Resource Some MORE good posts and threads criticizing suicide prevention

[TAW122]

While I lambast Reddit a lot for their shitty policies, censorship, and even what they have become as of the last few years, there are a few subreddits that contain some good nuggets of threads and posts out there that I found helpful, relevant to me. Namely, these stem from r/unpopularopinion, r/CMV, and r/antipsychiatry to name a few. The ones that I want to list out come from r/unpopularopinion and there are some good posts here in regards to suicide prevention.

This thread post by u/Baintball333 shows how fucked up society is to tell people to continue living despite the person suffering and he even used Robin Williams as an example.

People have the right to end their life. Who are you to tell them to keep on trucking? I understand that they are loved ones but that doesn't give you the right to tell them how to go about their life(or how they end it). This world is not for everyone. Some do not want to keep hanging around. That's up to them.
If you think people should be able to love who they want, practice what religion they want then you need to support if someone doesn't want to live anymore.
Before I get comments about "Oh you would change your mind if someone you loved killed themselves" I have had family do that. I understand why they did it. Nothing will change the fact and life goes on.
Robin Williams was an amazing man, he chose to kill himself and he is one of the most love men in film history.
No one should be forced to live their life just for their families sake.

A post by a u/[deleted] user pretty much took the words out of my mouth and shared similar sentiments about what the ultimate meaning of suicide prevention is. Said user says that suicide prevention is mainly for the people to feel better about themselves and I couldn't agree more. Some users in the replies get it and agree with said OP in that thread.

To actually help a suicidal person, you have to know them well enough to have earned their deepest trust. As a stranger, sure you can physically prevent someone from killing themselves, or use threats or persuasion to make them stop. But if their suicide attempt is not of the impulsive variety, then the problems (and pain) driving them to suicide can not been touched at all by a stranger's temporary intervention.
Since it is so popular nowadays to liken mental suffering to physical illness, then we can use that analogy here to illustrate. A person's decision to kill themselves is unquestionably a symptom of a disease, not a disease itself. Imagine an initiative aimed at "Cough Prevention", whose goal it is to stop everyone from coughing regardless if they have the flu, pneumonia, or AIDS. Is it really helping people to eradicate a visible symptom, while they may be slowly dying regardless?
I think the whole language and attitude of "Suicide Prevention" is just wrong and actually hurts people. If you want to stop people from killing themselves then it requires the hard work of battling the real causes of suicide: alienation, meaninglessness, hopelessness, poverty, illness etc... and finding out in individual cases which of these apply. I think to a large degree it is a sick society that drives people to kill themselves, and "Suicide Prevention" seems a convenient way to put all the focus on the symptom, cover up the disease, and make people feel better about the status quo.

The user, u/calshu, mentions that all humans have the right to die just as much as all humans have the right to life. The person criticizes the claim that "just because someone wants to die, they (by default) aren't in the right state of mind" is wrong and I agree with calshu here.

To add to calshu's post, I'll mention two points. Logically, it is a catch-22 because it's saying if you want to die/suicide, then you aren't mentally sound, but if you are mentally sound, then you would never consider wanting to die, it's illogical. Then there is a double-standard to which in the legal system, if a criminal commits a crime, said criminal would be held accountable, legally responsible and prosecuted and sentenced according to whatever the law decrees. So by that definition, if someone commits a crime, it is as though their are considered bad people, criminals, evil people and should be punished accordingly, regardless of their mental state, yet if someone who is tired of life decides life is not worth living and wants to check out, he/she is deemed as less than a human and irrational. It's inconsistent because on one hand they are saying that criminals (even if they aren't mentally sound, they are held accountable and punished accordingly but someone who is just sick and tired of life and wants out, well he/she is not rational and would end up being locked against his/her will).

I want to start by apologizing to anyone this is going to offend, because I get why it's hurtful, but I can't stop thinking it's true.
I think people have a right to decide to die. The only difficulty is figuring out whether they're in the right mental state to make that decision. Some argue that anyone willing to die isn't in the right mental state because things can always get better, but I disagree. There are situations when things are very unlikely to get better (painful chronic illness, for example.) , and someone can be clear-headed and still decide they've had enough. Virginia Woolf isn't the best example, but her quote says it best "To look life in the face... to know it for what it is...to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away." I think that choice is a fundamental human right.

All in all, I felt like all these users pretty much said what I said, but just in different words. They arrived (more or less) at the same, if not similar conclusions I did.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

Our planet is getting overpopulated and it's becoming a real issue. Pollution is getting pretty bad right now. So anyways, if we let suicidal people kill themselves, we can somewhat help out overpopulation.

Talk about reducing one's footprint for the planet!

Sorry, but this sounds like propaganda. Seems rational, but I detect myth in there. Myths seek to stir up emotion and validate an agenda, both putting it out in the open and obscuring what's really behind it.

No offense to your intentions, @thrw_a_way1221221, but I suggest with great respect for your intelligence and personal platform that you look at that one more closely, and consider whether it strengthens your stance or appropriates it for a different agenda. If you are motivated to do so, I would even recommend digging into that person's post history if possible to see if they demonstrate they have an agenda or platform.

 

[TAW122]

Talk about reducing one's footprint for the planet!

Sorry, but this sounds like propaganda. Seems rational, but I detect myth in there. Myths seek to stir up emotion and validate an agenda, both putting it out in the open and obscuring what's really behind it.

No offense to your intentions, @thrw_a_way1221221, but I suggest with great respect for your intelligence and personal platform that you look at that one more closely, and consider whether it strengthens your stance or appropriates it for a different agenda. If you are motivated to do so, I would even recommend digging into that person's post history if possible to see if they demonstrate they have an agenda or platform.

Yeah I think that one does seem a bit suspicious. I checked that user's post history as well as the background so I decided edit it from my post.