bigwomanbigwoman123
Member
- Sep 9, 2023
- 28
Here I want to give my thoughts on how suicide prevention currently functions, how its outcomes are actually more harmful then positive, how suicide prevention *should* work and how we can change the system. I also want to note that I am no expert. I am only giving information I can gather based on others' stories and, more rarely due to my silence in my suicidal ideation, my own experiences. Also, I tried my best with my grammar in this, I'm just not too good at english.
In the United Kingdom, and I'm sure many other countries, suicide prevention is done by these methods: take away the means of suicide, send them to a psych ward if a person shows risk factors and criminalise assisted suicide. If we look at the numbers before and after implementing these methods into a country, sure, the numbers go down. This should mean that the methods are working and investing more into this way of suicide prevention is good, right?
From an logical perspective, sure. But from a ethical perspective these are not only an ineffective methods but extremely immoral. I will show why all this does is result in more suffering. Let's take each of the ways our current society prevents suicide:
-Taking away the means of suicide; we all here can agree that those who are at risk of suicide are suffering. Many suffer physically, others mentally, but to suffer so much that you would prefer to be dead is unfortunate. To then take away the relief from the sufferer will only cause more misery. At this point I want to make extra clear that we should not just leave the sufferer alone and decide that we don't want to help them, I will refer about this later when I come to talk *good* suicide prevention.
-Sending those who risk suicide to psych wards; those who have been have described it as "depressing," "a toss-up," "boring," "worst experience of my life" by those on this website. Sure, as I've said before, this does decrease the numbers of suicide, but it greatly increases misery. How can taking someone, who is already suffering every day, to these places improve them at all? So many will lie about improving to get out, and I doubt it is any more than a waste of time for their thoughts. I don't want to gloss over the positives though, a few have describe it as a place that have helped them, but the "bad" ones seem to heavily outweigh the "good" ones.
-Criminalise assisted suicide; I can't blame you if you believe this to have positive impact. Why should someone who helped/caused someone to die intentionally walk free? I don't personally believe these people should be imprisoned, but I sure would hesitate to be their neighbour, for example.
So what how can we prevent suicide without causing them to suffer more? I said earlier that we should not just leave suicidal people alone, so surely we can only stop someone from ending their lives by forcefully going against their own wants? I believe the more effective and ethical way to prevent suicide will always be to address the actual causes of suicidal ideation. Surely there is no need to go against someones wishes to do suicide when there is no one there who wants to do suicide in the first place. The actual causes of suicidal ideation varies between each person. A lot of causes, perhaps even most, can be linked back to poverty; poverty causes isolation (which causes loneliness), poverty causes mental illness, poverty causes less access to healthcare (poor physical health can lead to suicide). I personally believe that the massive rise in suicide is caused fully by capitalism.
I want to end with an important note: advocate for the DECRIMINALISATION of suicide, legalised suicide should be avoided completely. Legalising suicide could, i argue would, lead to the state using this to murder countless people and shake the blood of their hands with the excuse "they chose it, it was their individual decision". Many of us are aware of the amount of suicidal ideation transgender people go through, about 40%. The legalisation of suicide would put the trans community at risk, greater than even now, of being genocided; deny them the right to transition, restrict their access to public spaces, spread propaganda that this is for the safety of everyone else and that they are nothing but a danger to people, demonise, humiliate, infantilise and alienate them, make them suffer so much that they would prefer death, and offer them suicide.
In the United Kingdom, and I'm sure many other countries, suicide prevention is done by these methods: take away the means of suicide, send them to a psych ward if a person shows risk factors and criminalise assisted suicide. If we look at the numbers before and after implementing these methods into a country, sure, the numbers go down. This should mean that the methods are working and investing more into this way of suicide prevention is good, right?
From an logical perspective, sure. But from a ethical perspective these are not only an ineffective methods but extremely immoral. I will show why all this does is result in more suffering. Let's take each of the ways our current society prevents suicide:
-Taking away the means of suicide; we all here can agree that those who are at risk of suicide are suffering. Many suffer physically, others mentally, but to suffer so much that you would prefer to be dead is unfortunate. To then take away the relief from the sufferer will only cause more misery. At this point I want to make extra clear that we should not just leave the sufferer alone and decide that we don't want to help them, I will refer about this later when I come to talk *good* suicide prevention.
-Sending those who risk suicide to psych wards; those who have been have described it as "depressing," "a toss-up," "boring," "worst experience of my life" by those on this website. Sure, as I've said before, this does decrease the numbers of suicide, but it greatly increases misery. How can taking someone, who is already suffering every day, to these places improve them at all? So many will lie about improving to get out, and I doubt it is any more than a waste of time for their thoughts. I don't want to gloss over the positives though, a few have describe it as a place that have helped them, but the "bad" ones seem to heavily outweigh the "good" ones.
-Criminalise assisted suicide; I can't blame you if you believe this to have positive impact. Why should someone who helped/caused someone to die intentionally walk free? I don't personally believe these people should be imprisoned, but I sure would hesitate to be their neighbour, for example.
So what how can we prevent suicide without causing them to suffer more? I said earlier that we should not just leave suicidal people alone, so surely we can only stop someone from ending their lives by forcefully going against their own wants? I believe the more effective and ethical way to prevent suicide will always be to address the actual causes of suicidal ideation. Surely there is no need to go against someones wishes to do suicide when there is no one there who wants to do suicide in the first place. The actual causes of suicidal ideation varies between each person. A lot of causes, perhaps even most, can be linked back to poverty; poverty causes isolation (which causes loneliness), poverty causes mental illness, poverty causes less access to healthcare (poor physical health can lead to suicide). I personally believe that the massive rise in suicide is caused fully by capitalism.
I want to end with an important note: advocate for the DECRIMINALISATION of suicide, legalised suicide should be avoided completely. Legalising suicide could, i argue would, lead to the state using this to murder countless people and shake the blood of their hands with the excuse "they chose it, it was their individual decision". Many of us are aware of the amount of suicidal ideation transgender people go through, about 40%. The legalisation of suicide would put the trans community at risk, greater than even now, of being genocided; deny them the right to transition, restrict their access to public spaces, spread propaganda that this is for the safety of everyone else and that they are nothing but a danger to people, demonise, humiliate, infantilise and alienate them, make them suffer so much that they would prefer death, and offer them suicide.
