Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp
i agree. maybe in extreme cases i wouldn't be as critical. but for the most part its pure cowardice.
|
Ultimately, I think the only situation where a perfectly sane, rational and right of mind person could consider suicide is to escape a terminal illness. Otherwise, I would suggest that virtually every person who attempts it is facing some mighty significant demons, at least to them.
That said, I can understand the sentiment. For my own part, it took the murder of my aunt to snap me out of the desire to kill myself. At the time, I was convinced that my death would have been a relief to my family. Watching the reaction of everyone around me, and the grief was enough to convince me that life was something precious after all. It took almost a decade more before I could seriously tackle my depression, and begin to overcome the rest of my demons, but for someone who values life, I can understand why they feel suicide is a cowardly act.
Speaking of my aunts murder, her soon to be ex husband was the killer, and we knew he was depressed about the breakup. We also knew he might have been suicidal, but he was actually in some form of counseling, iirc. At the time, the general attitude of my family was the same as yours - it would be cowardly for him to kill himself, easy way out, special place in hell, etc. Not surprisingly, after he killed my aunt, everyone wished he had offed himself.
Two years later, one of my uncles committed suicide. He had battled drug and alcohol addiction for a long time; my aunt that was killed was his strongest supporter, and with her gone, he no longer had the strength to face down his demons. Outwardly, we thought he was getting better. But when that news came, nobody called him a coward, nobody insulted his memory. All we did was hope that he had finally found peace.
Is suicide cowardly? I don't think so. It takes a lot of strength to battle your demons... For most of my life, I had felt like I was treading water. I had just enough strength to keep my head above the surface, but there were so many times that things threatened to overwhelm me. It actually takes a lot of courage to withstand the emotional battering you face. The battle tires you out, however. Slowly, inevitably, it wears you down. When you finally lose your strength, it pulls you under. I don't view sucides as cowards, but rather as victims of a personal war.