The totjo´s look on suicide

We may all be one, but there is a point where you have to realize that once someone has committed the act- there is nothing we can do but help the surviving.

I've been around one positive suicide and one "possible" suicide (don't get me started on that one, lots of ridiculous problems surrounding that one- involves a Romeo and Juliet story, with a possibility of it being possible consensual homicide, involving heroin-complicated)- neither one of them matter to me as much as the survivors did. And I knew one of them really well (the Romeo situation). But Marques is nothing to me because of what he did. He's just a guy that fell out of life.

I have been around 6 deaths, and only one of them did I cry for. Two I cried for the victims. One I cried because I didn't get to see her the last time she was in the same area as me (drill sergeants denied her and her husband the opportunity to see me, but I wasn't angry with them, just angry at God). And the first two I didn't shed a tear. Two took their own life, they got what they believed they wanted- why should I care about them? They are gone. Two left at their times (old age and one was suffering from living on a dialysis)- they lived a fulfilled life. One was a child abuser, he can no longer hurt others. Why should I dwell on his death? It was the last one (died at the age of 25) that got me because of the life she had before she died. She only made it to a quarter of the life she could have had. Lost her to H1N1.

But there is one thing that is always there in my mind- that their death is simply energy transformed. It is only through death that our species can carry on, so when we loose someone- we are not completely loosing them. We still carry them on in our hearts, and their physical form departs from us allowing for another life ot continue in their place.

I feel ashamed to be the only apparent voice speaking out against suicide, but I most definitely must argue against it. I was once suicidal, years ago. Since then, I have learned to compose classical music, play guitar, joined the military and military organizations, among many other things. I have helped many people in their lives and know I will only continue to help people as long as I live. I feel ALL people have the ability, if not the obligation, to stay alive. To kill oneself is to hurt everyone around them. They will scar anyone who cares about them, and may ultimately cause the death of loved ones. I believe in the infinite potential of any individual, and therefore I sternly must stand against suicide and will defend that to the end. The only exception being extreme circumstances where there is a lack of free will involved being the only logical escape of persecution is death.

-Argos, you are not the only one....

I don't think a single person here thinks its a good idea.... Maybe reread the thread?

Phortis my brother...

Don't take my levity for indifference of life... It is not...

My humor comes from the knowledge that I choose to live, and that I have the power to end it, yet I do not...

I wake every day with a smile, happy to be here, and glad to "fight the good fight"....

From my p.o.v., strictly mine, not enough people contemplate their own morality, they continue their existence because they don't know any other way....

I will talk to any person till I'm blue in the face, so many of us would, to save a person from suicide.... I do think its wrong as well...

But, in the end, they have to come up for their reason to live... It is their decision...

Yes, it does affect those around them, but then, everything we do, does, yes?

(I like discussion, love rolling things around to examine them... Twisting words and meanings...)

So, a friend/family member wants to commit suicide, is it selfish to try to prevent it? Is it not taking into consideration the needs and want of the potential suicider?

Is it suicide if I refuse treatment for a terminal illness? Like no chemo for cancer...

I have no right to judge how another lives, or dies... Well, I can feel sadness, regret, or loss... And I often do, at death... But isn't it just my "self", trying to hold onto something that isn't mine?

I'll "miss" them... Why? Did I not put forth all I could? No, then this should be my regret, not their death... I rejoice for the time I had...

I've got a bit of experience with suicidal thoughts and dealing with suicidal teens, but that's there and this is now.

My one rule with it, is don't jump in front of a moving vehicle. I've met too many depressed track workers and train drivers for my liking.

Argos, you're not the only voice. My comments are only about the ones who are gone. You can't do anything about it.

But suicide isn't an answer that is acceptable, which is why so many people are willing to help people experiencing thoughts of suicide.

As one who has had to clean up a loved one after they ended their life with my rifle, I would say that I am allowed to voice an opinion on this matter.

I lost my best friend, my greatest teacher and sanctuary to suicide. It was the first time in my adult life that I have shed tears for another. And the hardest.

I fell to my knees and wept.

What would cause someone to feel it necessary to end their own life? What pain must they feel to abandon the ones that love them? How selfish must we be to ask someone to endure that pain?

But her example saved my life later. As I hit an all time low I remembered her children and how her passing effected all that knew and loved her… and so my daughter still has her father.

It is wrong to judge others and worst yet to condemn the actions of the suffering. Until one can live through someone else’s eyes can we say what they would have done or should have done. My compassion for all life compels me to be there for those in need and to protect those who suffer. And sometimes that compassion must extend to letting someone go…

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Have you watched a funny movie yet? Laughter is the best medicine.

I can honestly say I understand both sides of this topic. I feel very strongly about each of them, as well, even though they are as different as night and day. I've been hospitalized twice for suicide related things - once a failed attempt and once because I was forced to before I could make an attempt, and it's always there.. In the back of my mind. If I could make it disappear somehow, I would in an instant. I eventually had to come up with alternative ideas. I don't believe that death is an escape, however. I truly believe that if I were to do it I'd "wake up" someplace else with even more disparity than I had before. That belief has caused a lot of hopeless and very desperate feelings...
But I have been on the other end of this as well.. To say that any life is ones own seems wrong. But then again.. I get it.

I like the fact there is an email hotline here and would like to thank those of you who have put that in place.

May the Force be with us all.

I'm conflicted on this topic...

I have little respect for those who give up, but every one of us would be liars if we said we'd never thought about it. I have had to deal with suicide on the "survivors' side"...my grandfather ate a bullet. I must admit, I'm conflicted about that too. On the one hand, he was my grandfather and he killed himself, which caused myself and my mother (he was her father) to question a great many things that we had accepted as "truths" in life. But on the other hand, he was abusive and a drunk...so I'm not sure that it was entirely a "bad" thing.

Once, when I was about 14 or 15, after I got in trouble for something I can't remember, my father told me that "life is hard, and it's never going to get any easier"...then he offered me his .45 if I wanted to "check out early". I didn't accept it because I didn't feel the need to die, and in that moment, I knew it wasn't me I'd have turned the gun on anyway.

I have contemplated, and been given opportunity many times. While I've always felt the need to stick around, I certainly don't blame the people who don't feel that they "can". I don't respect anyone who simply "gives up", but at the same time, who am I to judge them for their decision. Problems, like opinions, are deeply personal, and it's not my place to tell someone else whether they are right or wrong...

Alluvius wrote: , but every one of us would be liars if we said we'd never thought about it. ..

I've known people that have killed themselves. Everone was sad and a waste of a good life. Thinking in terms of doing or an option, nope, I'm not a liar, it's not an option.

I think Captain Hook said in Peter Pan..."Death is the final adventure." or something like that. There is no hurry. There is so much to learn and do. I'm not done here yet.