Suicide

Silas Mercury wrote: Suicide ?? The easy way out. Don't do it, it makes you look cowardly etc.

There is nothing easy about it... When you're in that place it's the hardest thing, and you definitely do not care how it looks... At that point you've come to the end of what you believe you can handle...

Edan wrote:

Silas Mercury wrote: Suicide ?? The easy way out. Don't do it, it makes you look cowardly etc.

There is nothing easy about it... When you're in that place it's the hardest thing, and you definitely do not care how it looks... At that point you've come to the end of what you believe you can handle...

Second that, I would also ask you Silus not to be quick to judge and jump to conclusions as to the why's and how's of someone who seems to believe they can no longer endure whatever suffering they're living with. Doing so tends to present an uneducated appearance to others...

Suicide will make you look cowardly?

Haha, you will be beyond caring what other people think at that point.

Edan wrote:

MrBruno wrote: So I would like to know from you, what you think about it and have had the experience of a suicide attempt by you or someone they know.

This is a question that is very hard to answer for those who have felt that way... it's a question that can require reliving some very painful memories or thoughts... and some of it doesn't always leave you...sometimes only talked about between trusted friends. Perhaps, not a question that should be asked.

That is all I am comfortable saying.

Edan, I understand that maybe you or others have a latent pain on these issues. I'm sorry if it makes you remember something, you know I love you as my sister. So just ignore this topic. I see that for those who can talk about these experiences is certainly a victory over a fact that is painful, but for those who do not feel comfortable to talk about, so do not need to say anything.
Let's face this topic as a way to understand what drives people to it and what we could do to prevent such attempts, as a way to vent it. If one thinks about committing suicide and wants to talk about it in public, it's a good opportunity. For those who do not want and feel that helps accuracy, they can send me a PM.

I even think about dying almost every day. My life has been a complete hell, because I am out of work and facing marital problems. Unfortunately I do not see output to my problem, so I feel desolate and often have the utmost effort to have a positive attitude. So I understand how painful it is because it also hurts me, but we have to win this taboo, in order to help people.

Although I think, I will not do it, stay cool. I just would like to see the opinions of you all

Silas Mercury wrote: Suicide ?? The easy way out. Don't do it, it makes you look cowardly etc.

You are far from understanding the brother issue and it just reinforces how much I think it's important we talk about this issue.
Nobody tries suicide to draw attention of others, or it is not a real attempt. People also do not kill because they are cowards, niguém can judge what they spent to be able to say that they are cowards, neither I nor you.
People commit suicide because there is a great confusion in their minds. As in my case, a very big dilemma where the most practical solution is death. Of course I am nothing and my problems are very small, but we need help from friends and family, and a professional to help us enchergar a way out of all this and that this output can be very difficult, but that is a better option than death.

This post is a tribute to the brothers and sisters who joined the Force, they have found the peace they sought

Suicide is a very touche and vague subject. The circumstances surrounding a person's decision to commit suicide greatly determine my feelings towards it. In some instances I can understand a degree of Silas' point of view, though maybe not his choice of phrasing.

I had a friend in High school who committed suicide. It took us all by surprise. None of us knew that he was dealing with that kind of pain. He always seemed happy. Every time I think about it I still feel just a bit of anger that he didn't reach out to us, or anyone, for help. I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that his life could've gotten better. He could have fought through whatever he was dealing with.

To me, his death at that time was avoidable, unnecessary, and inexcusable. I can't begin to understand what was going on in his mind, but I do know that it could have gotten better.

In a contrasting point of view there are the people who are diagnosed with horrible, terminal illnesses with no cure, which will kill them painfully. Those people, I believe, have the right to decide how and when to end their own lives. Suicide is not the cowards way out for those people. It's actually an act of mercy. Forcing them to live through that kind of physical pain, which will kill them anyway, is selfish.

What about the self-sacrificing suicides? The people who throw themselves on grenades or jump in front of the bullet or push people away from vehicles only to get hit themselves. They did that knowing that they would die, so it's suicide, but those kinds of acts are frequently heralded as the highest acts of bravery.

There is no answer that will be right 100% of the time. No easy answer or explanation. All I know is that in my opinion, with some exception, there are ways that life can get better. In my opinion it is better to take steps to better your life than end it in most cases. Also, know that you don't have to do it alone.

Bruno :

This post is a tribute to the brothers and sisters who joined the Force, they have found the peace they sought

How do you know that ? Who says they are at peace? Nobody ever came back and told me that he was at peace after his suicide so i am wondering why you assume this ?

I have attempted suicide once and that was more than enough for me. At the time it seemed like the only reasonable option left to me. I had just gone through a very traumatic experience and there was no improvement in sight. I'm glad that my attempt failed however, as things have turned around for me and I'm in place where I am looking forward to the future.

That time in my life was very very painful and I wouldn't wish that kind of pain on anyone. Suicide is such a waste of life and it harms far more than just one person. If you have thoughts of suicide seek help. Whether it's a close friend, a psychiatrist, or some other support system just get help. I'd hate to lose anyone to suicide. So far in my life I've only lost one person to suicide and I'd like to keep that number.

Suicide, by its very definition, is a highly personal decision. Only the individual, and that individual alone, can decide to end their life in that way. The decision may seem foolish or unnecessary to others, but we can never know what made that decision seem like the right one to that person at that moment. Whether the pain is physical or emotional, regardless of the cause, we can never know how it is affecting someone else.

This is what makes suicide so painful and frustrating for those left behind. It is a lack of answers or an inability to understand the reasons given. We can never know what was happening inside someone else's head. We believe that we could have helped to ease the pain to a point that they could continue to live with it, and maybe we could have, but now we will never know and neither can they. Losing someone to suicide is as much about losing the potential of what that person could have been as it is about losing the person themselves, and that is very frustrating.

It's this frustration and feeling of loss that leads those left behind to call a victim of suicide a coward. It is understandable for someone still alive and struggling with the frustration and pain to feel like the person who is gone just gave up, as if they didn't have the courage to get help. It is easy to feel like they were selfish and didn't think about how it would affect those left behind. While these feelings are understandable, they are coming from the pain of still being alive, not from understanding the actual pain that caused the victim to resort to suicide. Calling one a coward or blaming them for our current pain is a reaction as we try to grieve, but it should not be one we allow to go on too long.

Where there is despair, hope. As Jedi, the best we can do is to give hope to those who feel they have none and have faith in the Force that all will be as it should.

Anything I could say is inadequate compared to the way David Foster Wallace sums it up:

“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”


― David Foster Wallace

That's about the way I see it. A few years ago I was in a very dark place. My studies and faith were put to the test. What I've learned carried me through. I don't think its possible, having come out of the other side of it, to go back there again, but I can understand it in a way I wasn't capable of before.

I would never encourage anyone to commit suicide. A few of my friends have attempted to do so, and luckily they failed. To be completely honest, there are a few scenarios where I would probably do so -- if I had some kind of incurable brain degenerative disease which would severely lower my quality of life over time, or if I were in constant, incurable pain -- but outside of those kinds of situations I wouldn't personally do it. I don't think it's my place or anyone else's to tell someone that they don't have the right to do whatever they want to their own body, including suicide, but obviously I would discourage it if somebody were to tell me they were considering it.