Just to preface, I'm not actively suicidal.

In the past few days I've hearing so many people say "suicide is a permament solution to a temporary problem" in reference to Robin Williams, and it frustrates me to no end. They obviously don't suffer from Bipolar Disorder.

The disorder is a permament problem.

An Ass from Fox News call Robin a "coward" but soon aftwards apologized..The damage was done...
Some people who lack emphaty to this problem cannot grasp the situation no matter what....

Haven been driven by my ex to the point of wanting to end it all (and feeling trapped in a lucrative job that I hated) I remember getting those horrible feelings of helplessness/hopelessness and couldn't imagine that it could get any better.

This is thoroughly compatible with severe depression.

Because of the nature of the distorted perception, you can't imagine that things will ever be any different. But if you can just hang on long enough, chances are that things will change or you will be able to find a way out.

And medication isn't always the answer, especially if the depression is due to a life-situation that you don't feel you can get away from, no matter how hard you have tried. Medication can't change the fact that your situation is toxic.

Most people who get the flu recover on their own.
Some people don't seek medical help and die.
Some seek medical help they didn't really need.
Some seek medical help they did need, and recover.
Some seek medical help, and die anyway.

Exactly the same thing is true for depression. Suicide is a terminal case of depression.

You hear how suicides are selfish. However, is it the people who are left behind who are selfish, who don't want to go through the pain of grief? They want their familiar life to go on, with the suicide alive, so they don't have to change their lives.

I do think some suicides are meant to punish the survivors, but some suicides don't even think of their friends and family because their pain is so great and they just want an end to it.

I remember reading about a man whose entire family had committed suicide, parents and two siblings. He made it day by day with the thought that his dog needed him.

Of course it would be a Fox News arsehole who called Robin Williams a coward. Fox hires them stupid and they live down to the expectation.

Sadly, so many people don't understand your point. We live in a society where people think mental disorders can be overcome by sheer will power.

So often you see facebook memes of the "I was depressed and one day I decided to just be happy" variety or the "Just be happy, you can do it!" type. These are horrible messages to people suffering from real mental illnesses that have no simple solutions.

People don't tell cancer patients to "Just get over it". When someone dies from a chronic illness, we don't say the "CHOSE" the easy way or or that they were being selfish. The illness took them.

Suicide is the same, it can be the terribly sad outcome from an unfortunate number of mental health issues, just like physical illnesses. Fortunately mental health is getting better, but we have a long way to go.

In my experiences with my Elder Care business I found that seniors often talk about ending their lives on their terms. And, I've seen the results, several times. There is the position that a person has the right to end their own life.

We, as humans can understand, on some level, at least, the tragedy of accidents and diseases, criminal acts (harder to understand), but willfully taking one's own life, is entirely different and as such almost impossible to wrap one's head around.

People often carry guilt for years, about the death of a loved one or friend, and also, suicide: if only, I did this or didn't do that, or if I listened, or came home, etc.

Eventually, I would hope we would be able to understand the workings of the brain better.

We don't really know the workings of the mind of others.

The best we can do is to try to understand.

Just a point of clarification, there is a significant difference between ending one's life with dignity and someone who's life is taken by mental illness.

I only bring it up because many people see them as the same thing. They really aren't.

One is trying to take control of their life, by ending it on their terms and before they become a burden on those around them, and simply wanting to maintain their dignity. It is a choice, some may argue the rationality of that choice, but it is still a choice.

With mental illness, it's not a choice, mental illness robs them clarity of thought. They don't "choose" to take their lives, they feel it's their only option.

It is incredibly painful to those left behind, I really hope that mental health gets better at diagnosing these problems and the treatment of them.

There is often some form of dementia with the elderly in particular and that, at some points, is riddled with thoughts of suicide and sometimes they go through with it.

Yes, try to understand, and also to be compassionate, WHATEVER the case may be. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matthew 7:1) is, I think, the best policy with regards to discussing serious matters like this. Unfortunately too many people feel inclined to make ignorant or insensitive comments in such cases and at times that can make negative feelings about the situation even worse.

Also, physician assisted suicide is legal in five states: Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico.
I expect so see more pass laws. Others are considering it.
Whatever the reason for the illness, it is legal in those states.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2014 08:31PM by SusieQ#1.

The phrase "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem" would be meaningless to a depressed person contemplating suicide. I've been severely depressed and suicidal several times in my life. The reason I attempted suicide several times was because life was bleak and horrible and was absolutely NOT going to get any better, and I'd be doing everyone around me a favor by removing myself and my problems from their lives. That's the way depression works - you are unable to see reality clearly. Eventually you realize that suicide would have been permanent, and that depression doesn't last forever. But when you're experiencing it there is no hope whatsoever that things will get better.

If someone had said something like that to me I would have taken that as a huge insult to my intelligence. "Gee, thanks for that helpful advice. My head is shoved so far up my own a$$ I never realized it."

It makes me happy to hear about people who were terribly depressed and did get better. I don't think my daughter had a day of relief--ever. She first talked of suicide when she was seven years old. She told me that she'd never felt normal or what she thought normal would feel like. All the drugs came with side effects and little to no effect. A pox on whoever judges her selfish or a coward. A pox on anyone who would judge her at all. All I know is that her brain was as sick as anyone's body with terminal cancer. I never say she "committed" suicide. I say she died by suicide. Every day I am grateful she hung on for eighteen years so I could love her beautiful soul. I don't believe in souls really, but my memories are precious to me.

That must be awful.
I admire you for being able to talk about it.

Thank you for sharing that Dorothy. I can relate with what she had said. I almost feel it's an inevitable thing I'm fighting to delay.

I'm so sorry to hear that the available care hasn't been able to maintain a good "normal" for you --whatever normal is. Meds work pretty well for me--it doesn't feel lucky, but I guess it is. My brother struggles every day. I tell him that the feeling that your loved ones would be better off without you is always untrue. Always. I've never met a survivor that wouldn't jump at the chance to have their loved one back--no matter how sick. I tell my brother that his job is to breathe. Just breathe as a spectacular act of service to those that love him.

The California divorce code killed Williams. Under the doctrine of "Imputed Income" the courts raped him for life.

They found that he had to pay his wives an absurd alimony because they had "become accustomed" to a lavish lifestyle. Williams was ordered to maintain his exes excesses no matter his current earning power.

Had he remained married to them, they'd have had to adjust their lifestyles in accordance to his fluctuating income as his career meandered.

To paraphrase Chris Rock, this like a woman being forced to fuck her ex husband because he had become accustomed to it. Suicide, rather than perpetual rape, would be an honorable alternative.

DO NOT GET MARRIED!