is suicide really only caused by a chemical imbalance?

[oohiniyorafaad]

don't get me wrong I believe in science but I don't think suicide is always the result of a chemical imbalance. If so why are medicated people not "cured". If anyone can point me toward research that states this is the case? In contrast, I do believe mental illness is comparable in many ways to physical illness and there are treatments. But I just can't believe that someone committing suicide can be boiled down to a chemical imbalance, in a way I feel like that statement is so dismissive and a way to push "curing" if that makes sense. A simple example would be for someone who request medical assistance in dying because they suffer from a terminal illness that would cause them to suffer in a way that they would not wish to extend their life, I'm certain this would cause a person to be depressed, etc but is that "depression" the only contributor to that person's wish to leave this Earth. Why is the suicidal's person ability to be "logical" erased? I feel like only non-suicidal people think like this and it's so demeaning. Do I need brain surgery to not want to be suicidal, Do I need a lobotomy, Do I need to have no emotions or be free of the mind that has allowed me to think and survive all these years of my life in order not to fall into a sudden chemical imbalance that causes me to CTB
It just seems like nonsense. After my first and only attempt I was seen by a terribly psychiatrist and a useless hospital -assigned therapist and diagnosed with an adjustment disorder, which is acute (I'm certain I have Ptsd or c-ptsd) but that's beside the point. Why wasn't I prescribed a "chemical balancer" right away if I was allegedly suffering from a chemical imbalance. A titkok comment response triggered me and I just want to hear people's thoughts or see some resources?

 

[Ambivalent1]

What in tarnation?

No.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

No, suicide isn't only caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Why people commit suicide is a complex subject with each person having their own unique reasoning for doing it. It can't be and shouldn't be simplified down to just an issue with mental illness alone. I, for example, am not mentally ill and I still want to ctb. Arguments like these are mainly used by pro-lifers in order to dimiss suicidal individuals. I think there was even a user on here who talked about despite having gone to the hospital multiple times before, due to being suicidal, the people working there were unable to find anything wrong with them.

 

[LittleJem]

brain architechture - degenerated brains have been found in successful suicides. the invisible illness that cannot be seen so is judged.

but also life circumstances

 

[Darkover]

the loss of a loved one can trigger suicidal thoughts so no suicidal thoughts are not only caused by chemical imbalances

 

[sadman710]

No way it's the biggest bullshit misconception. Of course some have chemical imbalances / brain abnormalities, but if this is a pre-requisite that is dead wrong.

The proof is would you think if someone lived a real physical tortured existence. They were in some concentration camp that tortured them forever and they knew they were there forever and if every moment of their life was pure agony. Would you think for these people that it would be normal for them to want to continue living? When someone has old pets and they're sick and suffering, do we tell ourselves that they're better off clinging until their last moment and not put them down? I've said it before, the way we deal with pets / animals vs humans is very hypocritical. Why are humans special and entitled to be encouraged to suffer, no matter how great, but we tell ourselves it is humane to end an animals suffering?

 

[Darkover]

Why are humans special and entitled to be encouraged to suffer, no matter how great, but we tell ourselves it is humane to end an animals suffering?

it's the fucking hypocrisy of the government's laws it's all bullshit they know if they allowed assisted dying rights for all this system would soon collapse

 

[oohiniyorafaad]

people pretending they "understand" suicide or science has "figured it out" just piss me tf off

 

[ForgottenAgain]

I don't think every case is just a chemical imbalance. I don't have cases to show, I just get to that conclusion purely with common sense. Like another member said, if a person has only known suffering all her life, it is normal to want to ctb, it would be abnormal to want to continue living.

I actually asked a similar question in a thread sometime ago. I asked how many of us here are only suicidal due to a chemical imbalance. This was because I was extremely suicidal and after medication it went away. My psychologist said it was a chemical imbalance. I don't think this is the case with everyone.

 

[Lobster_Toast1281]

it's the fucking hypocrisy of the government's laws it's all bullshit they know if they allowed assisted dying rights for all this system would soon collapse

Interestingly, the Canadian government is slowly expanding who is eligible for assisted dying. They are already planning to allow those with mental health illnesses to die (though this is delayed to 2027 for some reasons).

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-can...rvices-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html

 

[oohiniyorafaad]

No way it's the biggest bullshit misconception. Of course some have chemical imbalances / brain abnormalities, but if this is a pre-requisite that is dead wrong.

The proof is would you think if someone lived a real physical tortured existence. They were in some concentration camp that tortured them forever and they knew they were there forever and if every moment of their life was pure agony. Would you think for these people that it would be normal for them to want to continue living? When someone has old pets and they're sick and suffering, do we tell ourselves that they're better off clinging until their last moment and not put them down? I've said it before, the way we deal with pets / animals vs humans is very hypocritical. Why are humans special and entitled to be encouraged to suffer, no matter how great, but we tell ourselves it is humane to end an animals suffering?

to pro-lifers life is automatically a plus or positive, anything that disproves that is abnormal or negative. life should be given the value of zero or neutral it just is. when I discovered how captured killer whales commit suicide I truly realized that suicide can be a natural response to certain circumstances, removal of one's autonomy, lack of freedom, a response to oppression often times. like how is that abnormal??

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Suicidal ideation can have many reasons. In the end you can say it's a chemical imbalance bc all out thoughts, wishes, feelings and all that are based on chemical "reactions" in our brains.

Maybe this is an interesting article here (maybe not exactly related to chemical imbalance):

A 16-year-old pocketed $50,000 for her award-winning discovery in the brains of people who died by suicide

Natasha Kulviwat is not your ordinary junior in high school. She's been analyzing human brains for the last year, and the research won her $50,000.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[oohiniyorafaad]

Suicidal ideation can have many reasons. In the end you can say it's a chemical imbalance bc all out thoughts, wishes, feelings and all that are based on chemical "reactions" in our brains.

Maybe this is an interesting article here (maybe not exactly related to chemical imbalance):

A 16-year-old pocketed $50,000 for her award-winning discovery in the brains of people who died by suicide

Natasha Kulviwat is not your ordinary junior in high school. She's been analyzing human brains for the last year, and the research won her $50,000.

www.businessinsider.com

honestly this article and research is a tually encompassive and holistic. the social model of health looks at the whole person not just their brain/body chemistry. Thank you

 

[Kit1]

I think society views a person's suicide as a societal failure to protect its kind - yet there are so many in and out groups when one is alive. A person is often not helped when they are in dire circumstances - instances include children who are abused in so many ways, rape, poverty, wars etc - all suffering that is a result of actions of human beings and the victims are not helped at the time. As I write this, I am thinking of nations, communities, groups that we are all aware of that are suffering from mass starvation and genocidal actions and hearts, consciences and eyes being closed to that suffering, of communities dying in absolute poverty and their voices not being given a platform and there is no choosing in such suffering regardless of the politics played be a few powerful. Yet when those who are suffering choose to end that suffering which is the safest thing to do, the powerful, so called educated people want to take over and silence us - they "know" that it is caused by chemical imbalance or some stupid unsound theory (which doesn't apply to everyone) and will stop us from stopping our suffering often caused by others. Apologies for the lengthy writting - not sure whether it is teh complex PTSD, autism or whatever else those so called educated people want to diagnose me with, but unwilling to put the resources in to actually help - apart from being parrots and telling me how important to stay alive in this place andnput up with their nonsense. What a circus. I will keep quiet now - apologies.

 

[UKscotty]

For me and my beliefs absolutely 100%

I know we all have our own battles but I cannot identify with people on here who want to CTB but say they are not ill.

I'd swap my life in a heartbeat. I can only understand hating life, hating being born and hating having to carry on with depression.

I cannot comprehend someone who claims to be free of illness but wanting to die. My brain cannot register why someone who is happy and likes life wants to ctb.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

PTSD / C-PTSD (traumatic experiences) are burnt into our brains so we can never forget about them. It's like with things we do all the time the more we do them the better we can do them (e.g. everyone of us can write text, we never ever can forget that "program" what we once learnt for years in primary school.

When we start having suicidal thoughts bc of external factors that are causing us to be depressed / suicidal then those thoughts are kinda "hard coded" after some time. It's probably impossible to break up those "loops". There is no format button for our brains.

With hard work, willpower, therapy, meds some people can recover but it's often impossible once we r beyond a certain point.

If suicidal ideation is induced bc of a genetics then it's probably impossible to cure this- we simply can't change out genes that were given us from our parents.

 

[Ash]

The only people I've ever heard say something similar are Psych 101 types who don't know the first thing about the brain and mental health. I've been in and out of treatment for over a decade and never heard anyone professional utter such rubbish.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

no that is a lie perpetrated to further enforce the suicide prohibition state imo. suicide can be rational

imo anyone wanting to exist is irrational. 1. for what reason should i exist anyway ? i see none . There is no rational objective purpose to exist because life is meaningless suffering. . 2. furthermore , for what reason to work so hard every day just to exist under threat of unbearable pain happening any day as a slave to an animal body with endless needs, as a slave to society culture government other humans. 3. and after all this slavery work suffering for 60 years get old and then suffer even worse for 30 years 60 to 90 demented in pain disabled 4. Anyone wanting to exist as a a slave in this evil suicide prohibition state prison world is irrational or brainwashed imo...... much more...

life is a net negative because the things that cause pain and suffering are of longer duration and higher intensity that the pleasure crap which are fleeting and only to correct pain or a need like eating food to stop hunger / starvation. for example a human or other animal can suffer starvation for weeks but the feeding provides pleasure for only a few minutes. most animals and humans are constantly hungry a bad feeling. up until 1800 95% of humans were in extreme poverty. only after 1800 were many humans able to be out of extreme poverty . now humans have supermarkets , uber eats delivery , and fridge full of groceries. this wasn't always the case. still humans get hungry and many are starving. but even the ones who have available food get hungry. this is just one problem out of thousands humans and all animals are burdened with after being birthed. before tech and civilization humans had to walk all day to find food or kill an animal to to eat which was very difficult . there were no products, supermarkets , shoes , clothes, houses etc humans lived on the savanah for millions of years with some of the first tech being fire, crude stone tools but that was it. 2. there is unbearable pain and a horrible things so bad that nothing is worth going through for example being burned 95% of skin off, cancer, stroke , kidnapping torture many more. also aging decay.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I don't believe that all suicides are caused by a chemical imbalance

 

[Throwawayacc3]

Yes BUT that's only one small part of it. And no, it's not as simple as saying take these SSRIs and now things are resolved. The brain develops to about 26/27 then plateaus after that. Neurone firing and new connections can be made from
Events, environment (intake of bad air, lead paint, asbestos, etc), social environment, etc.

The reason why you hear that so often in the medical system is that it shuts up the masses. Depressed? First point of call! CHEMICAL IMBALANCE! let's start the SSRI treatment. It's fucking nonsense.
Maybe it's the shouting parents? Arguing about money all the time? Getting bullied? Being in a flat/house that has asbestos which is literally destroying your cells, seeing an event that messes you up, working hard but the result is always failure or worse than when you started, dealing with people who abuse you, gas lighting, and the list goes on to

I experienced a little bit of private medical side (with the cancer stuff) but they effectively try a lot of avenues to see what exactly is going on. While on the NHS it's just one lump scenario so you shut up and move on. The fact that I had to print off papers and studies and make a folder to explain that they need to check for autism is a PRIME example of this.

 

[mtoro998]

No my reasoning is because of life circumstances.

 

[FuneralCry]

No, it's caused by having awareness of how truly undesirable existence is. Under no circumstances would I ever wish to exist in this disgusting, evil world where there is literally no limit as to how torturous existing can get. In my case suicide is all that's rational as it's the way to prevent and escape from all future suffering, all of which was futile and unnecessary in the first place.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would wish to be burdened with something so undesirable as human existence, to me existence is so evil and an abomination as it's the source of all suffering. It disgusts me when people act like there is something wrong with those who want to be permanently be unable to suffer, no existence itself is the problem and I'd always see it as better to not exist no matter what. I see no value in suffering in this pointless, harmful existence for decades on end just to be tortured by old age and die anyway, I don't see the point of having the ability to suffer in this existence when there are no disadvantages to peacefully not existing for all eternity.

 

[EmptyHeaded]

I cannot comprehend someone who claims to be free of illness but wanting to die. My brain cannot register why someone who is happy and likes life wants to ctb.

Being free of illness doesn't equal being happy. You can be the healthiest person on this planet and still be miserable.

Depressed? First point of call! CHEMICAL IMBALANCE! let's start the SSRI treatment. It's fucking nonsense.

Interestingly, the whole "chemical imbalance" thing is more or less wrong, and we've known that for decades. It's just one of those things that people still believe, even though it's been disproven time and time again.

 

[UKscotty]

Being free of illness doesn't equal being happy. You can be the healthiest person on this planet and still be miserable.

Interestingly, the whole "chemical imbalance" thing is more or less wrong, and we've known that for decades. It's just one of those things that people still believe, even though it's been disproven time and time again.

But if someone is miserable that's depression and a chemical imbalance. I meant like healthy mentally, not so much physically.

 

[EmptyHeaded]

But if someone is miserable that's depression and a chemical imbalance. I meant like healthy mentally, not so much physically.

No, it's not. Depression isn't as prevalent as you may think it is (and usually not a chemical imbalance), despite what the media likes to tell you. It's still only about 3.5% of the population and 2% for MDD, and I doubt any other unhappy person has some kind of illness.
For example, I am perfectly healthy. Yet I want to die. I could probably walk right into a psych ward, get myself admitted, and then get released after a week or two simply because you can't treat healthy.

 

[BlazingBob]

It's funny how people assume you have a problem for wanting to leave this prison. Maybe life is the problem not some imbalance.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

But if someone is miserable that's depression and a chemical imbalance. I meant like healthy mentally, not so much physically.

No, it's not necessarily depression. Not everyone who is miserable suffers from depression and vice versa. Things, such as life circumstances, issues with our capitalistic society, or even just not having anything to live for can make someone miserable. Depression is a mental illness, not a label you can just throw around all willy nilly in order to explain why someone is feeling the way they do about life. This type of attitude is the same type of attitude that pro-lifers have towards those who want to ctb. In reality, wanting to ctb cannot be reduced down to just having depression. Reasons as to why someone might want to ctb can differ greatly from person to person.

 

[UKscotty]

No, it's not necessarily depression. Not everyone who is miserable suffers from depression and vice versa. Things, such as life circumstances, issues with our capitalistic society, or even just not having anything to live for can make someone miserable. Depression is a mental illness, not a label you can just throw around all willy nilly in order to explain why someone is feeling the way they do about life. This type of attitude is the same type of attitude that pro-lifers have towards those who want to ctb. In reality, wanting to ctb cannot be reduced down to just having depression. Reasons as to why someone might want to ctb can differ greatly from person to person.

Yeah it's just one of those things I can't identify with I guess. Someone saying they are miserable but mentally healthy seem like contradictions. Each to their own, we all have our own experiences I guess.

 

[scottyy]

I spoke to a therapist before and told him all my problems and he said "jeez it sounds like all your problems are external and environmental" rather than chemical imbalances. And he proceeded to talk me through my options of leaving this town.

I just saw a YouTube short with a doctor saying that the #1 cause of male suicide isn't chemical imbalances or clinical depression and is actually situational, meaning they actually don't see any reason to continue living. Like not having anyone in their life.

 

[Mi Mi]

don't get me wrong I believe in science but I don't think suicide is always the result of a chemical imbalance. If so why are medicated people not "cured". If anyone can point me toward research that states this is the case? In contrast, I do believe mental illness is comparable in many ways to physical illness and there are treatments. But I just can't believe that someone committing suicide can be boiled down to a chemical imbalance, in a way I feel like that statement is so dismissive and a way to push "curing" if that makes sense. A simple example would be for someone who request medical assistance in dying because they suffer from a terminal illness that would cause them to suffer in a way that they would not wish to extend their life, I'm certain this would cause a person to be depressed, etc but is that "depression" the only contributor to that person's wish to leave this Earth. Why is the suicidal's person ability to be "logical" erased? I feel like only non-suicidal people think like this and it's so demeaning. Do I need brain surgery to not want to be suicidal, Do I need a lobotomy, Do I need to have no emotions or be free of the mind that has allowed me to think and survive all these years of my life in order not to fall into a sudden chemical imbalance that causes me to CTB
It just seems like nonsense. After my first and only attempt I was seen by a terribly psychiatrist and a useless hospital -assigned therapist and diagnosed with an adjustment disorder, which is acute (I'm certain I have Ptsd or c-ptsd) but that's beside the point. Why wasn't I prescribed a "chemical balancer" right away if I was allegedly suffering from a chemical imbalance. A titkok comment response triggered me and I just want to hear people's thoughts or see some resources?

I was just thinking about this.
My mom kept saying this as to why I am the way I am.
But is it possible that my shitty childhood and struggle in life is really the contributing factor.
And if I don't wanna take pills to manage it.
Why can't I call it quits.
Just like if I had cancer and I refused treatment.
What's the difference.
And maybe some do have a chemical imbalance.
We're not all the same.
But for me I genuinely believe I just wasn't able to handle and fix my life and I don't enjoy it.
So I want out.
Thanks...I was thinking about making this my next topic on my vlog.