Discussion Suicide Prevention

[ARW3N]

Most suicide prevention programmes are based on the premise that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Admittedly, some of the reasons people provide for wanting to end their lives such as girlfriend or boyfriend problems are quite frankly temporary and wouldn't be given serious consideration by a euthanasia physician. However, many of life's problems are insoluble such as racism, terminal cancer, chronic depression, etc. What good is talk therapy or anti-depressants to Native Americans with the highest suicide rates?

 

[Deleted member 17949]

Yeah, I don't think I can be fixed. It's made pretty clear that help allows you to manage your problems rather than fix them. I don't see the point in living if I can't really change the things I don't like about myself.

 

[Alucard]

"The problem is not suicide, it is the biological or social conditions that cause it." Roland Jaccard

Prevention campaigns attack the surface of the problem.

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

From a user on here:

I'm so sick of this narrative from mainstream media and society. Suicide is a product of mental illness...which can all be resolved if you get help. Call this support line. Where you'll hear the same mindless platitudes and if you do admit you're thinking of killing yourself, get thrown in hospital in an involuntary mental health hold. Stripped of your dignity, your belongings searched, your appearance and belongings analysed, medicated, watched, having to pretend you're okay to be let out.

Tell me how this is supposed to help? And when you are let out, you're given a prescription and a number to call.

Whatever happened in your life to make you want to end it...abuse, trauma, poverty, homelessness, homophobia, racism, disability, parental expectations, broken relationships....whatever, none of that matters. If you just talk it out, access the "support", you'll be fine. No one ever talks about addressing the issues that put you there in the first place.

No one who wasn't already thinking about suicide - as an issue at least, if not an option for them personally - seeks out sites like this. And it's the only place where people like us can talk openly. (I'm new here but was on ASH back in the early 00s, I just wish I'd paid more attention to methods).

It's natural for those who've lost a loved one to look for answers and lash out at those they believe are to blame. It's lazy and irresponsible for the media to join in. Look at a society with appalling mental health support, few resources for the disadvantaged, and a societal discourse that forces open conversation about suicide into trite notions of support and people who can't even be honest for fear they'll wind up in a mental health unit, not allowed to leave. -Suicidal stranger from the internet

 

[ARW3N]

Suicide in most countries has been decriminalised and medicalised into a psychiatric problem. However, suicide remains neither a novel nor odd idea for the person who takes his own life, but what it has always been, a solution.

 

[TAW122]

I fully agree with you. There are many life's problems that are not solveable by talk therapy and medication and at best, it only deludes, distracts, and dismisses the root problems that are making people miserable. Instead of addressing these problems, these anti-choicers (suicide preventionists) ignore the cause of the suicidal ideation and suicide, but only focuses on the symptoms while invalidating the person's woes and patting themselves on the back like they are heroes. They are the epitome of trash.

"The problem is not suicide, it is the biological or social conditions that cause it." Roland Jaccard

Prevention campaigns attack the surface of the problem.

This is a great quote and very relatable. It's sad that society cannot (and refuses) to acknowledge such a reality, but instead puts the onus onto the people who are suffering.

 

[HeavensOpenDoor]

With me the problem is that being willing to die for your country is ok, or willing to die in the line-of-duty like a cop is ok also, but being willing to die because you choose not to go through life's bullshit is unacceptable?

Or choosing to die when other people don't want you to is somehow selfish? I think the majority of people are just batshit insane and are trying to sanely rationalize something they cannot or refuse to understand. I stopped going to therapy early on because I realized that they don't really give a shit. They just want to get paid, and they do, very well. How many therapists would do what they do for minimum wage?

They just pretend to understand what you're going through, clock out, and get into their fancy car thinking about how crazy they think you are.

 

[I screwed up]

Well In my country suicide prevention help lines and organizations are a sham ..

 

[ARW3N]

With me the problem is that being willing to die for your country is ok, or willing to die in the line-of-duty like a cop is ok also, but being willing to die because you choose not to go through life's bullshit is unacceptable?

Or choosing to die when other people don't want you to is somehow selfish? I think the majority of people are just batshit insane and are trying to sanely rationalize something they cannot or refuse to understand. I stopped going to therapy early on because I realized that they don't really give a shit. They just want to get paid, and they do, very well. How many therapists would do what they do for minimum wage?

They just pretend to understand what you're going through, clock out, and get into their fancy car thinking about how crazy they think you are.

I think you've made a good point. Suicide has been decriminalised, but assisting a suicide is still regarded as a criminal offence. Either killing yourself is wrong or allowable. Society can't have it both ways. In the end, of course, society had no other choice but to decriminalise suicide because they can't hold court over a dead person for which suicide was an effective solution. I don't honestly believe suicides are roasting eternally in some Dantean inferno.

 

[lostangel]

I feel like suicide prevention is just boosting your ego. You ''save'' someone's life just so you can tell yourself you're a good person.

 

[Philosykos]

I've had the luck to make the acquaintance of a handful of people who are at least willing to entertain the idea that death may be preferable over a lifetime of debilitating mental health and social issues that I could only 'cope' with by becoming a medicated zombie. That understanding meant more to me than all the empty life advice from the so-called professionals who are supposed to be experts on mental health.