People here often misunderstand suicide prevention efforts, and likewise, suicide prevention people largely misunderstand the sorts of people to end up here.
Suicide prevention people, especially mental health authorities, view suicide as a crisis. According to their worldview, people do not want to kill themselves, but may decide to do so anyway in moments of extreme emotion, like discovering an infidelity, losing a job, receiving bad news, being bereaved, and so on. People who find themselves in that situation would, deep down, rather not be dead, but are unable to properly control themselves in the heat of the moment. Such people might call a crisis line and ask to be stopped from killing themselves.
In turn, most people on here would not consider their suicide to be impulsive, and would say that we don't want to be stopped. Calling a crisis line during a moment of intense suicidality would be counter-productive, because it would stop us achieving our goals. (Note, if you don't feel that way then that's fine. I'm not saying you shouldn't call a crisis line, I'm saying that I wouldn't and assuming that some people think similarly to me.) Rather than being impulsive, a common philosophy seems to be that suicide is the ultimate expression of autonomy. It's my life and I should be allowed to end it.
I don't think either side is totally wrong or totally right. There are probably people for whom suicide is a passing wish, who, if prevented, will never attempt again. There are also people with a deep-seated wish to die, who have made good-faith attempts to engage in treatment without success, or who have problems that simply aren't going away (society seems to view terminal illness as the most valid one, but you might view others as equally valid).
What I think users here do often get wrong is assuming that suicide prevention is somehow a malicious act, an impingement upon your liberty designed to make you suffer because that suffering is good for the government/big business/the tendrils of the Vatican/GlaxoSmithKline/the lizards. With apologies for taking the piss out of that worldview - that's a fundamental misunderstanding. Suicide prevention efforts are rooted in a belief that suicide is usually bad for everyone, and stopping it allows people to live longer lives, which is good. That belief might not always be true, and might lead to some suffering, but it is sincere, benevolent, and altruistic.
Suicide prevention people, especially mental health authorities, view suicide as a crisis. According to their worldview, people do not want to kill themselves, but may decide to do so anyway in moments of extreme emotion, like discovering an infidelity, losing a job, receiving bad news, being bereaved, and so on. People who find themselves in that situation would, deep down, rather not be dead, but are unable to properly control themselves in the heat of the moment. Such people might call a crisis line and ask to be stopped from killing themselves.
In turn, most people on here would not consider their suicide to be impulsive, and would say that we don't want to be stopped. Calling a crisis line during a moment of intense suicidality would be counter-productive, because it would stop us achieving our goals. (Note, if you don't feel that way then that's fine. I'm not saying you shouldn't call a crisis line, I'm saying that I wouldn't and assuming that some people think similarly to me.) Rather than being impulsive, a common philosophy seems to be that suicide is the ultimate expression of autonomy. It's my life and I should be allowed to end it.
I don't think either side is totally wrong or totally right. There are probably people for whom suicide is a passing wish, who, if prevented, will never attempt again. There are also people with a deep-seated wish to die, who have made good-faith attempts to engage in treatment without success, or who have problems that simply aren't going away (society seems to view terminal illness as the most valid one, but you might view others as equally valid).
What I think users here do often get wrong is assuming that suicide prevention is somehow a malicious act, an impingement upon your liberty designed to make you suffer because that suffering is good for the government/big business/the tendrils of the Vatican/GlaxoSmithKline/the lizards. With apologies for taking the piss out of that worldview - that's a fundamental misunderstanding. Suicide prevention efforts are rooted in a belief that suicide is usually bad for everyone, and stopping it allows people to live longer lives, which is good. That belief might not always be true, and might lead to some suffering, but it is sincere, benevolent, and altruistic.
