Do Suicides Deserve our Sympathy, Disgust, or Indifference?

[snafu]

Actually, when I was 15, a friend of mine killed himself. As upset as I was that he was dead, I didn't respect him less because it was suicide. I have trouble understanding what the big deal is when it comes to suicide. People act so shocked an appalled, and I just don't get it.

Yeah I agree. I personaly wouldn't kill myself but I and only I have that decision.
I've had a friends die of drugs, murder and suicide. I grieve them all the same.

 

[ParasiteGod]

Not necessarily. I lived 5 houses down from a man in Franklin Indiana about 3 years ago. Everyone that knew him said he was a great father, church going fella and very active with his kids. Then his wife left him. The day that he was due in court to settle the custody of his children, the freak shot his 1 year old and 3 year old daughters, then himself. A good parent gone bad. An extreme case of reversal of behavior. Some people just have a defective coping mechanism. You never know what someone is capable of until they break.

Yeah, and I understand that.
Maybe this was the wrong thread to be a sarcastic jackass. I dunno.

 

[Jhony5]

Yeah, and I understand that.
Maybe this was the wrong thread to be a sarcastic jackass. I dunno.

There is never a wrong thread to be a jackass.

 

[ParasiteGod]

There is never a wrong thread to be a jackass.

Unfortunately, there are such things as dumb questions.

 

[ToriAllen]

Suicide is treated differently because it is a conscious choice. People who commit suicide are looked at differently because they are selfish. Either they do not care how badly they hurt those they leave behind or they are trying to hurt them. Either way you look at it, it is selfish. Those you leave behind that love you, suffer with guilt for what they could have done to prevent it. The ones that you leave behind that probably drove you to it, aren

 

[Crazywumbat]

Suicide is treated differently because it is a conscious choice. People who commit suicide are looked at differently because they are selfish. Either they do not care how badly they hurt those they leave behind or they are trying to hurt them. Either way you look at it, it is selfish. Those you leave behind that love you, suffer with guilt for what they could have done to prevent it. The ones that you leave behind that probably drove you to it, aren’t going to care anymore after you are dead than they did when you were alive. So, what is the point? To make your friends suffer and your enemies happy?

The suicides that get to me are the teenage suicides. High school is such a small, insignificant part of life. Three months after you graduate, people you never talked to in grade school will treat you like you are an old friend, and simply because they are glad to see a familiar face. High school is not the best way to judge how your life will turn out.

I do not view suicide in the sick or elderly the same way I do in healthy young people. It just isn't the same. Someone that is dying and is in extreme physical pain deserves a way out. Someone that is upset because their girlfriend is sleeping with the quarterback, or because ‘no body loves me’ are not justified in committing the selfish act of suicide.

Agreed for the most part.

However, I do think in certain situations suicides do deserve sympathy. Obviously, the example above of a girlfriend sleeping with someone else is not one of them. However, your wife of 15 years and your 3 children get into a car accident and all of them die, can't blame you for wanting to die.

And I also have a soft spot for those very rare occasions when someone appears to be doing excellently, always happy, always helping other people out, doing fine careerwise...and two weeks later the paper reports they took an entire bottle of vicadin and shot
themselves for no apparant reason.

Also, I find labelling suicide as a "selfish" act somewhat silly. In certain cases yes, but how is it any more selfish than forcing someone who honestly wants to die to stay alive just so you don't feel "guilty."

 

[ToriAllen]

Also, I find labelling suicide as a "selfish" act somewhat silly. In certain cases yes, but how is it any more selfish than forcing someone who honestly wants to die to stay alive just so you don't feel "guilty."

Wanting someone you love to live is more selfish than hurting everyone you love by taking your life? Yeah, I'm not seeing it. I doubt the only reason to keep a loved one alive is to avoid feeling guilty.

I just don't see any reason good enough for suicide other than extreme physical pain leading to death anyway. In that case, they sould talk to their love ones first. Every other reason is peddy. There is always someone out there that has been through worse and lived on.

Not only is suicide selfish, it is also stupid and short sighted.

 

[Crazywumbat]

Wanting someone you love to live is more selfish than hurting everyone you love by taking your life? Yeah, I'm not seeing it. I doubt the only reason to keep a loved one alive is to avoid feeling guilty.

I just don't see any reason good enough for suicide other than extreme physical pain leading to death anyway. In that case, they sould talk to their love ones first. Every other reason is peddy. There is always someone out there that has been through worse and lived on.

Not only is suicide selfish, it is also stupid and short sighted.

Its not just a matter of wanting someone you love to live, its a matter of wanting them to live when they don't want to themselves.

And from personal experience, physical pain is a small thing compared to emotional pain. And of course there is always something worse that could happen, but the difference is some people experience those things and want to live, while some people experience them and don't. So who is anyone besides the person in question to judge what the outcome should be?

So I'd say if someone wants to die, then let them. The worlds over populated enough as is. But Disgust and callousness is no way to view their death. Who is to say you wouldn't do the same thing if put in the situation they face? Any answer you give to that is pointless, because until it happens any answer is just speculation.

In all of this, of course, I'm referring to suicide for a reason. And not because someones boyfriend broke up with them. Or someones favorite football team lost the superbowl. An actual, arguable, reason.

 

[ToriAllen]

And from personal experience, physical pain is a small thing compared to emotional pain.

You have never experienced the physical pain I'm referring to. Where you are on deaths door anyway.
Emotional pain passes and there is no way to ask them if they regret their decision to take their life is there? It is far too drastic a measure to use in reaction to such a small part of life. There are very few suicides that I have seen that include 'your entire family dying'. 99.9% of the time it is over something stupid.
As a matter of fact, I do know that I would not take my life over 'emotional pain'. Some of us were raised to respect life and believe you get one shot to make the best of it. I think saying that those who want to kill themselves should be allowed to because the world is 'overpopulated' is callous. I will always view suicide as a waste.

 

[cynthiaa89]

It's either the ultimate cry for attention, or the ultimate cry for help. You can't judge everybody the same when it comes to an issue like suicide. Some people feel it's their only way out of the hell they are truly living in, but others are just retarded motards (like motarded cult members drunk off their special Kool-Aid) that want people to talk about them. I don't think many people kill themselves for attention. Even people that would take their own lives view life as a very precious thing, they just get confused and don't know what to do.

In my life, I've already known 2 people that did that to themselves, and they were both people who seemed happy (to people that didn't know them extremely personally)..........It's also something that can be avoided....You just have to talk to people that are close to you when they seem really depressed.

A teenager that would take their own life is just..confused and they really really need help.

Don't even get me started on that assisted suicide bullshit......

I personally would never take my own life, I think my life is something that will one day be claimed by cigarettes....

 

[TheJenn88]

No one lives a Stepford life.
Why feel sorry for the ones who choose not to pull through?

It is a person's choice how they want to be remembered.
I feel sorry for them if they choose to go down as a laughing stock.