Suicide: your thoughts?

reply to post by seagull


Ok that is your opinion, but do you feel that your opinion should have any say in the law regarding suicide? Not just those with terminal illnesses etc The only people it should involve is the person and their family, and even then it is simply to discuss the issue....i don't think family should have any moral or legal right to stop someone from committing suicide if they so wish either. I honestly don't see why it is so frowned upon if im being honest...it's a very basic right that every human being has, to choose whether to live or die, and i find it repulsive when people think they can take that decision away or that it is somehow morally wrong.

I would support euthanasia for those who are living with a terminal illness were it is recognised that their illness has progressed to a stat were by it is directly and severely diminishing their quality of life provided they have the mental capacity to make that decision.

Other than that suicide is wrong, I take the view that life no matter how bad it gets, it’s worth living because life is a gift. When I person has reached a point where by they are contemplating suicide, I do not think it is because that person in “week” or a “coward” I think it is a testament of how bad their mental state has became. I think there are a number of social and cultural reasons that might drive a person to feel suicide is the only way out. We should not be condemning people who attempt suicide, rather we should help them. We should endeavour to identify the problems in their life’s that led them to contemplate or attempt suicide and then help them to resolve these problems. I am of the opinion that it is better to help a person other than reinforce their suicidal thoughts with negative words like “week” and “coward”.

We also have to recognise that the reason a person attempts suicide is not always because they wan to end their life. Sometimes it is a cry for attention, I know a girl who once done that by overdosing on painkillers. As soon as she took them she told me about it and I got her to hospital. After she took them she explained to me why she had done it. when a suicide attempt is made like this i think it is closer resembling self harm.

I think it's silly to make suicide illegal. "It's against the law to kill yourself" sounds kind of stupid doesn't it. However, it's a very cruel thing to do to your loved ones. Unless of course they're in agreement and you're very ill and not going to get better. The euthanasia kind I mean.

Some folk commit suicide because they feel they have no way out in other ways. That's a real shame.

There was a man in the news recently who threw himself off some building. He was suffering some awful skin complaint. Had been to the doctor lots of times and his symptoms were dismissed, he was given some lotions, that's all. His skin problem was irritating him beyond belief. He couldn't lie down any more, he couldn't sleep, and whatever it was even started to affect the inside of his mouth and it was agony to try and eat. He was SUFFERING and nobody helped him, or he didn't ask hard enough. So said the story anyway. He ended his suffering because no-one else would. Folk should pay attention when someone is asking for help.

reply to post by Solomons


Heavens no. I disagree with the whole notion of suicide, but so far as legality/illegality goes? Personal choice...all the way.

IMO people who choose to take their OWN lives is up to them. Some people just cannot take life as it is. What surprises me is that allot of people that do kill themselves, usually have allot of family, and their always like "we didn't see it coming", or "We didn't notice the signs".

How is that? I think that those that actually go through, go all the way, when their cries for help are so blatantly ignored, that must hurt more.

And for the poster that said we are all here for a reason, I agree, and sometimes when someone cries out for help and doesn't get it, and then takes it into their own hands, is sometimes a wake up call, and they can change life for others, sometimes in a positive way, by giving others the tools to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

BTW, the terminally ill, should have full rights in their decision on how to end their suffering at their own time, at least then they can spend as much times as they can with their loved ones, and get their affairs in order.


Peace to you...

Well, I believe that people cant help their emotions. Sometimes the negative emotions, like sadness, hoplessness, isolation, helplessness can be so overwhelming that for a split second they dont believe it will get any better. My daughter passed away at 6 months old due to a birth defect when I was 20... I laid in my bed for 3 months watching the sun come up and go down. I only showered once a week because I never left my bed. I would cry myself to sleep everynight. I was so depressed that turning to drugs or alchol didnt even seem appealing as most people would think. I couldnt eat because my stomache was in knots and the very smell of food made me want to vomit. I ate literally once every three days and by then my stomache was shrinking so fast that three bites from a grilled cheese sandwich or a half a bowl of soup was the only thing I could keep down. I lost 40 pounds in less then 7 months! I cried so much that my heart felt like it was breaking and I thought that I would go to sleep and never wake up, I figured I would die from a broken heart. Sucide never left my mind. I was under alot of stress physically from not eatting and only sleeping 2 hours a night and emotionally that it was starting to effect me mentally as well. I constantly talked about killing myself. and in my exact words were " I just want to be with my baby. My soul needs my baby." I would have dreams of screaming her name on a tall mountain and could hear it echo and then I was in a dessert balled up screaming for her. I had a reoccuring dream that haunted me every night since the night she passed.

The dream was of the black van's tail lights coming on, engine starting and driving away as I chased it endlessly in the middle of the night. It was the very scene that occured the night she passed and the medical examiner came to take her away. The dream was driving me crazy with sadness about 9 months after she passed and the dream still coming everynight (which is why I only slept 2 hrs a night) I decided to go ahead and end my sadness. I was crying in my tub while I was taking a bath and I tried to drown myself. It almost worked too, but I lived at my moms because I was not stable enough on my own and needless to say after being in there so long she came in and found me passed out... After that night I tried to cut my wrist ( apparently I cut in the wrong direction, which I guess is a good thing now) and I tried to overdose on my anxiety medication... after the 3rd attempt I stopped. There was a reason why non of them worked. And about a year and a few months from my daughter passing I started to heal myself by realizing god will take me when he wants me and then I can be with her for eternity and for me to enjoy my life and what I have left in it.... I am now 25 and have a 2 year old healthy daughter ( the doctors said I could never have children and I believed them after having 3 miscarraiges and a baby with a birth deffect) But I am truley blessed now my life is so much better then I could of ever imagined 5 years ago... there was a time in my life when I thought what I was doing was perfectly normal and couldnt understand why people kept interfering with my decision... but now I know, and I do not pass judgement on people who have tried, you do not know their pain... just my thoughts

People who commit sucide usually all have the same complaint. They are in some kind of pain, physically or emotionally, and another thing they all have in common is LACK OF SLEEP!! IF you go 4 days with out sleep you will start to hilucinate, and after 6 days of no sleep you will literally go insain. So when someone is only getting an hour of sleep here, and an hour of sleep there. Or maybe even 2 hours a sleep a night such as myself, your brain short circuts itself. It can not run properly if you dont take care of it like you should, AKA SLEEPING 8 hours a night..... I was diagnoised with situational depression, anxiety and insomina.... I was givn all kinds of medications and none of them worked... none! So I stopped taking them after I tried to over dose myself on them. It took me along time to heal, and at times I am still very sad but I have learned to count my blessings and not my tears!

Originally posted by danielhanson420
in the past I've thought about it and even hospitalised my self trying it. i just used to sink so low and nothing and know one could pull me out of it. the thing that really hit me hard was seeing my mum crying her eyes out looking at me in hospital she just wanted to know why (because i hadn't left a note) and it kind of woke me up to how selfish it was. I've been diagnosed with manic depression since i was a kid and it just seems to come and go no matter how well things are going at the time. i control it allot better know because me being all depressed is hard for those around me to cope with and not fair on them. i self medicate and to be honest i find it works (so does my family for that matter) however i find I'm quite numb neither happy or sad but its the best Ive been really and my family's happy.


my overall opinion of suicide is it's the cowards route and a very selfish one at that but sometimes to some people it can seem like the only escape. while other people can just get back up and brush themselves off others are more prone to looking for a way out!

you and others here could be suffering from magnesium deficiency.

look here:-

george-eby-research.com...

or look it up in google if you can be bothered.

could be the best thing you ever did.

[edit on 10-8-2010 by nobodysavedme]

If someone really wants to commit suicide, they will do it and most often succeed. What people without theswe kinds of problem don't understand on a gut level is how terribly low you have to be to get to that point. I call it being lower than whale poop on the bottom of the ocean. I was at that point twice in my decade long battle with chronic depression. First, I wanted to take a super overdose of Insulin, but I reasoned that I would only end up a vegetable and didn't like that at all. The second time, I had the 9mm in my hand but was still calm enough to think about how I would be ruining my sons Senior year in HS. One evening, I was on the top of my bed in meditation, trying to calm myself, and I had this strong, strong feeling that I was laying inside my own coffin. I was stunned by my own state at that time. Fortunately, two three week long hospitalizations and a hundred therapy sessions have helped me be very well over the last five years. Think about how sad you have to be to get to that point. Time crawled, and I felt like I had been hung up on the tree to suffer a slow, agonizing death. The whole thing is tragedy of the worst kind. I don't like the idea but I certainly understand it now.

[deleted]

posted and deleted for catharsis.

[edit on 17-8-2010 by SerialLurker]

reply to post by HomerinNC


I have not read the entire thread: my aplogies, but I have subcribed to it to read at a later date. I'm pretty sure of the opinions that have been offered here. OK that's my disclaimer.

I was mentioned in a suicide note way back in high school.

Much later, and no I cannot provide the source, but I read a quote to the effect of this:
In recieving a gift, you are to respect the gifter: they are anticipating your pleasure, delight, and surprize in their act of giving you a gift. Therfore by "peeking" you ruin thier delight in the act of giving. And your own in the recieving.

After many years of living with my freind's suicide attempt ( which he survived) I realized that a suicide is much the same thing as my above quote. Relationships are two way streets. A person who attempts or succeedss at it denies their friends and family of the interaction of giving and recieving love. ( I say this without judgement).

Having said the above, it is far from me to judge the motives of a suicide attempt, whther successful or not. To commit the act is in itself a statement of desperation, of entrapment, or whatever motives the person is driven by. To make it an illegal act is ridiculous. To move toward them in a compassionate and understanding way is the human response.

And those that brought freindship, love, truth to those that commit the attempt are forver scarred, because their gifts of life, love, and friendship have been rejected in the most ultimate way. It is as binding as anything you or I can think of because I cannot put it into words.

And having said all that: it is most private, a process that the "perimeter people" may never come to terms with. And therefore beyond judgement. It should not be illegal. Everyone has the "inaliable human right to live or die"....in my most humble opinion.

Most respectfully to all,
Miss Vicky

Well has anyone ever been jailed for commiting suicide?

I think for some people it should be illegal to NOT commit suicide...
Like George Bush or Hanna montana....

You know anyone who voted for george bush should also receive a mandatory suicide sentence...


But in seriousness... How to judge this... What about ancient japanese customs, suicide is seen to be an honorable way to die in unhonorable circumstances...

I think there should be places to go to suicide, you talk to a psyc, and you family, and if you still want to, you should be able to do it without shame..

Some people just can't wait to see whats on the other side too, curiousity killed the cat hahahahaha OMG I made a suicide joke...

reply to post by KingAtlas

Well has anyone ever been jailed for commiting suicide?

You don't go to jail for attempting suicide, you get committed to a mental health facility where you can be forced to stay for any amount of time, depending upon your "recovery". So you are jailed in an institution, not a jail for criminals.

You hand your life over to the mental health authorities who force you to take meds, tell you when to eat and what to eat, and who you can and cannot speak to.

If and when it is determined you are no longer a danger to yourself or others (*yes suicide is considered a danger to others) then you are released and put on "probabtion", usually by being forced to report to a psychiatrist on a bi-weekly or more frequent basis.

Doing things like not taking your meds, or not going to your required appointments will cause them to re-commit you for yet another undetermined amount of time.

Generally, you are remanded into mental health custody by police and/or through a court.

*As for being a threat or danger to others, when someone commits suicide by jumping, the persons or traffic below is in jeapordy. People drive their cars into bridge abutments on the interstate, not thinking or caring about the lives of others. People drive under the influence, so heavilly drugged they cause fatalities. Others may choose to "take others with them". Due to these types of reasons, suiciders are considered "a danger to themselves or others".

One other thought. When someone attempts to, or does commit suicide, one could generally say they are not in their right mind, and therefor not capable of making a life altering decision that not only impacts themselves, but the lives of others.

This of course, stands apart from euthenasia, which I think should be seperated in law.

Suicide isn't a joke, and jokes about suicide are tasteless.


[edit on 5-9-2010 by Libertygal]

reply to post by HomerinNC


My husband’s nephew was 19 when he went out and sat in front of an oncoming semi truck the day after Thanksgiving and killed himself.

I remember the undertaker telling us we could look at him but don’t touch him as he was pieced together.

This was about twenty years ago.

Roger was diagnosed with being autistic and having Schizophrenia.

He knew from not being able to even get a job at McDonalds, girls avoided him like the plague, most of my husband’s family wouldn’t even talk to him, they acted like he didn’t exist – but that is my husband’s family, they only deal with “normal and successful” if you’re a little odd or funny they laugh at you and just act like you don’t exist.

Roger was smart enough to know he would never quite fit in and have a normal life so he chose to end his life early.

My husband’s family never talks about him; it’s as if he never existed.

From a medical perspective, if someone wants to end their life early, I don’t know – If it’s not done correctly, with medical knowledge the person may suffer immense pain before the soul is released.

I don’t like seeing anyone or anything in pain, physically or psychologically.

From a spiritual perspective, I have come to my own humble opinion that if someone is suffering so much, the pain is so unbearable that they feel their only recourse is to end their life, I honestly hope that when their soul has been released from their earthly shell that they are greeted in love, peace and healing.

No, I don’t believe in a person committing suicide going to hell and suffering eternal damnation.

In Soylent Green they had “Death Clinics” where the person went and drank something to make them painlessly die.

I have been with a couple of my dogs when they have had to be “put down” and they went with no pain, they slipped with dignity and comfort into a peaceful sleep.

If a suicide is botched and most are, the process can be very painful and traumatize the soul.

I don’t know, I’ve watched and cared for a woman that went from 135 pounds down to 65-67 pounds in two years from breast cancer. The nurse told me that the amount of Demerol this poor lady begged for every 4 hours was enough to drop a horse. The shots didn’t even faze her because she was in so much pain.

No one should have a painful death.

This is the suicide "Death Center" scene in Soylent Green.

It portrays a humane death.



I don't know this is a tricky subject. I have never thought about "ending it all".

But I cannot and will not speak for others.

None of us should decide this for another and none of us should judge.


[edit on 5-9-2010 by ofhumandescent]

There are a few situations in which i can understand why someone commits suicide. As mentioned before...when someone is ill and is suffering....or....when the guilt is to much to bare and takes the honor himself than someone does it for him....(governments with death penalty).

There is an other situation and that is self-sacrifice so others can live. In war situations there are these stories of men...and women who took enormes risks to save others.....a suicide mission if you will.

I also read the word coward a few times....this I do not undestand....to me it will take some big balls to do the final act....but then again...in many cases ....people who commit suicide must be incredible desperate and confused. They can probably not think in terms of cowardness and being brave anymore.

It's really hard to say on whether to approve or disapprove of this because you have to be in the shoes of a suicidal person first.

Emotionally - I did have thoughts of suicide when I was younger but nothing too hardcore so my best opinion of this is the feeling of being cornered in life. Something like overthinking various possibilities of solutions that incorporates the future events of certain doom on a personal level.

It's really difficult to condemn or condone suicide. Sure, if you already have a family of your own it can be condemned like - leaving your family behind and being too selfish and all that. As a family man, I don't have those thoughts anymore but I cannot condemn people for doing that. Maybe they feel trapped by financial, legal, emotional, shame, etc. I don't know nor am I in a position to judge.

Medically, I can't condemn euthanasia as well since you have to be in the patient, the family, or even in the doctor's shoes to be able to feel what they're feeling while facing the dilemma head-on.

It's really easy to judge if one isn't on the victim's (and/or the people around the victim) shoes. One has to experience first hand what it feels like in order to remove the ethical, legal, or moral issues.

Ethical, legal, and moral issues aren't bad. It's just that it feels so different on a first-person perspective than from a third-persons'.

I have had 2 friends and a young cousin that took their own lives before, one of the friends and the cousin did it because of a woman or girlfriend leaving them suddenly. The other was going through some sort of depression..

Warning signs are not always there, sometimes I think people do this rather spontaneously...

There are many documented cases of hauntings associated with suicides.. As in dying before a person's correct time causes some sort of imprisonment between worlds..

Hard to say about it being legal, maybe in cases of extreme suffering; Who is qualified to render a judgment about that?

[edit on 5-9-2010 by alienreality]

I have always wondered why suicide is wrong?
Because from the beginig of time the power brokers knew they would be losing a resource so they applied all types of mortal sin guilt to it. You can bet if they were to be able to pick and choose they would almost encourage the people who drain their coffers to kill themselves.
If they could be supported by the dead they would kill us all in a second.

If a person is termanly ill or there is no way they can live but in constant pain...I believe it is there choice to end there lives, and no one else's least of all the state, some councilling might be in order, but ultimately it's there choice. When I was young about 8 yr's old I remember my grandpa had some sort of cancer, I am not even sure what he had but I remember he got sick really bad, one year after my grandma died, he was not young lived his life at this stage. Anyways when he got sick he came to stay with my parents, and got worser and worser, one day when I was 8, I went into his room and saw that he was in pain, the only thing I can remember was that one of his legs was totally swollen and discolored, and I was standing there just looking at him, and could see the pain. The only thing he said to me in his own way since he was pretty religious was " go get me a knife, so I can get this demon out of me" Nedless to say I was going to, but in the end ended up not doing it, instead I just told my parents that he wanted a knife and was in pain, and pretended that I diden't know what he ment. He died about a couple of months after that event...and it's a blurry time in my mind. But I still wonder if I should of gotten the knife for him.


As for people who are healthy but on the wrong spectrum of life, or those who have felt the spirit of gravity, again it's there choice, but they should wait around a little, things are not always as they seem. And in the end they need a little healp and some time. After all once in a while, we all need a deep rest, when depressed.


[edit on 5-9-2010 by galadofwarthethird]