I'm not mad at the people who wrote the article, they have a point of view that is partly legitimate. I think that among suicidal people there are basically two groups- people who are in a crisis who, if they get the right kind of help, can get their lives on track and go on to live happy lives. The other group is people for whom ctb is the right choice due to one or more serious issues that have really wrecked their lives. (This is an over-simplification, of course, because there is a whole spectrum. but I think it is essentially pretty accurate.) The group of people that is most likely to be in a temporary, fixable crisis is usually a young person who is often going through their first crisis with depression, though not always. A lot of people on this site offer words of encouragement to people who post things like that they are suicidal because they just broke up with a partner- this is usually a solvable problem over time. I think article offers an important perspective, though it is a relatively ignorant perspective, because the writer clearly doesn't understand what long-term serious depression is like. Sometimes shorter term depression also can make sense to ctb- an example is Texas Roadhouse CEO Kent Taylor, who committed suicide due to very loud tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears) that resulted from long-term Covid. I think a key goal that many of us share is to provide support for whatever choice a person makes- to encourage those who have signs of hope and to provide caring for those who are really struggling- this helps people to decide rationally what is best for them. The younger a person is the more likely it is that they are in a temporary crisis and that they didn't realize that asking certain people for help could have made the difference- in the most highly publicized cases if they just let their parents know it would have turned out better for them. I wish I could go back to my twenties with what I know now- I could have gotten my life on track- but over time a person can just run out of enough time and options to get things worked out. I think this article is a reminder that dealing with the fact that many people who commit suicide were in a temporary crisis and could have been helped, while keeping in mind that for many people ctb to leave certain problems behind is likely their best option. One other key factor is that the system treats depression with medication (which is no solution in most cases, very ineffective hospitalization, and very ineffective therapy. The main cause of depression for most people iso otrher people treating them like crap, so pills won't help with this, hospitalization won't help with this, and talking to someone usually won't help with this- figuring out which people are hurting you most and which people can help is the most important thing, and some people are so manipulative and cruel that this is not easy to figure out. It is a small percentage of therapists who are out there who are able to actually help patients- most realize that the longer they drag their patients problems out the more money they make, and that's the ony thing some of them care about. Will a therapist help a child fight against their parents mental abuse when the parents are paying the bill. Often they won't. I could ramble forever, and I've probably overdone it, but these are some thoughts on issues raised by this article.
