesn't live as a hunter-gatherer destroys the environment due to their lifestyle and causes unnecessary suffering to countless living beings.

I also find it amusing that people who think suicide is cowardly are generally afraid or unwilling to die. Living isn't difficult. Look: I'm doing it right now. No effort involved. You're not a hero for living a life that was essentially handed to you on a platter. You're not courageous for existing in a society which requires the death and suffering of others, both human and non-human, to provide you with cheap resources.

I think people who commit suicide are incredibly brave. I don't want people to die, but I admire anyone who actually has the guts to do it deliberately. Everyone crying about how it makes the deceased's friends and family feel really need a reality check. You have to experience crippling despair in order to consider such a final resort as suicide. If the friends and family find it so hard to cope, they can kill themselves. But they don't because they are selfish cowards.

 

[Ethan Asia]

I'm confused as to why people commit suicide when things like bacon and kittens exist.

 

[FamoFunk]

I don't think it's selfish.

I feel terribly sorry for the person who killed themselves, it must be a pretty horrible place to be when you think the only option is to end it all. I'd fucking hate to feel that low.

I, of course, feel for the family and friends left behind, but I'd hope they could for a second, push aside the, "How could you do this to me" mentality and think about what the deceased must had gone through or felt to do what they did, you know, a bit a sympathy.

 

[Suicidejim]

Meh, no point in being free to live if you're denied the freedom to die. It's rarely a wise decision, but I won't pass judgement on anyone unless their actions directly affect me or those I care about. Although I do think the concept has become a little too romanticized in our culture.

 

[V TheSystem V]

I don't like the thought of suicide, and it is very selfish. People in the town near where I live have threatened to jump off multi-storey car parks and have disrupted the 5pm traffic for about 3 hours because the police had to close off the roads. Anyone going through there would later say on Facebook that they'd wished the person had jumped, and I don't blame them. The person was being selfish, and in their selfishness, angered a lot of people.

I have thought about suicide, but have never come close to actually doing it. I used to get bullied a lot in the past, but the most I've ever done about it is nearly move schools. The bullying got sorted out after that.

One of my exes became a lesbian 3 years after we broke up, and dated a girl for 6 months who, apparently, suffered from depression, had an anxiety disorder and was bipolar. This girl would cut herself, get in public arguments with my ex and on one occasion, sent all her best friends Facebook messages saying how much she loved them, as if she was going to commit suicide. It got everybody worried and then she ended up not doing it, and she had done this on many, many other occasions.

Someone in my college about a year ago actually did end up committing suicide. There was a commemorative rugby game in her memory, which 500 people turned up to (I didn't know her, so didn't go). It was nice for them to do that for her, but from what I'd heard from a lot of people in my college, she killed herself because her relationship ended. That's something she could have recovered from, she was only 18!

I don't think suicide is a good thing, or even a sensible thing. Many problems can be sorted out, even if they do take a while. Suicide just shows how selfish people are, and how they'd rather die than find people who can help them.

 

[smithy_2045]

The irony is, the typical criticisms of suicide and suicidal people are more likely to make them want to kill themselves.

 

[Johnny Impact]

In terms of performing the act itself? It is every person's right to decide the way they want to live their lives. That includes deciding to get off the train before their scheduled stop. Whether others are happy about it or not is irrelevant.

In terms of people who constantly go on to anyone who will listen about how depressed they are, and how they're just going to kill themselves, but somehow they never seem to quite get around to it? That is nothing more than attention whoring. If you are not actually depressed, shut your whiny little mouth. If you are, get counseling, go to your family, but don't tell random strangers you're depressed and going to kill yourself. It is simply the wrong course of action. Strangers don't care and never will.

 

[Beat14]

If you were to live life feeling numb, with little joy then yeah go ahead, or try make things better. You can always go for it later. I can understand how people get tired of trying.

I wouldn't call it selfish.

 

[YoUnG205]

It is something that I think everyone has at some point in their lives thought about, I myself have thought about doing on numerous occasions. However I always find myself coming to the same conclusion; and that is that it seems weak to take the easy way out. When i die i do not want to be remmbered as the kind of person that could not face his problems and in turn choose to end my own life to get rid of it. As I feel people will hate me for it in the long run, not to mention the pain it would no doubt cuse to family and friends.