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People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

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Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#331

Post by goodpoint »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40
goodpoint wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To kill yourself by getting skin cancer?

Honestly, I just find it hard to care about skin cancer all that much. I gotta die from something at some point, and I feel like covering my skin in nasty oils and stuff on every nice summer day is too much a price for me just to die from "not skin cancer". Because now every nice day is a little bit less nice. Ofc I'm a bit lucky because I can at least tan somewhat, so if I just taper up my sun exposure in the spring…

Stop spreading misinformation. This is HN not reddit.

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#332

Post by smcg »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #323

Technically correct, practically a useless distinction? It's not like "stop suffering, keep living" solutions grow on a tree. One has to contend with: - Irreversible or hard to reverse brain damage/dysfunction. It doesn't matter if the cause is traumatic experiences, innate conditions or substance abuse, effects are equally hard to remedy - Irreversible or hard to reverse physical health problems - Low social capital…

It's not a useless distinction. People downplay other's suicidal ideations all the time because they underestimate other people's pain or are unsympathetic to it. Those people need to know that this is everyone's problem.

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#333

Post by goodpoint »

codr7 wrote: post #230
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I just find it hard to care about skin cancer all that much. I gotta die from something at some point, and I feel like covering my skin in nasty oils and stuff on every nice summer day is too much a price for me just to die from "not skin cancer". Because now every nice day is a little bit less nice. Ofc I'm a bit lucky because I can at least tan somewhat, so if I just taper up my sun exposure in the spring…

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Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#335

Post by [deleted] »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #323

Technically correct, practically a useless distinction? It's not like "stop suffering, keep living" solutions grow on a tree. One has to contend with: - Irreversible or hard to reverse brain damage/dysfunction. It doesn't matter if the cause is traumatic experiences, innate conditions or substance abuse, effects are equally hard to remedy - Irreversible or hard to reverse physical health problems - Low social capital…

[deleted]

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#336

Post by twelve40 »

becquerel wrote: post #204
laratied wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I fear the random nature of a heart attack even more. My ideal is almost to take enough water into the woods to starve in the woods. To really stare my death in the face and experience it slowly. Clinging to life in a nursing home is a fate worse than death to me. I am sure this all depends on having kids or not. Being child free gives many more options.

It is incredibly difficult and miserable to starve to death. Experiencing death slowly - isn't living enough for that?

i obviously haven't experienced what you described, since i'm breathing and typing right now, but weeks of going with no food were really pretty calming. The only downside was the weakness and mental fog that affects productivity but if you don't have to work at that point... Of course, all of this is super-individual.

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#337

Post by denton-scratch »

zajio1am wrote: post #298
denton-scratch wrote: post #163

The article is heavily focused on how to prevent suicide. They note that suicide is sometimes rational (they call it "existential", euphemistically). I'm all for removing the causes of people wanting to die. But if people have any rights at all, the right to decide when and how you die seems to be the most fundamental. It seems to be almost impossible nowadays to obtain the kinds of drugs (basically, barbiturates) th…

> Ut seems to be almost impossible nowadays to obtain the kinds of drugs (basically, barbiturates) that you need to ensure a quick, painless death There is an easy way to get quick, painless death. One can just get diving regulator (from diving shop) and nitrogen cylinder (from industrial gas shop). As feeling of suffocation is based on raising CO2 levels, scuba mask that allows breath-out CO2 while breath-in N2 lead…

I'm aware that N2 leads to a quick and painless death; I've been warned more than once by lab-workers of the dangers of opening liquid N2 tanks in basements, even though I've never been near a lab.

But I thought there was some downside? I can't remember. Obviously, it's difficult to dose accurately, and it's impossible to stop dosing once you've had enough. So there is a risk you'll be discovered in a space filled with an odourless, invisible toxic gas.

What does a scuba mask do, that you can't do without a scuba mask? Surely, if you can breathe in and out, you can exhale CO2? My understanding is if you breathe N2, you first become unconscious (with no preceding wooziness), then you die. So there's a huge risk of accidents. Maybe that's why I thought there was a downside.

At any rate, "being discovered" is something I'd want to avoid at all costs! I can't imagine what it would be like to discover the body of someone that had killed themself.

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#338

Post by anonymouskimmer »

mthoms wrote: post #322
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a commentary piece which quoted (to comment on) other sources. Almost everyone talking about this topic is at least biased, and generally (what's-the-word for "motivated to convince others as to their point-of-view"?).

Upon closer inspection, it's an exact reprint of from an article from "National Review" which is a famously conservative organization. >This was a commentary piece which quoted (to comment on) other sources. Understood. I just thought I'd point out the potential for bias because it isn't obvious at a quick read. One of the great things about HN (IMHO) is that people tend to discuss things from a more scientific persp…

This particular issue is difficult to discuss from a scientific perspective, because basically the only non-opinion (i.e. ideological) questions that can be asked are: whether making assisted suicide legal increases or decreases total suicides, and what are the economic impacts of assisted suicide legalization. Everything else about assisted suicide is ideological or ideological driven (at minimum, the balance between antipathies of death compared to pain).

Everyone talking about this is biased. Some lie or exaggerate, and this is important to point out, but every source of information cherry-picks what they choose to highlight.

Re: People who die by suicide want to stop suffering, not to stop living

#340

Post by cat_plus_plus »

smcg wrote: post #332
cat_plus_plus wrote: post #323

Technically correct, practically a useless distinction? It's not like "stop suffering, keep living" solutions grow on a tree. One has to contend with: - Irreversible or hard to reverse brain damage/dysfunction. It doesn't matter if the cause is traumatic experiences, innate conditions or substance abuse, effects are equally hard to remedy - Irreversible or hard to reverse physical health problems - Low social capital…

It's not a useless distinction. People downplay other's suicidal ideations all the time because they underestimate other people's pain or are unsympathetic to it. Those people need to know that this is everyone's problem.

That would be nice, but "A Man named Otto" is fiction, not a documentary. It's even more far fetched to suppose that entire society is going to change than to expect that any single person will pull themselves out of the abyss by their own shoestrings or using magic potions cooked up by Pfizer. People want all kind of things like life without suffering or drinking without hangovers, but they also come to realize that reality has limited options.
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