Live data from Hacker News

Daddy isn’t coming back

ft.com

361–370 of 430 posts

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#361
post #10

I have schizoaffective bipolar disorder, and aspergers. I was making $130,000 a year as a network engineer at Cisco in 1999 before I became too sick to work anymore. Right now I am homeless living in my van with a transmission about to go. I have attempted suicide three times already. I keep thinking about doing it again. No one wants to provide me the best medicine, stable housing. I make $1700 on disability but I c…

Can I spot you a transmission rebuild? If so please drop me an email (mail in profile).

I do not know what to say. I can't even....emailing.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#362

Things like this made me quit the high-tech job developing self-driving. It's such a bullshit problem to work on if you think about it. Same with most menial SaaS startups creating CRUD websites. Diarrhea kills 10M+ people globally a year, but it's not lucrative enough for companies to work on 'solving it'. Same with mental health issues. Kills 3x as much people yearly, but not 'cool' to work on that problem.

Yeah, there's plenty of jobs in the world that pay well enough for someone to live well. But it's so much more satisfying to work 40 hours/week making a change in people's lives.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#363
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, what. Psychiatrists have to commit you if they think you're an immediate danger to yourself. I'm sure shitty ones do it in situations where they shouldn't, but speaking as someone who has actually experienced being suicidal, my psychiatrist was the only person I actually fully trusted to help me get what I needed. Maybe I'm just lucky to have ended up with psychs who will take on more risk to avoid having to com…

It mostly depends on the state. The fundamental problem there is that plenty of people have won lawsuits against hospitals/doctors when their loved one mentioned suicide in some way, was not involuntarily committed and then proceeded to kill themself. The amounts involved in those lawsuits tend to be high. In contrast, very few people have won lawsuits against hospitals/doctors who involuntarily committed them when t…

A true US problem: you get sued for X, therefore that is the outcome avoided at all cost. Bad policy, bad legal system, Bad effects for everyone.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#364
post #180

This is the part where every one piles in posting suicide hotline numbers. I would argue most of those people do not have any experience with, or understanding of those hotlines and it's just a trite thing to throw out to show support like "fuck cancer". You should seriously understand what you are signing yourself up for if you call one of those numbers on yourself or someone else. For one you are volunteering that…

Top post on HN discouraging use of suicide prevention hotlines. The fuck is wrong with you people.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#365
post #266
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, what. Psychiatrists have to commit you if they think you're an immediate danger to yourself. I'm sure shitty ones do it in situations where they shouldn't, but speaking as someone who has actually experienced being suicidal, my psychiatrist was the only person I actually fully trusted to help me get what I needed. Maybe I'm just lucky to have ended up with psychs who will take on more risk to avoid having to com…

Suicide is a human right. Interfering with someone's basic right to self-determination is absolutely despicable, no matter how ill the person is.

In light of this idiotic take ("interfering is absolutely despicable no matter how I'll") I feel like I should share my own experiences with frequent suicidal impulses, and how thankful I am that someone was there and willing to help me, on many occasions.

I'm bipolar, and when I was untreated I would frequently (as on every other day) spend hours locked in a doom-spiral of self hatred, incapable of breaking myself out of it. I could recognize what was going on at some level, and that if I were pulled out of the spiral I would be fine, but in the moment trying to escape that pain seemed to only have one solution, even if I knew I normally wouldn't want to die.

I would basically have to try and hold myself together long enough for my wife to find me and help me back to sanity. Each time I got a little closer to failing. Getting access to medication was life changing.

I am enterally thankful she took away deadly instruments, encouraged me to find reasons to live and recover, and ultimately seek treatment. Whereas you would have just left me to irrevocably take my own life in response to temporary problem that had a medical solution readily available.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#366
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this in the abstract, but someone's right to self-determination isn't being infringed if 99% of the time they don't want to do something and you stop them from doing it in the 1%. This is particularly true if they call you during the bad 1% and directly ask you to stop them from doing the thing.

Uh yes it is being infringed. If I steal money from you against your will that one time, would you be okay with it on account of the fact that you willingly gave me money 99 other times? I've never heard of rights being only applicable 99% of the time.

That's not a good analogy, because if I steal money off you today, you'll be angry with me tomorrow, and indefinitely into the future. You are against me stealing from you 100% of the time.

Consider instead the case where you're a recovering gambling addict who's asked me to make sure you don't gamble again. One night I find you in the pokies room, so I take your wallet and tell you I'll give it back tomorrow morning. I agree that this is theft and possibly morally wrong; however, I don't agree that it breaches your right to self-determination, since most of the time you seem pretty determined not to gamble.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

someone who suffers from suicidal tendencies as a result of mental illness is in no capacity to make these decisions, they're as incapable of making actual decisions as a minor, probably more so and should be institutionalized. The right to self-determination derives from an assumption of someone being in a clear state of mind, that's why we have plenty of conditions under which we withdraw that right.

How wonderfully tautological this is: those with suicidal tendencies are deemed incapable of making the choice due to "mental illness". How can you tell if they're mentally ill? You look for symptoms of course, symptoms like "they have suicidal tendencies".

Sounds like a catch-22.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you are suicidal, do not call a hotline. Everything you said above is true, but this is advice that I feel on the fence about giving. If you call a hotline, it is not unlikely that your life will be disrupted. You may very well be involuntarily committed to a psych ward for days/weeks/months, depending on your mental state. Some psych wards aren't great, but some really aren't all that bad. It may sound scary to…

As someone who was very badly affected by the Australian medical system, let me just say that what happens to you in the system will almost certainly traumatize you as much as the event that led up to it. It's very easy for someone to say otherwise, unless they have experienced it first hand. Have you?

No judgment or anything else implied, but I can't help thinking that the alternative might be you not being here to tell this. Would you find this a better option, now? It's hard to imagine (for me).

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#369
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you offered a free apartment where they can live alone?

What world do you live in where an average person can afford this?

… and the security deposit and liability from the person absolutely trashing the place! Holy hell that’s a personal risk.

I’m all for housing stability, but just blindly giving someone a place to stay without any additional support services when there are clearly mental health issues… well it’s a bold move Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.

Re: Daddy isn’t coming back

#370
I wasn’t going to comment but after reading what people have been posting I changed my mind. I was involuntarily committed and it was fucking the worst experience of my life.

I had at one time suffered from depression and considered suicide as an option but had pulled myself out and was trying to get on with my life except for the nagging problem that was my mother. During my low point she had combatively rejected any notion that I had depression but only after getting through it on my own did she suddenly decide that I was depressed when I wasn’t. So while I was trying to get on with my life and stop dwelling on what it did to my life, her idea of helping me was to aggressively insist that something was wrong with me which could only be fixed through medication which was something I was vehemently opposed to from the start.

Things came to a head one day when I was unable to drive to an appointment because my car battery had died after she borrowed my car but left the headlights on overnight. Annoyed by what I saw I texted her, “You killed my battery”. Next thing I know the police were knocking at my front door for a welfare check. I told them I was fine but made the mistake of admitting that I had contemplates suicide at one time long ago at which point they immediately cuffed me and declared that I would need to go with them.

I was transported to the VC hospital and interviewed 3 times during my stay. Each time the doctor told me there was clearly nothing wrong with me and that I should be released momentarily and a few hours after each interview they would come back and say they spoke to my mom on the phone and more time would be needed for assessment.

The cutoff for involuntary commitment is 72 hours at which point you must be released if not being committed so rather than release me I was instead shipped from the VC hospital to one with my insurance provider after 2.5 hours where I was informed that the 72 hour timer would restart anew. I am under the impression that this was not done for my welfare but was merely a way for both hospitals to extract as much money as they could.

At the new hospital the same pattern happened at the old where I would be interviewed and told that I was completely I should not have been sent there only to have my release delayed after calls were made to my mother.

After my second 2.5 days I was interviewed again only this time the doctor was incredibly condescending and dismissive throughout. After the very combative interview she declared that I needed to be committed after which I gave her some very choice words about her job performance.

My mom would eventually visit me at the hospital and after trying to get her to clear up any confusion regarding my mental state she all but admitted that she orchestrated my whole ordeal as a way to punish me for disagreeing with her and refusing to be medicated.

On the advice of one of the doctors I decided to start taking medication to indicate my willingness to compromise. After taking my first dose and while on the phone to convey this information I had a bad reaction to the medication and became dizzy and nearly fainted. My blood pressure collapsed from 120 something down to below 60 and I was sent to emergency.

While I recovered in emergency the presiding doctor and nurse found my situation ridiculous and told me that there was no reason I should have been committed that they can see. Shortly later I was notified that my evaluation period would be up while still in ER and I would have to be assessed upon my return. My ER doctor who was also the one delivering the message informed me that I should instead ask to be assessed in the ER instead and after a new doctor came down and concluded that I was fine I was able to escape from my imprisonment.

Post reply on HN