How is suicide perceived in our society? (tragic, evil, insane or cool?)

[noname223]

When I debate pro-lifers they bring this argument if we allow assisted suicide people would think this was a cool way to do it. They don't want that committing suicide becomes an acceptable decision of an individual (rational) being. So in fact they want to stigmatize people who commit suicide and treat suicidal people as irrational little children and patronize them.

In the media they write in suicide forums they would idealize suicide. And people would become heroes when they committed suicide. This does not fit my experience. When you read how people are affected when someone on here chooses to die (they cry about it and feel terrible about it, but also accept the decision) I don't get the feeling they see them as heroes. I rather have the feeling many see suicide as result of a very tragic and unfair life. This is also my stance on it. Most suicides are caused by unbelievable pain and extreme torture that normies don't even comprehend a little bit. This is something only suicidal people get. This is why a suicide forum is so comforting because the people get this unbelievable unique nightmarish feeling of severe suicidality.

In psychiatry they stigmatize suicidal people. I told a therapist (who had big reputation and a lot of experience) that I often compare myself to people who have committed suicide. His answer was: These people were insane/crazy. You are not insane and you don't want to become crazy. He knew I am atheist. He told me something like he is atheist too but the religions are right with their stance on suicide. Yeah he could not persuade me with that argument. Lol.

In society they stigmatize people who have committed suicide. Especially in rural (religious) areas. There is a lot of gossip when someone commits suicide. You just have to read the fucking yellow press. Everyone wants to get some bucks with such a tragic story instead of showing real empathy. I think many religious people see humans who have committed suicide as evil and think they need to be punished (with hell)

Or some normies with boring normal lives just want to gawk at some people with horrible life circumstances to feel better about their mediocre lives. Yeah I am talking to you 1300 guests. We need to destigmatize this topic. This is the best prevention. Not smearing the only place where we can go to when society abandons us.

 

[HappyForever?]

I think most people see suicide as a result of a mental illness. Thus the stigma associated with mental illnesses also applies to suicide, More passionate people may consider suicide as the tragic result of a deeply unfulfilling life.

 

[Wrennie]

I've seen a tendency for people to view it as "cowardice" or "weakness", which personally makes me LOL because I just picture those same pathetic morons having to deal with what I have to endure on a daily basis and utterly crumbling under the weight.

 

[FuneralCry]

The way I see it, many people live under a delusion that life is always worth living. They always see ctb as being irrational and something that must be prevented. I believe that wanting to die can be perfectly rational in a world as horrible as this, for me it is the only thing that makes sense. I do wish we lived in a society where people respected the right to die. I know I deserve a peaceful death as I have suffered enough at this point.

 

[TerminalConscience]

I don't think people fully grasp it. Most people want to live.

 

[Julgran]

When I debate pro-lifers they bring this argument if we allow assisted suicide people would think this was a cool way to do it. They don't want that committing suicide becomes an acceptable decision of an individual (rational) being. So in fact they want to stigmatize people who commit suicide and treat suicidal people as irrational little children and patronize them.

In the media they write in suicide forums they would idealize suicide. And people would become heroes when they committed suicide. This does not fit my experience. When you read how people are affected when someone on here chooses to die (they cry about it and feel terrible about it, but also accept the decision) I don't get the feeling they see them as heroes. I rather have the feeling many see suicide as result of a very tragic and unfair life. This is also my stance on it. Most suicides are caused by unbelievable pain and extreme torture that normies don't even comprehend a little bit. This is something only suicidal people get. This is why a suicide forum is so comforting because the people get this unbelievable unique nightmarish feeling of severe suicidality.

In psychiatry they stigmatize suicidal people. I told a therapist (who had big reputation and a lot of experience) that I often compare myself to people who have committed suicide. His answer was: These people were insane/crazy. You are not insane and you don't want to become crazy. He knew I am atheist. He told me something like he is atheist too but the religions are right with their stance on suicide. Yeah he could not persuade me with that argument. Lol.

In society they stigmatize people who have committed suicide. Especially in rural (religious) areas. There is a lot of gossip when someone commits suicide. You just have to read the fucking yellow press. Everyone wants to get some bucks with such a tragic story instead of showing real empathy. I think many religious people see humans who have committed suicide as evil and think they need to be punished (with hell)

Or some normies with boring normal lives just want to gawk at some people with horrible life circumstances to feel better about their mediocre lives. Yeah I am talking to you 1300 guests. We need to destigmatize this topic. This is the best prevention. Not smearing the only place where we can go to when society abandons us.

Non-suicidal people may stigmatize suicidal people, just because they don't understand how suicidal people think, or the difficult situations that they find themselves in. If the non-suicidal people did understand this, they may have shown more understanding towards suicidal people.

From this perspective, I don't blame the non-suicidal people, since everyone just knows what they know, so they can't be blamed for not grasping the severity of the situation. Of course, there may be some non-suicidal people who do understand the plight of suicidal people, and in those cases, they are immoral.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Suicide is almost always associated with mental illness. By mental illness, I mean severe depression, because a good majority might as well be pretending that rest of the disorders classified as mental illnesses don't exist. Everytime you see a news article about the topic, they will always slap a mental health charity website and hotline number under a disclaimer that help is available.

It is easy to stigmatise suicide once you've painted it with the same brush as delusional irrationality. To most people, it is an act committed out of trickery from a sick mind, and nothing more. This misconception is why everything is centered around crisis intervention rather than long term stabilisation. It is always assumed you are depressed, impulsive, and not seeing reality. A brief spell of insanity, and nothing more.

The reality that not all suicides fit this image is not good at all for morale. Many professionals in psychiatry, psychology, and neurology are well aware that current services and treatments are woefully inadequate or certain types of problems fall outside of their scope, yet they can't feasibly do anything about the problem. They don't want patients to die, no one wants to admit when a situation is hopeless, so they keep repeating faulty rhetoric over and over again, praying that something will stick.

Insinuating that the individual is out of his mind and his suicidality stems from this lack of perception is far more convenient than admitting there are deeper issues at play. You only really see this brazen assumption being made when the person confesses suicidality, otherwise the millions of depressed people on this earth wouldn't be allowed to work in risky professions, drink alcohol, or make complex cognitive decisions- if they truly had no higher facilities rendering them incapable of making logical choices. There's an obvious catch 22 here.

You will always hear people express guilt that they could've prevented a suicide, as if the outcome is inherently preventable. I don't think many people want to acknowledge the powerlessness exuding from the realization that life can be absurdly harsh and cruel, and not everyone can be saved.

 

[noname223]

Suicide is almost always associated with mental illness. By mental illness, I mean severe depression, because a good majority might as well be pretending that rest of the disorders classified as mental illnesses don't exist. Everytime you see a news article about the topic, they will always slap a mental health charity website and hotline number under a disclaimer that help is available.

It is easy to stigmatise suicide once you've painted it with the same brush as delusional irrationality. To most people, it is an act committed out of trickery from a sick mind, and nothing more. This misconception is why everything is centered around crisis intervention rather than long term stabilisation. It is always assumed you are depressed, impulsive, and not seeing reality. A brief spell of insanity, and nothing more.

The reality that not all suicides fit this image is not good at all for morale. Many professionals in psychiatry, psychology, and neurology are well aware that current services and treatments are woefully inadequate or certain types of problems fall outside of their scope, yet they can't feasibly do anything about the problem. They don't want patients to die, no one wants to admit when a situation is hopeless, so they keep repeating faulty rhetoric over and over again, praying that something will stick.

Insinuating that the individual is out of his mind and his suicidality stems from this lack of perception is far more convenient than admitting there are deeper issues at play. You only really see this brazen assumption being made when the person confesses suicidality, otherwise the millions of depressed people on this earth wouldn't be allowed to work in risky professions, drink alcohol, or make complex cognitive decisions- if they truly had no higher facilities rendering them incapable of making logical choices. There's an obvious catch 22 here.

You will always hear people express guilt that they could've prevented a suicide, as if the outcome is inherently preventable. I don't think many people want to acknowledge the powerlessness exuding from the realization that life can be absurdly harsh and cruel, and not everyone can be saved.

Eloquent and well put as always. Thanks for this comment! You are very skilled at it.

 

[StarryStarry]

When I debate pro-lifers they bring this argument if we allow assisted suicide people would think this was a cool way to do it. They don't want that committing suicide becomes an acceptable decision of an individual (rational) being. So in fact they want to stigmatize people who commit suicide and treat suicidal people as irrational little children and patronize them.

In the media they write in suicide forums they would idealize suicide. And people would become heroes when they committed suicide. This does not fit my experience. When you read how people are affected when someone on here chooses to die (they cry about it and feel terrible about it, but also accept the decision) I don't get the feeling they see them as heroes. I rather have the feeling many see suicide as result of a very tragic and unfair life. This is also my stance on it. Most suicides are caused by unbelievable pain and extreme torture that normies don't even comprehend a little bit. This is something only suicidal people get. This is why a suicide forum is so comforting because the people get this unbelievable unique nightmarish feeling of severe suicidality.

In psychiatry they stigmatize suicidal people. I told a therapist (who had big reputation and a lot of experience) that I often compare myself to people who have committed suicide. His answer was: These people were insane/crazy. You are not insane and you don't want to become crazy. He knew I am atheist. He told me something like he is atheist too but the religions are right with their stance on suicide. Yeah he could not persuade me with that argument. Lol.

In society they stigmatize people who have committed suicide. Especially in rural (religious) areas. There is a lot of gossip when someone commits suicide. You just have to read the fucking yellow press. Everyone wants to get some bucks with such a tragic story instead of showing real empathy. I think many religious people see humans who have committed suicide as evil and think they need to be punished (with hell)

Or some normies with boring normal lives just want to gawk at some people with horrible life circumstances to feel better about their mediocre lives. Yeah I am talking to you 1300 guests. We need to destigmatize this topic. This is the best prevention. Not smearing the only place where we can go to when society abandons us.

Illegal - such dumbasses who believe this

 

[whatevs]

I've seen a tendency for people to view it as "cowardice" or "weakness", which personally makes me LOL because I just picture those same pathetic morons having to deal with what I have to endure on a daily basis and utterly crumbling under the weight.

 

[Kristicide]

They are many well written responses here so I won't repeat them myself. I'll just add that I think there's also another element which is it depends on who commits suicide. To be more clear, public perception of it is influenced if the decedent is
• a celebrity, someone wealthy or with a lot of power
• a criminal
• someone who is considered beautiful
• someone who is poor and/or at a lower class level then the rest of their society
• age (child vs middle age)

You see what I'm getting at. Society and the media will see advantaged people who commit suicide as tragic. But for a person with little means they don't acknowledge it - just another statistic.

 

[Ligottian]

When I was about age 16, the man next door shot and killed himself. My mother said his wife told her he had a serious gambling problem. I told her I would never commit suicide for fear of hell. I have never been religious, and was not raised in a very religious home. But that's how deep the taboo was in me then. So strange me remembering saying that now.

 

[Euthanza]

Suicide is almost always associated with mental illness. By mental illness, I mean severe depression, because a good majority might as well be pretending that rest of the disorders classified as mental illnesses don't exist. Everytime you see a news article about the topic, they will always slap a mental health charity website and hotline number under a disclaimer that help is available.

It is easy to stigmatise suicide once you've painted it with the same brush as delusional irrationality. To most people, it is an act committed out of trickery from a sick mind, and nothing more. This misconception is why everything is centered around crisis intervention rather than long term stabilisation. It is always assumed you are depressed, impulsive, and not seeing reality. A brief spell of insanity, and nothing more.

The reality that not all suicides fit this image is not good at all for morale. Many professionals in psychiatry, psychology, and neurology are well aware that current services and treatments are woefully inadequate or certain types of problems fall outside of their scope, yet they can't feasibly do anything about the problem. They don't want patients to die, no one wants to admit when a situation is hopeless, so they keep repeating faulty rhetoric over and over again, praying that something will stick.

Insinuating that the individual is out of his mind and his suicidality stems from this lack of perception is far more convenient than admitting there are deeper issues at play. You only really see this brazen assumption being made when the person confesses suicidality, otherwise the millions of depressed people on this earth wouldn't be allowed to work in risky professions, drink alcohol, or make complex cognitive decisions- if they truly had no higher facilities rendering them incapable of making logical choices. There's an obvious catch 22 here.

You will always hear people express guilt that they could've prevented a suicide, as if the outcome is inherently preventable. I don't think many people want to acknowledge the powerlessness exuding from the realization that life can be absurdly harsh and cruel, and not everyone can be saved.

Only parasuicide is preventable, suicide is unassailable.

Today's suicide prevention is temporary solution for permanent problems. If people really care about preventing the tragedy of lonely suicide mess, there will be massive intellectual and rational supports to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in every city every country. People are being made irrational to believe parasuicide is the representation of suicide.

 

[Spiritual survivor]

I'd say it's considered tragic, but many people also think it's cowardly and selfish. I would rather not see people suicide but it's understandable why we do it. Sometimes u can't see a way out and in some cases maybe there isn't a way out other than self deliverance. I refrain from ever judging people who end their life because I don't know what it was like to live their life.

 

[want2dienow]

Suicide is almost always associated with mental illness.

Is being abused a mental illness?

 

[Forever Sleep]

Some really thought provoking posts here. Agree with all of you- that suicide in the 'normal' world is often attributed to troubled mental health, or it is seen as tragic.

I'm curious as to how you similarly suicidal people see it though- do you consider people who go ahead with it 'heroes'? It's an odd thing to say really but there have been examples I suppose I look up to in a way. Gene Sprague- the man in the documentary 'The Bridge' really struck a cord with me. He waited for his Mum to die before he took his own life. I always hoped I would wait till my Dad passes for me to go.

Suicide has felt like my natural conclusion for decades now. While I feel desperately sad for the shitty life circumstances that bring people to the point where they want to take their own lives, I think there is a part of me that admires them for having the guts to go ahead and do it. Perhaps that does make them a hero in my eyes.

Is being abused a mental illness?

I imagine it can contribute to a mental illness. I would think most people who have suffered abuse have anxiety and depression at the very least.

 

[noname223]

Some really thought provoking posts here. Agree with all of you- that suicide in the 'normal' world is often attributed to troubled mental health, or it is seen as tragic.

I'm curious as to how you similarly suicidal people see it though- do you consider people who go ahead with it 'heroes'? It's an odd thing to say really but there have been examples I suppose I look up to in a way. Gene Sprague- the man in the documentary 'The Bridge' really struck a cord with me. He waited for his Mum to die before he took his own life. I always hoped I would wait till my Dad passes for me to go.

Suicide has felt like my natural conclusion for decades now. While I feel desperately sad for the shitty life circumstances that bring people to the point where they want to take their own lives, I think there is a part of me that admires them for having the guts to go ahead and do it. Perhaps that does make them a hero in my eyes.

I imagine it can contribute to a mental illness. I would think most people who have suffered abuse have anxiety and depression at the very least.

I absolutely don't see people who have committed suicide as heroes. I think this notion is kind of irritating and unhealthy.
Though I compare myself with some people who have ctb. For example David Foster Wallace or Adam-Maier Clayton. I rather see them as kind of role models because they tried everything to avoid suicide. This is also an approach which I relate to very much.

But I think the main part why I am thinking so much about them especially about DFW they were often aware that there will probably be no happy end for them. I think it is kind of admirable to fight against your unescapable future. A fight against the odds. Trying to play the cards one has in the best possible way. In the end both committed suicide despite the fact they did not really wanted to do it. They felt force to do it because the pain was so overwhelming. And this is very similar to my situation.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

I think the cause for this is how modern societies deal with death. Death is treated like a disease that has to be cured. Genetic engineering is on a good way to eliminate aging. But there are also simulations that show, evolution will stop in a not aging population and the whole population will be erased if the environmental conditions change. So society has to accept, that death is the precondition for life and evolution. You can refuse to reproduce and you can refuse to live but you cannot refuse to age and die. This shows how important death is for nature and evolution. If this is understood, suicide would be esteemed like it should be.

By the way, what do you want to say with this sentence? This is why a suicide forum is so comforting because the people get this unbelievable unique nightmarish feeling of severe suicidality.

 

[noname223]

I think the cause for this is how modern societies deal with death. Death is treated like a disease that has to be cured. Genetic engineering is on a good way to eliminate aging. But there are also simulations that show, evolution will stop in a not aging population and the whole population will be erased if the environmental conditions change. So society has to accept, that death is the precondition for life and evolution. You can refuse to reproduce and you can refuse to live but you cannot refuse to age and die. This shows how important death is for nature and evolution. If this is understood, suicide would be esteemed like it should be.

By the way, what do you want to say with this sentence? This is why a suicide forum is so comforting because the people get this unbelievable unique nightmarish feeling of severe suicidality.

The word "get" is meant like understand. Maybe I should have chosen that word. It can be misunderstood. Sorry.
The people understand how it feels to be suicidal here. I have the feeling for people who have not been (severe) suicidal have it hard to grasp what this truely means.

I hope it is now clear.