best definition of suicide

[pua]

American novelist David Foster Wallace gives us a best definition:

"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 because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e., the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire's flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It's not desiring the fall; it's terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling 'Don't!' and 'Hang on!', can understand the jump. Not really. You'd have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling."

Maybe the SI isnt real problem for us,maybe the real problem our pain is not enough for ctb, what do you think about that?

 

[lugerepair]

Personally, it's not so much that I'm in such a huge amount of pain now, it's that I know how much pain I'm capable of experiencing by virtue of having a physical body, and I'd rather quit while I'm ahead, i.e. quit before I experience any more horrible stuff, and while my mind is still sound enough to be able to put my things in order, write a well-thought out note, to feel like I'm in full control and making a rational decision, rather than escaping this world in panic and excruciating pain. With that said, I think I know deep down I probably won't be able to go through with it unless the flames get close enough.

 

[Ghost2211]

I can see that. SI would be no issue for me. I can't ctb because I still have obligations or quality of life is enough that I don't need to resort to that.

 

[Wayfaerer]

I'm at the point where I can't feel the flames but I can see the smoke.

Of course nobody (or at least very few) people want to suicide. Do you think I'd end everything if I thought I had at least a fair chance of being able to live the way I want within my means? Fuck no.

 

[LastFlowers]

Is that really what he's trying to say though?

I have more than enough pain and grief and lack of any pleasant circumstances to end my suffering. If my preparation for death was complete, if my postmortem wishes were ensured to be respected, and if someone gave me a method that would guarantee death in an instantaneous manner then I would be fucking gone. I wouldn't really call that SI, although SI is definitely a real barrier that people experience even if they have every reason to go and no reason to stay. If it's flames we are talking about, I am a crispy critter. There's also exhaustion and fatigue that comes with being hopeless and nearing the end, there has to be some amount of energy in order to prep and do the deed. That's one reason impulsivity can have an upside, it gets the ball rolling and there is a certain energy in a panicked desperation.

 

[Donewiyhitall]

My definition: anything that doesn't include"committed".