Suicide should be respected for those who need it.

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Only you are in charge of what you want to do with your life, Someone like myself for instance is nothing more than disposable trash whom would rather be dead. There are people who feel that there life has no meaning and instead of trying to stop them from finding peace one should help them achieve this. I would love to hear the opinion of others regarding this topic.

I once believed that my entire existance was a cosmic joke. I once contemplated suicide on a regular basis, and I even made a couple of serious attempts.

I now believe that my purpose on this planet is not to self-destruct, but to use my painful experiences to help others around me. I am glad to be alive.

Of course, that's only my experience.

I will say that I once felt horribly responsible when my lover at the time killed himself, and that it took me half a decade to recognize it was his choice and that I really had nothing to do with it.

I will also say that I have been in recovery from a while, and I have seen so many people turn their lives around from the depths of despair that I have tended to form a dim view as suicide as a way out of one's problems. Life is supposed to be painful. But joy is there for those who are willing to grab it with both hands and work their ass off for it.

I agree with you. I think it's great that people want to do what they can to help someone who is considering suicide because of blindness to the solutions that are there, but some people have taken a mature, honest, and complete assessment of life and simply decided that they don't want to participate anymore. It's their life and they have a natural right to do with it whatever they want; to assume that everyone who considers or attempts suicide is mentally ill or "just needs more help" is patronizing and unrealistic.

At my job people get angry when I refer to myself as being no better than a garden slug being squished by a shoe. I have the lowest opinion of myself possible and have seriously attempted suicide once. I now consider this my 2nd go around, and so far, there's been ups and downs.

I just released a book. That's good. I still do the same job I despise just for rent money. That's bad.
I'm clean from drugs. That's good. I'm still the loneliest man on earth. That's bad.

I guess what keeps me alive is the hope that things will improve.

The trick is to not really give a damn, certainly not about artificial things like jobs, for which you have to rely on other people and therefore which do not truly constitute a reflection of who you are. Stop caring; both a low and a high opinion of oneself are forms of narcissism. Stop being a narcissist. You are an animal; identify with the other animals of the Earth. They do what they need to do to survive, they enjoy the sunshine, they run and play and enjoy life as they can. They do not think about how much they are worth; they suffer no narcissism. It is useless to them, and it is ultimately useless to us.

Never confuse "need" with "desire".

No one "needs" to commit suicide.

My feelings are that unless a person is in unedurable pain, without hope of relief, suicide is a tragic waste of a life. There is always hope because no one knows what tommorrow will bring. This life, setting aside religious beliefs, is possibly the your only chance at conciousness, of exsistance, ever.

I have met individuals who felt suicidal but I felt that there was hope for them, They had potential that they where unaware of, However like I said before there are those who live each day in agony and when people close to them fail to understand its much more so. If like me one where born a fugly ret*d and knew that their entire life would end in total isolation then they have all right to do as they please with there life.

Good topic. There is a Chinese holiday which is often called Dragon Boat Day but it involves other stuff besides the boat race.

Actually the story is that the political scientist Qu Yuan tried to warn the king about an invasion from another country (China wasn't united back then), but the king and prime minister wouldn't listen to him, so he jumped in the river rather than have the shame of living under a government he disliked. To this day people eat "Chinese tamales" made of sticky rice, and throw them in the river to keep fish from eating Qu's carcass. Rather than being shamed as a suicide, he is honored on stamps and in history books.

What I'm getting at is that traditional societies supported freedom of choice in particular when somebody has done something wrong. In Western culture we know the story of Cato the Younger which is very similar to the story of Qu Yuan, and that of Seneca. (Cato is also one of my political heroes.)

What is not known by most is also that hemlock was available to everyone in Rome if they so chose. Some chose hemlock for reasons that weren't as important as that of Cato and Seneca, but at least it was there and they didn't have to slink around with it, like people in some countries today that don't even have death with dignity for those with terminal illnesses.

I most definitely support pro-choice not just in terms of women's health but also in terms of everyone's health.

I agree to some points. I hate people saying to try and save your self or that stuff. I never tried it but one of the things I know how to. My opinon on it is its ok to a certain extent. If someone is dying in pain from a horrible illness they should be allowed to do it because their lives will never be turned around and it is basically putting them out of their own misery. On the fence about some of the other things though. I always wonder if anyone on this site killed themselves after seeing so many posts about people saying they want to die.

I do think everyone should have access to an easy method of suicide but I'd discourage 99.999% of suicidal people from actually doing it. I do think it should be an option for serial murderers instead of the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Why do you feel like that about yourself?
I will probably kill myself soon, but it's not because of my lack of ability or achievement, but because my mind is always flooded with intense negativity.
However, when I see other people who want to do it, on many occasions I can find reasons as to why they shouldn't do it at least in the short term.
I think their reasoning for suicide should be challenged, but their plans should not be discouraged if there is no longer a reason to challenge it.

I do understand the reasons why a person considers it. I have been there myself. But I think more then anything else it occurs from a limited perspective, a too narrow view. The mental strain of those times must contribute to the problem, and the feelings snowball downhill.

By comparison if you were to be in severe and unrelenting physical pain for a years, weeks or even a few hours, any other kind of exsistance released from pain would seem almost idyllic.

I am not downplaying the experience of mental despair/pain. It can get pretty bad in its own right. But from my experience, there is always hope with mental pain, and relief may not be far off. There are things one can do and you just don't know what outside influence might develop.

The issue for me is not whether its your right or not, for frankly if one is totally intent upon it no one is likely going to be able to stop them.

The thing is that I believe in 99.99% of the cases its the wrong choice, done in an emotional state. So outside people assisting are only helping a person make their worst and last choice.

There are exceptions, to most things, and I think there are some to this issue. A common one is not wishing to remain on life support when the prognosis is for no improvement or terminal. Unendurable physical pain without viable medical relief is another I personnally believe justified.

but there seems to be an irreducible number of people for whom the wherewithal to "grab [joy] with both hands and work their ass off for it" is always just out of their reach.

Irreducible? In what sense?

When I first saw this comment by KagamineLen, I thought to myself "huh? why? what reason is there to believe that life is supposed to be painful?" but I didn't comment. It sounds like something the powerful use to brainwash the weak and downtrodden into accepting their oppression (not only material oppression, but emotional oppression, such as convincing people that they are useless if they can't work, aren't "beautiful," etc). There are very few painful things that are a necessary part of life, that is, dealt to us by nature, rather than by other people. There is physical pain and there is emotional pain (such as from dealing with the death of loved ones), but the latter can be managed and even eliminated by a change in attitude. The vast majority of struggles in life are artificially created by other people. I don't see any reason to believe that life in general is supposed to be painful.

Look at babies; they are joyful from a young age. They don't need to grab joy because it comes naturally to them. I think there are always going to be some people who don't/won't "grab joy with both hands and work their ass off for it" because they know that this is like having your money stolen, then being expected to find some way to work your ass off to get more. Why should we be obligated to work our ass off for something that has been stolen from us? They see that the game is fixed, and from this thought people progress to the "life is pointless" attitude so common in the suicidal.

you took the words right outta my mouth
irreducible in the sense that such legions of lonelies have been perennial, in this world, so far.