Suicide

[Bayoububba]

I agree that we should never try to censor story topics for the reasons you mentioned, I just do not want to see suicide glamorised or made to sound like "the way out". The truth is, suicide can cause a lot of pain for the very ones who love you, and there is no taking it back, it is final, obviously.

Amazing and powerful story. Thank you for sharing that.

Okay. I'm going to be the very selfish voice of...well, I don't know if it's reason, but it's a writer.

Look, guys, I have a suicide in my family, too, a relative I adored and was pained to lose. I have a lot of things in my family that trouble me and get to me. One of my cousins--not to distant but thankfully not too near--turned out to be a child molester. And yes, some things are too close and they're going to push my buttons. I'll have trouble reading them or watching them on television.

And they're especially painful to write though if the story demands it, I'll write it.

I'm a writer. And researching reality is what I do. And that includes researching some painful, unhappy, unpleasant things. Like how people kill each other or themselves, how they die as much as how they live.

A lot of people don't understand this. But people here surely should. It's not a matter of insensitivity or bad taste. This is what writers do. We look at people, at the human condition and human nature in all it's complex variety of shapes and forms. We research humanity and we present what we see and feel and have learned in a story. And if that story rings true, however fictional, then we may make people feel different or think differently about their own, very real life.

This is what we're all about, and this story being written might make someone think twice about killing themselves rather than the opposite. We can't know where it's going unless the author tells us the story.

Wherever it's going, however, we shouldn't, IMHO, upbraid a writer for being a writer.

 

[Captain Midnight]

Re: I don't like this thread

I don't like this thread

No matter what happens in life, there's always something that makes it worthwhile - even if it's something as small and insignificant as watching the sunrise, or catching an episode of your favourite tv programme, or having a hug from a friend.

I've had experience of a suicide in my close circle, and for the people left the pain never goes away. You end up blaming yourself, wondering what you could have done differently, if things would have had a happier ending if you'd just said something different or been there at the right time.

Unless you're terminally ill and are going to die soon anyway, it's never the right thing to do - especially not when there are a lot of people who love you.

Amen to most of what you said.

About the middle of this year, I lost an acquaintance to an apparent suicide after terrible suffering at the hands of others. I was hoping this person was on the road to recovery, but it was not the case. But my life has never been the same since then. I am much more easily depressed and much less likable. You are absolutely right in saying that people around the suicide victim feel like they wish they could have done something to help that person, even if in my case it was impossible.

I suffer from mild-to-moderate depression and a host of other ills, some emotional and some physical. I worry each time someone stops talking to me. Often I feel helpless and feel like parts of my community just want me to be out of their lives forever. That is a terrible feeling.

Although the culture I live in is rather a vengeful culture, I have never done anything warranting my murder or execution -- although I can't say I wouldn't be hanged by the Taliban or by other extremists. They could find anything to nail me with. I have spasms of anger toward certain people (the Taliban, for example), which tear me up. Certain people need to be punished, no doubt, but surely not by death. Some of the people (most of them, actually) need to be punished for inciting others to kill still others.

This is getting off the subject, but I perservere despite depression and anger and a sense of worthlessness. I hope I don't lose any friends from this. I treasure my friends, but don't often know the ways to handle them.

Captain Midnight

 

[Captain Midnight]

For Nirvana

I disagree. I have a right to decide my own fate. How does that make me selfish? If my pain becomes too much, and death is the only way out, how can that be selfish?

If your day to day existence has no meaning to you, and you believe it has no meaning to anyone else, then suicide is merely an end to your suffering.



Apologies for the thread-jack

Nirvana, I hardly know you at all, but I want to see you live.

You have two daughters. One of them is in her grave. The other one loves you and cares for you and that will never change. She will always have the most special place in her heart for you. Whatever she can do for you, she will.

And I'm not even counting those others who are close to you. I don't know who else besides samandriel and femininity, but you probably have other family members around who want to see you live a really long and productive life.

I can't emphasize enough that people care for you and want to care for you.

Captain Midnight

 

[Skip1934a]

Nirvana, I hardly know you at all, but I want to see you live.

You have two daughters. One of them is in her grave. The other one loves you and cares for you and that will never change. She will always have the most special place in her heart for you. Whatever she can do for you, she will.

And I'm not even counting those others who are close to you. I don't know who else besides samandriel and femininity, but you probably have other family members around who want to see you live a really long and productive life.

I can't emphasize enough that people care for you and want to care for you.

Captain Midnight

Yeah, vana, what he said.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Poisoning by chemicals would throw suspicion on somebody else, and I understand you want to avoid that. Carbon monoxide poisoning as described wouldn't work because people would see the seals on the door and know it was deliberate, either suicide or murder.

"Falling" off a tall building or "Falling aslep" while driving a car and driving off a cliff might work. How about taking a bath with a radio or hair dryer plugged in nearby and "accidentally" knocking it into the tub with you?

 

[MagicaPractica]

My three reasons for not considering suicide:

1. There is value in suffering. (I may not have agreed with the Pope on most things but this one feels true to me.)
2. Happiness could be just around the corner.
3. There is always the chance I might be able to make someone else's life a little better today.

Sometimes I have to work hard to remember them.

 

[MagicaPractica]

An excellent book in this vein is The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. A non-fiction book, Brent decided to end it all one day as a teenager. He poured gasoline on his robe, put it on, stepped into the shower and lit a match. Just after he touched off his robe, he decided he didn't want to die. The majority of the book is about his mental, emotional and physical recovery.