why is suicide viewed as the fault of a failed individual, not a failed society

[nembutal]

it has been 6 months of trying to solve an issue i am having with my prescriber and insurance as to why i am not receiving my prescribed medication monthly and with week long pauses in between.

there are many more examples of society failing the mentally ill rather than the socially accepted vice versa. the suicidal are often seen as flawed by their own transgressions, rather than their irregularities being perpetuated by or even CAUSED by the systems put in place around them. the American government certainly isn't making it easy to NOT be suicidal.

a student with a different learning style feeling failed by the academic system.
a person prone to stress working full time due to horrible wages.
don't get me started on the fact that some systems are DESIGNED for those who aren't BORN INTO WEALTH to FAIL.

our suicides will never be seen as the result of the culmination of low wages, of corporate monotony, of greedy shareholder policies. we will always be seen as failing to have remedied some flaw in ourselves that inevitably led to our deaths.

current society places so many stressful systems into place that fail to acknowledge our innate purpose to survive the night and breed that it shocks me that suicide isn't commonplace. we have strayed so far from our natural purpose and so deep into the stressors of consumerism and meaning-seeking that it shouldn't be surprising that many are choosing to opt out.

why isn't the rising suicide rate being attributed to the fact that the population has woken up to realize how corrupt and unforgiving the world around us is?

please feel free to help me expand on this thought more broadly by contributing to its discussion and analysis. it is 2am and i cant exactly place what i am trying to say into correct wording. thank you~

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I assume that the reason is because, at least in the West, the strong individualistic culture breeds the idea that you are supposed to take responsibility for yourself. It pushes the idea that any issues that you have in life are your fault and it is up to you to fix them, and this includes any issues with your mental health. That's why you have people who treat issues like poverty and homelessness as something that arises due to an individual's failures in life that can be easily fixed if they just started working harder, rather than as a reflection of the flaws in how our society functions. If you are suicidal then that is your fault.

It's pretty stupid.

 

[lamargue]

i think the general view of individual responsibility as an antipode to pro-choice discourse is described by Thatcher quite well

"They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours."

 

[Holu]

Meritocracy and rugged individualism. It's the western and "American" spirit. Additionally family is also blamed, since it's seen as a failure of family. Also, it's easier to address the faults of the individual rather than the the bigger system involved in the matter.

 

[ThatGuyOverThere]

Why Would an abuser ever admit guilt?

 

[SocialSoil]

oh my god, i understand you a lot on some level. i feel as an error in our country system, even though it's not my fault. child protective services where i live are barely working. i should have become an orphan long while ago, yet these idiots hadn't moved their finger until i literally went to their office. they started moving only when seen me hysterical. call me lazy, but i don't have powers or psychological setup to work. i just am used to thought i am a mistake so i shouldn't even try if my existence is a problem from the start, and i'm gonna fix it anyway, so why bother?

but, you know, it could be different if cps worked. if i became an orphan, i could be able to get financial support up to my age of 25 due to college, plus payment due to 'loss of parents'. at the point, my mother was ignoring my existence for 5 months, and father too, so i was fed up. why not try to sue them by myself? but i needed to work quickly, cuz at the start of august i turn 18.

i went to cps, and first thing they tell me - 'where have you been this whole time?'. and what is hilarious - we have centre of social help to families and children. i was on regular check-ins because they knew about my family, specialists from centre had been filing reports on my family since february 1st, and these shitbags just didn't care.

in the end i managed to get a lawsuit statement that was approved at court, but the problem? judge was on vacation. they picked the date that was just 2 days after my burthday. when at court i pointed that i filed a lawsuit at the appropriate time since i wasn't 18, judge interrupted me and said it doesn't matter. and as a representative of cps at court was the woman who made me hysterical at the first place and didn't care. everyone just didn't care. i wanted to hit this woman.

so... after that i just gave up. since life is going to get harder and harder and i know i just won't survive these trials. nah, fuck it. i'm tired, i worked so hard for nothing. that was breaking point.

but, as society loves to do, they'll blame something stupid like 'bad video games' or 'teen broken love' or 'he was just stupid' or 'everything was normal. why would he do so?'. no one will think what's wrong with system. eh. anyways thanks for reading my yapping and thank you for making this post. it's just cruel when people who supposed to care don't work properly.

 

[nembutal]

bump

 

[Plentiful_Despair]

Because society doesn't give a shit about "losers", and a "loser" is anyone who can't keep up with being a good obedient participant in the capitalistic ratrace. Depressed or dead people are not productive, they are a living reminder of the failures of our cultural systems and therefore a threat to "justice and order". Thats the reason why suicide is illegal in many countries and attempts will get you in closed psycho facility.

 

[whydidthishappen]

The de-prescribing laws in North Carolina USA, circa 2021 did not allow me to get my controlled medication and proper mental health care circa 2022 and thereafter.

You should not deny someone on a controlled substance previously prescribed, weaned but once again forced to take it without a prescription due to lack of provider care- after 7 months I was quickly weaned off the drug And was forced to find alternatives for this problem and labeled as drug seeking. I was, in fact, seeking drugs because chemical dependency is a REAL thing.
This is thanks to the Sackler family.

I had to pay out of pocket or nil. I was on waitlists for months out just to see someone under my insurance. (My insurance was terrible and I was struggling financially) And everyone I spoke to would not help me with the issue. I greatly underestimated the consequences that it took on me biochemically. Not to mention- not one person in my immediate circle was looking out for me, and I walked into the trap of predators making my already pre existing suicidality issues much much worse than I could have ever conceived possible.

This is a massive fail on the part of the health care system, but more broadly the social circles or lack thereof that we are exposed to. And I suppose, if I was around one individual in the healthcare system who identified me as a high risk- who would have prioritized me as an individual with a large problem, rather than a mere number with legal liability, this could have been properly dealt with. I could not help that my social circle was terrible and that no one cared what happened to me while in psychosis.

I was a 33 year old woman at the time of medication withdrawal. WAY too much emphasis was put on the therapy side and personality-disordered issue. I really should have been in a hospital. I hurt myself during this period in such a way that it cannot be reversed.
And still, after my death I will be blamed with individual fault. It will be treated with indifference because I could not advocate for myself or more specifically, I brought it upon myself for being such a nuisance to society. It begs the question to how we treat people here.
Is someone truly addicted or prescribed?
And should we treat all cases as the fault of individual choice if our choice making abilities are altered significantly?

 

[Ariii]

I feel like for a lot of people it's hard to confront the fact that so many people fall through the cracks in our society, so it's just easier to blame the individual. A lot of the time, it's easier to comprehend "This person was depressed" rather than the actual issues in society. Most ppl don't even want to think about it and want to live in ignorant bliss

Also I think it may be a byproduct of individualism. If in society, there's a "I take care of myself only" attitude, there will usually be the view of "They were responsible for their wellbeing and obviously they failed."

 

[brokeandbroken]

People don't want to feel bad especially in a hedonistic world. If they can turn outwards instead of feeling whatever it is themselves they will. Most people really only truly care about themselves. They just interact with people to see what they can get from them power, money, sex, etc.... People aren't good. When the people that they failed can't speak for themselves who cares. They aren't going to hear the voices from the graves. Even if it were possible they are just listening to themselves anyways.

 

[Hotsackage]

They view us as lazy or not trying hard enough, meanwhile if they had what we had clinical, aka their brain just doing random not good shit when it's not well, they would probably not be here.

 

[SilentSadness]

I think it's mostly due to toxic positivity. If someone really likes a book and shares it with someone, but the other person doesn't like it, they are not going to see it as a failure of the book. Unfortunately, this attitude is extended to society.

 

[Endless_suffering]

Because in this world no society wants to accept responsibility for the ones they have failed. So they blame the ones they have failed by saying those people have actually failed themselves. And that was stepping up and saying we failed them. They blame us.

 

[badtothebone]

I never heard of blaming the individual! Parents and community normally blame themselves, school or mental health that they didn't see. Mental health is important as our physical and now people can see that. I didn't say society because I know not everyone cares about us. When my son passed away I only blame myself. I didn't want to blame others I can only speak about my faults. Anyway, I never heard the word " failed" about any one who died by suicide.

 

[cursedbynature64]

It's easier to put the blame on the individual than it is to admit that we are living in a society that pushes people to suicide