Suicide

[BlackBaron]

I tell you about real story . It is about man who left suicide note where he wrote that his decision to commit suicide was result of philosophical conclusion after reading Schopenhauer
I think it is interesting moment - man just killed himself for a philosophical idea.
I think that reasons for suicide can be more difficult.

[loserguy]

I agree with Woolyhats. If a person is in pain, has no quality of life and no chance of recovery and choose to take his life, I would agree.
As regards whether people agree with it or not if a person ultimately takes his own life it is his business and nobody else's.
Terminal illness aside I do think there are other alternatives such as keeping busy, speaking to friends and especially seeking counseling. Most people at various periods of their lives go through highs and lows and the key is to try to ride out the lows by finding out the cause and tackling it. I understand that sounds a little simplistic but it does work.
As to why people commit suicide, terminal illness aside it can be for a number of reasons from childish games, addiction problems and breakups. In many of these cases the people are devoid of hope, very upset constantly, low self esteem, lonely. While there are support services out there many people choose not to seek them. I believe that in many cases suicide is a result of a mental illness such as a person not being able to think rationally. This may be a temporary state of mind short or long term. It is very upsetting for the people left behind as in many cases many people feel guilty that they did not or could not do more for the person.
I do not understand mental illness so for all of you willing to condemn those who do end their lives I assume that you do understand it and I wonder if anyone of you would be able to provide the forum with a brief explanation on it so we can all understand and try to help those poor souls who are thinking that way?

[Cuddly]

As a means of escaping terminal cancer or alzheimers, maybe (yes). For any other reason absolutely no; it may be your life and your choice, but imagine the pain you would cause your near and dear. And even super distant forum readers. Even if life sucks today, it may be awesome tomorrow; if you quit you'll nevrr know

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Effective treatment of things like depression:http://psychcentral.com/lib/depression-t...th/0001521

The review concluded that in a hypothetical cohort of 100 patients with major depression, 29 would recover if given pharmacotherapy alone, 47 would recover if given psychotherapy alone, and 47 would recover if given combined treatment. On the other hand, negative outcome (i.e., dropout or poor response) can be expected in 52 pharmacotherapy patients, 30 psychotherapy patients, and 34 combined patients. This meta-analysis suggests that psychotherapy alone should usually be the initial treatment for depression rather than exposing patients to unnecessary costs and side effects of combined treatment (Antonuccio, 1995 [43]).

That dropout rate is a 'fail'.

29% recovery rate? 47% recovery rate? The reverse to that is 53% no success rate to 71%

Most do not recover - many just drop out of the program - they are dropping out because the 'therapy' ain't helping.

Those of you who are disposed to the myth that depression is actually treatable apparently have no idea of the terrific fail rate that modern medicine has with it.

What isn't talked about is how many of those who do get put on drugs for mild to moderate depression end up going way to the suicide range. Here in America they have these drug commercials, and the ones for depression include side effects, which those alone would cause a person to replaster their walls with their brains.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

As a means of escaping terminal cancer or alzheimers, maybe (yes). For any other reason absolutely no; it may be your life and your choice, but imagine the pain you would cause your near and dear. And even super distant forum readers. Even if life sucks today, it may be awesome tomorrow; if you quit you'll nevrr know

(Sigh)... and maybe unicorns riding rainbows will come down from the sky and give us candy - never know.....

[BlackBaron]

Your view of theme of suicide completely relate to medical aspects. But many people decide to commit suicide because they found that life is meaningless.
I think we have' not existential foundation. Life in philosophical sense means
nothing. We fill our existential emptiness with illusions - and they dying with us.

[MisterLove]

Totally against suicide.

Human life is sacred and not disposable under any circumstance.

[Cuddly]

(Sigh)... and maybe unicorns riding rainbows will come down from the sky and give us candy - never know.....

I will write/say whatever I have to, if I at all believe it can keep anybody from killing themselves, even if just for a while.



Your frontal lobe isn't fully developed until age 24, your frontal lobe is responsible for reasoning and decision making, among other things.
While your hormones are raging through your body during puberty, life can seem very dark. Even more so if you're facing additional challenges, that straight teenagers don't; such as homosexuality or (I believe) even worse, transgender. (That could maybe be misread as me thinking transgender is bad, that's not what I mean; I mean it may be harder to deal with as a teenager than plain homosexuality)
All in all, gay teenagers have physiological reasons to be a suicidal risk group. Atleast those factors will diminish with age.

[partis]

If somebody choose to commit suicide id do all i could to try and stop them but if they still went ahead with it i wouldnt speak ill of them, i couldnt think of anything that takes more courage though i think unless somebodys really ill they should just try to change first even if it means relocating and change your life completely but im not judgemental cause i know how hard things can be both internally and externally and people experience things differently so dont say " If i can manage so can they".

[Woollyhats]

"Your view of theme of suicide completely relate to medical aspects. But many people decide to commit suicide because they found that life is meaningless.
I think we have' not existential foundation. Life in philosophical sense means
nothing. We fill our existential emptiness with illusions - and they dying with us."

I guess that at the end of the day we have two fundamentally opposed opinions.

I believe that life is inherently meaningful through simply being and experiencing life - if we so choose to add personal meaning to our experiences. I suppose this is an optimistic outlook; and it makes sense that this viewpoint would ward off suicide --- optimistic individuals are less likely to suffer from mental health problems like depression. So yes, everyone is approaching this medically, but philosophy and the medical reality of mental health disorders are linked.

Consider this: The hypothalamus is a part of the brain that is in some control of the endocrine system through various endocrine glands, one particular component it influences is the stress response. If stress is long term, the response can lower immune function, leading to poor health and increased risk for infection.

My reason for showing this is that at a basic level, what we perceive in the world around us does have an affect on our physical bodies.

The way we view the world does affect what we do; philosophy can lead to medical disorders such as depression, which is a medical issue. This is why people are approaching this topic medically.

Do you want to discuss your idea from a purely philosophical standpoint? You could always make a thread on nihilism and why life is meaningless and pointless, but you'll find that the self preservation instinct will try to keep you alive, and while you're busy shutting out the good things in life you're going to be miserable...But even still, a debate or discussion on the topic would be interesting.