71–80 of 152 posts
As someone who has struggle with suicidal ideation his entire life, whenever the subject comes up I try to educate people by quoting author David Foster Wallace (who commited suicide) with the best explanation: “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not becaus…
One flaw with the analogy is that a pretty significant portion of suicides (successful or attempts) are impulsive. Many people who attempt it have literally no idea they will when they wake up that morning. A 2001 University of Houston study of survivors of near lethal attempts showed that 70% of them had only decided to do it an hour or less before the attempt, and 24 percent had only spent 5 minutes before the atte…
Can you elaborate? That sounds pretty much like the people in the analogy to me. They jump because the alternative they face right now is more terrifying for some reason. It makes sense that not all methods of suicide fulfill that criteria (being less terrifying than the alternative), even if they are all methods to end your life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people with disorders negatively impacting their cognition and decision making. I think we should be really careful about how we think & talk about this. There are a few situations (like psychotic breaks) where people fully believe delusions that, in a short time, they will reject. We can cleanly call those experiences "irrational." On the other hand, people who experience long term depression literally experience…
I totally agree that it is a very tricky subject, especially regarding depression. Having some experience with it myself, I would argue that irrational pessimism is a major feature of depression. For example, people cannot accurately asses actions and activities that would in fact make them happier if they were to follow through. In this way, I think they are clearly distinct from those with terminal illness or chron…
I don't think that that there is an ethical imperative to allow people to carry out irrational decisions. I was trying to say that, if someone with depression or another chronic mental illness decides they would rather be dead than alive, then after we determine that decision doesn't come from a passing[1] delusion, then we should give that desire the same weight we give to people with other chronic conditions. We all have the right to choose, after a time, that we do not want to live this way.
I also think that having a global standard for "rational" v.s. "irrational" is difficult enough that I think drawing strong lines tends to do more harm than good. So, in practice, I suppose I support people who "irrationally" wish to end their lives, but only due to the impossibility of determining what 'rational' means for each of our subjective perspectives.
[1] Whatever "passing" means - it is not an easy question.
The lack of empathy in the comments is scary. No wonder the situation is so bad. Let me present a scenario which might seem more relatable since it seems people understand physical pain but have no "scale" of what mental pain could be like. You have a chronic pain (maybe one of wrists is broken in a way that there is no solution). No painkillers help. Every doctor you go to doesn't have a quick-fix. People around you…
At least I can take a pill to get some relief on occasion. People understand.
Your description and analogy is dead on.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reminds me of the case of Dax Cowart[1][2], who as a young man suffered tremendous burns from an accident which he survived but which killed his father who was with him. He lost his eyes and face, had both of his hands amputated, and was forcibly given agonizing treatments for 14 months. At his request a documentary video was made about him, which he titled "Please Let Me Die"[3]. It was shown to lawmakers and j…
Thanks for sharing this - I haven't yet looked but the description itself makes me feel bad that we don't let people make decisions for themselves. I feel the only reason we don't let people chose that path is to make ourselves feel good and feel "guilt-free". I recently had a situation where someone in my family was diagnosed with a life threatening condition but the dilemma was that if you chose to undergo treatmen…
As someone who has struggle with suicidal ideation his entire life, whenever the subject comes up I try to educate people by quoting author David Foster Wallace (who commited suicide) with the best explanation: “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not becaus…
So DFW rejected others ideas on the subject in favor of his own experience? Sounds a little narcissistic doesn't it?
As someone who has struggle with suicidal ideation his entire life, whenever the subject comes up I try to educate people by quoting author David Foster Wallace (who commited suicide) with the best explanation: “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not becaus…
One flaw with the analogy is that a pretty significant portion of suicides (successful or attempts) are impulsive. Many people who attempt it have literally no idea they will when they wake up that morning. A 2001 University of Houston study of survivors of near lethal attempts showed that 70% of them had only decided to do it an hour or less before the attempt, and 24 percent had only spent 5 minutes before the atte…
This is human behaviour, and causality is really not as simple as wanking some stats around and making a bunch of super tenuous inference. 'fuck outta here with that reductionist bullshit.
I would tend to assume suicide is fairly predictable with high sensitivity and the data many corporations have from surveillance of customers tbh.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or perhaps they are only saying they regret it so they aren't thrown into a mental hospital. I wonder if there was a follow up on longterm survival.
Of 515 people prevented by police from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge between 1937 and 1971, by the end of the 70s only 6% of them had committed suicide by other means. Source: "Where are they now?" by Richard Seiden
It's impossible to measure, but I wonder what % of suicides happens because of the culture that we live in. A lot of times when you read about someone commiting suicide it's blamed on that individual or their mental health - but is that really the root issue? How many of the suicides wouldn't happen if society was set up in a different way?
As an example, take Jeffrey Epstein suicide (let's assume thats what happen). He might have sought that exit given his possible future perspectives. Had he been in Mexico (where I live) he may have had a different (more lenient) perspective of his future.