Discussion Why is "slow suicide" not stigmatized by society?

[ericwilkinson]

For example, if someone willingly gave themselves cancer from smoking or a deadly virus like HIV, people wouldn't see it as suicide even if they refused treatment which would lead to their guaranteed death. Both are caused by the person so it can be said to be a slow suicide.

The fact is though, society doesn't condemn smoking and doesn't call it selfish. I suppose the grief of an immediate suicide from hanging, drowning, shooting oneself is too much for some to bear and undeniably suicide.

 

[Vegrau]

Because they dont feel immediate responsibility towards that action (slow suicide). They dont care as long as the consequences are not immediately feel by them. You can see that trait in action all around you and me.

 

[Fr2]

My immediate thought is that that's because those suicides are a side-effect, not a goal. They are the result of indulging in specific pleasures, and people generally understand pleasure, understand paying a price for it, understand sometimes being unable of denying oneself the pleasure. The death is imposed on you as an outside counterbalance.
Immediate suicide (for those who haven't been through the pain that makes the idea of dying a pleasurable one) implies going toward pain, fear, hurt, loss and what else. It doesn't compute. Even if they 'know' you are in extreme pain now, death is still only bad and pain for them, the alchemy didn't happen in them and no 'dry' explanation can change that.

 

[ThatIsTheQuestion]

I think it's because it's so easy to blame it on something else. It happens a lot with diabetics, alcoholics, etc. They just get tired of life, let go, and let nature take its course. Most people have a hard time seeing that as anything but selfishness. It's not. It's pain. The fact that it isn't immediate doesn't change what it is.

 

[BeenDoneForSoLong]

I don't really agree with the replies so far.
I think the biggest thing with suicide is it's finality and what links in with that- is that people DO recover from these slumps of depression, cruel upbringings ect. THATS why it's so hard from a societal perspective to outright indulge in pro choice insta-suicide. Because you COULD get better.

This is what I think your question links into- a slow suicide due to liver abuse ect. CAN be stopped. There's not one person alive right now... Who has effectively commited suicide and can talk about it. Let that sink in. Not ONE person has committed suicide- and can relay the positive affect it's had on themselves.

So therefore how can the societal perspective shift? There's no feedback, no case studies of how positive suicide was for the individual, and there can't be...

I know that I can't find any meaning in life, and I don't think I CAN... Right now at least, but no one can really empathise with that; unless they're in the same position, which if they AREA, they're allready planning on catching the bus themselves, and isn't really in a position to change anything now are they?

 

[TAW122]

@Fr2 brings up a good point. It seems like people are less sensitive to slower suicides and/or indirect suicides (actions that eventually lead up to death) rather than direct and immediate suicide, where someone actively and deliberately does the deed.

@BeenDoneForSoLong I suppose this means the people who are genuinely thinking of actually attempting suicide would have to do it discreetly and hope no one catches on, intervenes, or gets in their way. It really sucks that people who are desperate to leave this shitty world, not only have to fight their own SI, muster the courage, prepare the methods and go through, and then on top of all that, have to keep it secret from everyone around them and put a lot more effort in order to avoid raising any red flags. I wished it was easier and done more peacefully, but the situation we have now is the situation we have now.

 

[Divine Trinity]

Cognitive Dissonance (incorrect, CD requires awareness of a contradiction), we're not told to be upset by incremental or collective suicide. The layman's understanding of psychology involves to various degrees: magic, smoke and mirrors, an out of context misquote from "On the Origin of Species", and "common sense". There's 1000s of addictive behaviors to develop in order to avoid ctb, which includes incremental suicide, without things like sex, sugar, and recreational drugs a lot of people would have/be kill ed/ing themselves too.

Cigarettes and liquor also generate large sums of profit and revenue for the capitalist and state officials from a (short) lifetime source, vs a one-time purchase. Dysfunctional households due to an addict also creates continuous generations of desperate workers, uninformed citizens, and gullible soldiers for cannon fodder and human experimentation. The good things in life.

 

[ish]

Life itself is for an individual slow
suicide.

 

[Codieb1]

Smoking and drinking is "socially acceptable". That's all the info you really need. Society are hypocritical assholes.