What are your thoughts on suicide?

[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.

 

[Giftfromme]

I say if you're gonna go out, might as well let as many people know as possible. Make it a public event, or go out with a bomb or something. Of course I have double standards, as I don't want someone else killing or maiming me with a bomb when they kill themselves near me

 

[tobi the good boy]

I must admit, it does seem like a waste of resources. Live your miserable lives damn it or I'll run out of people to look down upon!!!

 

[MrFalconfly]

This comment might come across a bit cynical. Viewer discretion is advised.

Well if you have to do it at least try and minimize collateral damage. Don't jump off of buildings or in front of trains/busses. Not only will the result be messy but you'll delay my trip through town.