suicide

[impressive]

As for the rationale behind it, I've often heard (from those that survived) there is a real sense of clarity and reason ... and much welcomed relief when the answer of suicide fits whatever equation they're pondering.

As someone who's stepped back from that precipice, I agree completely. There was a great peace about it. Very, very alluring.

 

[FallingToFly]

Suicide is selfish, and ultimately cruel. It destroys, not only your hopes, dreams, aspirations, and future, but those of the ones who love you. It fills those left behind with a sorrow and pain so deep it turns to rage, and something so dark it borders on hatred.

It kills love. The love that you had to give, and the love that others still had to pour into you. No matter how dark, how bitter, how cold, your world was, there was someone looking for you, carrying a candle in the dark trying to find you and lead you home.

I can understand suicide. I can understand the pain, the fear, and the mindset behind it. Can I condone it? No. Can I learn to forgive it? I'll let you know when I figure that one out.

 

[rgraham666]

I don't dare speak to this as though I have any experience on the matter. Honestly, it is way beyond my comprehension, as I view life as a great gift and feel that I (personally) am not looking at the right things in the right light if I ever feel that life's not important enough to continue on with. As for the rationale behind it, I've often heard (from those that survived) there is a real sense of clarity and reason ... and much welcomed relief when the answer of suicide fits whatever equation they're pondering.

It was a choice of deaths for me.

At the time I had just been evicted from the place I was living in. In February. At night. In Canada.

So to me it seemed that my choices were one of the deaths from homelessness; exposure, murder, starvation. Or the quick and painless death hanging myself offered.

 

[joeys-game]

Which is too often the case. Mental illness is the last taboo. Even more than death, the one thing not discussed or even thought about by most people.

It's so little understood and so out of our control we don't think about it.

Go to a cancer ward. You'll find friends, family, co-workers. There will be flowers and cards. Many signs of support.

Got to the mental ward. You'll mostly find patients and staff.

After my attempt, two members of my family didn't visit. A few friends did. One of whom promptly told me I had to "suck it up and get back on the horse".

That helped a lot.

That is so true Rob..
and did you know, that if your mentally ill, your also probably..stupid, ignorant, lazy, worthless and of course- just looking for attention.

 

[rgraham666]

That is so true Rob..
and did you know, that if your mentally ill, your also probably..stupid, ignorant, lazy, worthless and of course- just looking for attention.

I'm very aware of it, joey.

It ties in, to my mind, to our worship of economics. You are only as valuable as your use to the economy.

The mentally ill are useless to such a mind set.

 

[McKenna]

if that is hell, then what is suicide?

I've heard it said that suicide is man's way of saying, "I quit," before God can fire him.

 

[Straight-8]

Suicide: The ultimate selfish act!

 

[QuanYin]

I've heard it said that suicide is man's way of saying, "I quit," before God can fire him.

i wonder if potential suicides think about god or the concept of heaven and hell.

 

[entitled]

i wonder if potential suicides think about god or the concept of heaven and hell.

Sometimes, yes.

 

[rgraham666]

i wonder if potential suicides think about god or the concept of heaven and hell.

I was already in hell at the time. Where ever I was going couldn't have been worse, I thought.

 

[McKenna]

i wonder if potential suicides think about god or the concept of heaven and hell.

In my experience, even if they are thinking of these things, the desire to end all pain and suffering supercedes any fear of the afterlife or potential consequences for those left behind.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Suicide: The ultimate selfish act!

Is it as selfish as clinging desperately to someone that considers themselves already dead and forcing them to remain in what they can only describe as hell?

 

[joeys-game]

Suicide: The ultimate selfish act!

have you read the rest of the thread, we discussed whether it was selfish or not.

 

[joeys-game]

i wonder if potential suicides think about god or the concept of heaven and hell.

I don't think that would even be a thought at that point in time.

 

[3113]

is it the worst thing that someone can do?

No. It's far worse when someone decides that they're going to take someone with them when they suicide...like the mother who walked into the ocean with her two children, or the father who set his car on fire with his two kids buckled up in the back.

Inevitably in such cases, the adult lives and the children die. THAT is something worse, and truly selfish.

Whether other suicides are selfish or bad depends on culture and situation. It was often a highly honorable thing to do in certain cultural cases. And in other, modern times, it's often the only escape from unending pain--physical or mental. I did a lot of thinking on the subject when I wrote Till Dawn, about a young man who takes a potential suicide on a "last date."

Of more interest than the story were the powerful comments I got on it from people who told of their experiences dealing with those feelings of emptiness and pain.

 

[3113]

It was a choice of deaths for me.

At the time I had just been evicted from the place I was living in. In February. At night. In Canada.

So to me it seemed that my choices were one of the deaths from homelessness; exposure, murder, starvation. Or the quick and painless death hanging myself offered.

What happened?

 

[QuanYin]

many people see it as an irrational decision. But you still have to decide how to kill yourself. So there is some kind of thought process.

 

[Straight-8]

Is it as selfish as clinging desperately to someone that considers themselves already dead and forcing them to remain in what they can only describe as hell?

Yeah, I think so. I've known several children and parents of suicide victims and even though I can sometimes understand the 'why' I don't think it excuses the lack of courage in dealing with the impulse. I also recognise that the person with the suicidal impulse may be so ill that they can't rationally appreciate the full consequences - so I can sometimes feel a bit sorry for them - but always more sorry for the devastaion to the family left behind. Which, in turn, just makes me pissed off at the person who commits suicide.

And I know the selfish issue was discussed - I'm just putting in my vote!

 

[FallingToFly]

Oddly enough, with my stand on suicide, I have a story pending for the Nonerotic cat entitled Butterfly Wings. It's about a witch who succumbs to mental illness, tries several times to commit suicide, fails, and finally has to ask another practitioner to help her die. I wrote it a long while back, and finally decided to put it out for some alternate views on it. I also wrote The Heart Of The Matter (if you have to read it, link is in sig) which is from the viewpoint of someone left behind and still trying to live with that. Two sides of the same bloody, painful coin.

There are situations where I can bend. My mother's long-time love committed suicide lastyear- he was in end stages of terminal cancer and in terrible pain. I could understand, although picking up the pieces of my mother's heart and soul nearly broke mine. I do -understand- being in so much pain you can't go on.

I can't understand, or forgive, or accept in other situations. Everyone has demons, that's one of mine.

 

[QuanYin]

No. It's far worse when someone decides that they're going to take someone with them when they suicide...like the mother who walked into the ocean with her two children, or the father who set his car on fire with his two kids buckled up in the back.

A parent who cannot make peace with leaving their children in what was their living hell while they escape to death. How can that be worse considering their mind set?

Or did you mean it is worse because the parent might survive and the children die?

 

[QuanYin]

There are situations where I can bend. My mother's long-time love committed suicide lastyear- he was in end stages of terminal cancer and in terrible pain. I could understand, although picking up the pieces of my mother's heart and soul nearly broke mine. I do -understand- being in so much pain you can't go on.

I can't understand, or forgive, or accept in other situations. Everyone has demons, that's one of mine.

what about pure mental illness and pain? Mental anguish.

 

[champagne1982]

suicide?

go your own way little seed
and take a spark of hope

extinguish memory in a flash
of bright light

Smoke at the end of a barrel
Off the blade of a knife
Seen behind bulging eyes

as your fingers tear at the rope
as you press towels to your wrists
as your fingers push the buttons

summon them in drops of red
splashes of red
flickers of red
call for help now

don't you see that
a life not loved
is a love not lived?

 

[Guest]

 

[QuanYin]

so what finally makes a person do it?

 

[rgraham666]

so what finally makes a person do it?

Complete loss of hope and faith.