How many of you have ever seriously contemplated suicide?

[D_Botchely Boneher]

STD, your remark

It's time we turned your notion on it's head and said to potential suicides "There's no need to be so strong" rather than "why are you so weak"

really struck me as rather profound. Beautiful, even. As good as anything I've read in a good while.

I tip my hat to you.

 

[westy30004]

ezra,

I thought of it more frequently at your age than I do now. It got to a point it was a part of my morning ritual (get up...take a shower...think about killing myself...brush hair...teeth...think about killing myself...shaving). I even left it up to "fate" for a while...tried skydiving, fast motorcycles, even considered ultra light airplanes...but, alas, I am still here and on cruise control until my number is called.

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

Yeh, and telling someone who's thinking about suicide that they're weak doesn't work, not even as reverse psychology. If they're seriously contemplating it, they generally already feel worthless, and they're not going to be encouraged to prove you wrong.

Anyway, I thought about it quite a bit while I was in college. Lately, the thought has popped into my head, thinking about how I'd do it... and how my family would blacken my name if I did it. They're already delusional, trusting their own presumptuous perceptions of people and things over the horse's mouth. Even if I left a very detailed note of my reasons, they'd make up their own to make me look like a coward and a hell-bound weakling. (And it's their judgmental self-righteous attitude towards me that makes me want to give up.)

 

[westy30004]

i know you said to keep religon out of it...but I have to say this....there is nothing in The Bible that says you "go to hell" if you kill yourself (as far as I know)....that is a cultural belief...not biblical...

Just responding to the "hell bound weakling" comment stapledshut said....

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

Dangerously pessimistic to whom? Why do these kinds of values frighten so many? An appropriate shame for their enthusiastic, mindless, tail-wagging philoprogenitiveness, perhaps? The creation of life is surely a moral abomination, no?

I don't think life as a "curse" as such. That implies too much to go into here. I think life is horrible, and any ruggedly dogmatic empiricists wouldn't have too much difficulty backing that up.

Why haven't I committed suicide already, you ask? Well, there are certain things I'd like to do first. Getting laid, for example, may seem trivial to those who've been copulating ever since those first sticky, awkward backseat encounters aged 12, but to me I'd say it's acquired additional meaning. I'd like to travel and see some things. I'd like to have a genuine friendship. I'd like to learn another language. I think once I've done these kinds of things I'll be spent.

I may be an attention whore on this site. That's a value judgement. In life, I'm not. I barely speak to anyone about anything, let alone something as weighty as this. So stuff that down your platitude-spewer, you dispeptic gasbag!

It's fascinating that this post has gotten so many views already. I hope it continues.

 

[Rubenesque]

Brave or weak... I dunno, but I do know it's incredibly selfish. It's probably one of the most self centred things a person can do isn't it. Talk about "I'm alright Jack, and the rest of you can get fucked!"

I understand those who consider/go through with suicide when they're terminally ill, I understand when a parent loses a child and just can't go on. But when someone takes their own life because they just can't be arsed to live... kinda makes me wish I was religious and did believe they'd burn.

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

How can anyone but a sadist procreate without shame after having browsed this thread? It's remarkable how many people have considered suicide, and how many seem only to be here because of the effort required for self-extinction. It's sad that I'm not surprised.

 

[Rubenesque]

How can anyone but a sadist procreate without shame after having browsed this thread? It's remarkable how many people have considered suicide, and how many seem only to be here because of the effort required for self-extinction. It's sad that I'm not surprised.

And the several million people who don't think like you do?

I feel no shame at all in having procreated. I like my life and will do my absolute utmost to ensure my child enjoys hers... you shouldn't assume that your beliefs are held by the majority, they're not!

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

i know you said to keep religon out of it...but I have to say this....there is nothing in The Bible that says you "go to hell" if you kill yourself (as far as I know)....that is a cultural belief...not biblical...

Just responding to the "hell bound weakling" comment stapledshut said....

The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to suicide and considers it one of the greatest human sins, as it implies that you're somehow above yourself and have full dominion over your life and death. My mother is Catholic (by declaration only) so there you go. Her friend killed herself, and it was a matter of days before she was speaking ill of her for doing it.

 

[westy30004]

I think some consider it may be control freaks....like myself....

It is beyond the realm of what I can control, but, regardless, I am having my ashes scattered in the lake at Disney World.

 

[morsecode]

Brave or weak... I dunno, but I do know it's incredibly selfish. It's probably one of the most self centred things a person can do isn't it. Talk about "I'm alright Jack, and the rest of you can get fucked!"

I understand those who consider/go through with suicide when they're terminally ill, I understand when a parent loses a child and just can't go on. But when someone takes their own life because they just can't be arsed to live... kinda makes me wish I was religious and did believe they'd burn.

Thank you, I love you too. :tongue:

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

Wow, Denise, I had no idea you were such an unpleasant person.

It is easily demonstable that a suicide on whom others are dependent has done harm, of course. A parent abandoning their children after (presumably) choosing to bring them into existence is abhorrent.

Otherwise, the only way it can be considered selfish is because others will feel angry for the loss. Or even devastated. I think that's an immoral position. If you truly respect the sovereignty of the individual, you should honour their wishes. Difficult, yes, but more so than living for the sake of others? I doubt it.

 

[westy30004]

The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to suicide and considers it one of the greatest human sins, as it implies that you're somehow above yourself and have full dominion over your life and death. My mother is Catholic (by declaration only) so there you go. Her friend killed herself, and it was a matter of days before she was speaking ill of her for doing it.

Nothing in my Bible regarding that....

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

How can anyone but a sadist procreate without shame after having browsed this thread? It's remarkable how many people have considered suicide, and how many seem only to be here because of the effort required for self-extinction. It's sad that I'm not surprised.

Well, I haven't kept up much on international issues, but look at the downfall that America has taken over the past twenty years or so. I don't have the numbers on hand, but I'm guessing the suicide (contemplation) rate was pretty high during The Great Depression. Despite our iPods and TomToms, we've been sinking into our own New Age Depression. So it's no surprise that so many people feel like giving up on it all, having only known disappointment from the world around them.

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

StapledShut, I'm not sure quite what to say about that. I honestly don't have any idea how one would go about comforting someone in your position. All I can think to say is that religion is of course complete and utter bullshit, and all these people are devoted to a fraud.

Eternal nothingness shall vindicate us!

 

[D_Thoraxis_Biggulp]

Nothing in my Bible regarding that....

Mine neither. i.e.: I'm not a Catholic.

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

Stapled, I don't think it has an enormous amount to do with economics, though certainly wage slavery and rat racing deprive us all of any dignity and solidarity whatsoever. It's most likely that as soon as our frontal lobes became a certain size, certain problems arose. Best not to overcomplicate such matters.

 

[Rubenesque]

Wow, Denise, I had no idea you were such an unpleasant person.

It is easily demonstable that a suicide on whom others are dependent has done harm, of course. A parent abandoning their children after (presumably) choosing to bring them into existence is abhorrent.

Otherwise, the only way it can be considered selfish is because others will feel angry for the loss. Or even devastated. I think that's an immoral position. If you truly respect the sovereignty of the individual, you should honour their wishes. Difficult, yes, but more so than living for the sake of others? I doubt it.

What an utterly bizarre statement to make, I can only assume you've never loved anyone.

You know, I really don't mind you considering me unpleasant. We're all entitled to our views.

That you need to insult me says way more about you than it does about me.... I merely stated my opinion of people who would willingly leave their friends (ok, so that doesn't apply to everyone who commits suicide) and family (ditto) heartbroken. I've loved and I've lost.

 

[westy30004]

Stapledshut,

I had a frank discussion with my parents regarding this when one of their friends killed themself. They always accepted the cultural myth regarding suicide and damnation, but they will quickly switch sides when you give them the biblical argument....

sorry...ezra....i know you said to keep religon out of this...but this seem inevitable....

 

[D_Botchely Boneher]

I didn't think they were bitching.

The monotheistic religions all frown on suicide as they scowl at individualism in any substantive form.

I once read that Jewish suicides are designated a specific, shameful area of the cemetary. I one also read that they won't bury uncircumcised males in Israeli soil. I've no idea if that's true, but it indicates the general knee-high level of civilization.