Why do people say suicide is selfish?

Question

If you kill yourself because you think the people you love would be better off without you, that may or may not be accurate, but it certainly doesn't sound selfish to me. What's selfish is expecting someone to stick around and be miserable just so you won't have to miss them. And what if there really is no one who'd care at all if you were gone? Then how can it possibly be selfish to kill yourself? Wouldn't it just be one less person, and so that much more resources to go around?

Answer 1

The People you leave behind will suffer. and it's a pain that will never go away. they will blame themselfs. wonder why they didn't see the signs. it's Just not the best thing to do to the ones you love. it hurts bad. that's about all i can say. please get some help. things will get better.

Answer 2

Melissa,
After trying to commit suicide over 20 times I can say that suicide is a selfish act.
Without even going as far as to be successful, I realized how sad and confused it made my family to realize that I did not want to live. I lost all of my friends and my family still doubts my happiness to this day, 3 years later.
It's not that they want you to sit around and be miserable, it's that they want you to get better and achieve the happiness that is possible for everyone given time and work put into getting better.
I know this may sound like bull right now, but you'll have to trust me that it's true, because I've been there and done that many times.

Answer 3

First off you have to think about why you would actually want to kill yourself, and then come to realization that there is no such thing as a reason to kill yourself. Even if you had all the answers to the universe, or a perfect life or neither. why? You only live once. The average person lives to around 60-70 years old. 65 years isn't a very long time to wait to die naturally. What you need to do is slap yourself and stop sinking into that dark delusion.

Answer 4

I do not think I would consider suicide to be selfish because the person who is contemplating such an act is not in a rational state of mind. What it does do is leave behind family and friends with guilt , anger, depression, and this undying pain in the pit of your stomach. How do I know that? I lost a 23 year old son to suicide . With that goes a part of you never to be the same again. It is sometimes a catalyst for other illnesses as has also been experienced by family members. We will always miss him and would give anything to hold him in my arms again, I am sure if the opportunity came again and knowing all that happens to the ones he left behind, it would not be an option. There is help for any one considering this and it is not shameful to seek it.

Answer 5

If you are believing, in a state of depression, that nobody loves you, you are wrong. Everybody has somebody that will be heart-broken if they die. A mother, a sibling, a friend...somebody. Just because people are angry with you, it doesn't mean that they don't love you or care what happens to you. Even if they have said that they don't want you in their lives anymore, it doesn't mean that they don't care. They are just angry, and possibly hurt. And if you want to commit suicide just to hurt or "get back" at them, you won't be around to enjoy their pain.

Suicide is selfish because the person committing suicide is not really thinking about anyone but themselves. It's like, "poor me, poor me, nobody loves me, I might as well be dead!" That is a load of self-pitying crap! It takes alot more courage to go on and do the reparations to your life to make it right again, and make amends to those that you may have hurt and to forgive those who may have hurt you. Suicide is a cowardly way out. It is also a permanent solution to a temporary problem. This too, shall pass.

Some people believe that, if you commit suicide, the first thing that you are faced with in the after-life is all of the pain that your selfish act caused to others that were left behind. You have to feel all of their pain. I would not want to have to deal with that, would you? I think not.

It is also not like one less person in the world will do much good as far as saving the resources of the planet...PLEASE!! You have got to get off of the pity pot, and start picking yourself up and putting your life back together. So suicide isn't going to help the world. That is nonsense.

I know that it is hard to get yourself back together. I have had to do it. It isn't easy, but it is the right thing to do. You might think that it is too much to handle, but it isn't. If I can do it, anyone can. It is time to get serious about fixing your life and getting your act together. You would be surprised how many clouds have a silver lining, once you really start looking for them.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to work!! If you were to spend as much energy on getting yourself together as you are on pitying yourself, you would be all better by now!

Answer 6

Someone on here said she has seen the families left behind? I AM THE FAMILY LEFT BEHIND! It is the absolute worst feeling in the world to know that your loved one was so miserable and not even you made them happy enough to stay alive. Yeah, my Dad commited suicide when I was 9 years old and to this day it still hurts(I will be 22 in October, his death date was July 24 so in 23 days it will be 12 years ago that it happened). My aunt blames herself(yes, to this day, in fact she was crying the other day when we had a conversation about him), she says she didn't listen well enough when he was crying for help and since nobody helped him he took his own life. She says she will live with the guilt until the day she dies. I don't have closure, I ask myself everyday if he even thought of me or my 5 year old(at the time, she's 17now) sister before he did it and what was on his mind...did he hesitate for even just a second because he knew that he would be leaving us behind? Or were we the last things on his mind? Does he regret it? Does he care? Honey, I have been through ALOT in my life, so many horrible things have happened to me but I keep my head held up high and my feet steady on the ground. DONT LET LIFE PASS YOU BY!!! Don't sit on your pity pot whining about things that happened to you, make the best of what you got and don't ever stop smiling, even if it's a fake smile, just smile, it always makes you feel better to smile. Believe me, you don't want to miss out on life, it is way too precious.

Answer 7

The problem with just punching that eternal time-card is this: We have very little idea how much gravity our actions have upon one another. The very slightest smile - every little gesture - can have a severe impact upon all the lives we touch until our time is over. The act of suicide is simply one of murder. Of course, it's selfish because it's not an act of love, usually - yes, if you're giving your life so that others may live, that's different. But, if you're doing it just so that you can end the pain you're going thru, then yes, it's totally selfish - you're thinking of no one but yourself and the pain you're going thru. But REMEMBER THIS: Pain has a way of maturing you and everyone respects that. So should you.

Answer 8

As someone who contemplates suicide on a regular basis, I have to say that you make some good points. My own personal belief is that we are here for some reason. We may have things that we need to work out in this life, or we may be here to help certain others achieve some kind of enlightenment. I think that if we take matters into our own hands and end our own lives, we're just going to make things worse. I suppose that if you're an atheist, this argument is meaningless, but I have seen things and experienced things that lead me to believe that there is more to our existence than we can perceive with our five senses. Email me if you'd like to discuss these things. Don't check out just yet, okay?

Answer 9

I was 12 when I first attepted suicide. My father was very abusive, and did unimaginable things to my mother, brother, and I. It was christmas eve, and he had gone particularly too far.
but at the last minute, I couldn't.for the simple reason that the people I, myself cared about would NEED me in their lives in time to come. regaurdless of who cared about me, it was becasue of my own feelings for others that made me know I wasn;'t broken. and It wasnt easy, it was the hardest thing i ever had to do. and it did hurt. But i have survived that whole ordeal, and it is long over. i will never forget it, it is a part of who i am. I am strong enough to survive not killing myself. and now, I no matter what happend, i can think, I have survived worse. And I am certainluy glad I didn't, because in all the years since then, I have known such happiness.

Answer 10

Instead of repeating what others wrote about how people left feel, I'll attempt to answer the question you asked. It is selfish because doing so only "solves" that person's problems. The person may be concerned with other people and situations in the world, but the action they take only affects confronting their problems.

Answer 11

Its selfish because your not considering the people who care for you. Suicide is generally a result of depression and the depressed person cant see all of the people around him/her that do care about them and suffer a great loss when the loved one kills them self. What do you think the mother of someone who commits suicide is going to think and feel for the rest of her life after her child kills them self. Failure & depression would top my list! and thoes feelings as a parent never go away! Not to mention from a medical standpoint, where you are taking time and rescources from paramedics and emergency room personell who could be taking care of accident victoms and genuinely sick people.