Suicide - A Brave & Desperate Escape, or A Coward's Way Out?

Question

A decision to take one's own life is always sad, but how is this decision by suicidals perceived by you?

Answer 1

A person trapped in their own mind trying to get free. A selfish person. A verbally abused, physically abused, or emotionally abused kid that grew up to just die. A normal person who is tired of the crazy world they live in. A drug or alcohol addict who takes the fun a little too far. Brave and Desperate? Cowardly? Or just a mental illness? It's no one's business to know these things except the person themself and whoever they want to share their problems with. I haven't lived their life so I can't judge any of their decisions or actions whatsoever. All I know is that they're one thing-Suicidal. One word that covers all of the things I listed above. A suicidal person is suicidal.

Answer 2

Depends on how you look at it. It takes some guts to do that. The cowards are the ones that try and can't follow through with it. Brave doesn't feel like the right word. Ballsy, maybe. Desperate doesn't sound right, either. That would mean that there is something that they are striving to achieve, and I doubt that there is much of that. Doesn't really take a lot of striving to achieve suicide...well...unless you are a coward. LOL.

I would view suicide as something more people should do since not as many who talk about it all the time actually follow through with it, and many of those who people say shouldn't have done it probably did the right thing. If they are as useless to this world to a point where they think they should off themselves, I wish I could find some ways to help them out in their useless venture.

Either shut up and follow through or find something better to do. It's selfish, stupid, and an act by people who are the ultimate expression of an attention w h o r e.

Of course there is the exception of those who are in pain, have fatal illnesses, etc. There is definitely some empathy for those people, and one can only understand, even if in disagreement, to their wishes. Nobody should have to live through a torment to a means that they can comfortably make for themselves sooner.

Answer 3

No offence intended, but I have to wonder if you've ever been there. Unless one has ever been in circumstances where suicide seemed like an option, one can never understand.

For those who jump from burning buildings to die on the ground, desperation will drive people to do desperate things. Some of those who jump may actually believe there's a chance of survival compared to the certain death of the fire. Is that suicide, or an attempt to survive?

Try being a child in a world where everyone seems to hate you, where abuse is common and you feel powerless. To quote from the film "Pump Up The Volume", sometimes being young is less fun than being dead. The reason I'm here is I realized I wasn't the problem and chose to take a baseball bat to certain people rather than do something to myself. I never have regretted my decision.

Try living as an adult with an incurable disease and knowing you are going to die. Do you want to spend your last 6-12 months in a drug induced haze, wasting away and delirious, unable to communicate or think coherently? Or do you accept that life won't get any better and choose to gather your friends and say goodbye, then die quietly and painlessly? If you're going to die, why not die with dignity, not looking like an emaciated and stinking corpse wearing a diaper?

It's not just about life, it's about the _quality_ of life. When there is no quality of life, it becomes existence and suicide starts to look like an option.

If your response is to ask, "Why didn't the jews in the concentration camps kill themselves since their quality of life was so bad?" I would surmise that two factors were involved: peer support and pressure not to, and the fact that jews had been oppressed and murdered by christians for centuries, and had always been taught a survival instinct.

Answer 4

The ironic part of our existence in this world is the laxity of choice once your mother gave birth to you. Perhaps, if you believe your life will just be a waste, I wish a button can be pressed to signal your intention you don't want to come out in this world. The sad part is you can not do that and no matter what is stored for you as a new comer that you will have to face and later decide if you like it or not and it is already too late too little. Commiting suicide is neither a brave, desperate or coward's way out but simply an excuse to end what you hate, your life. If only you were given the right of choices in time, perhaps you will never resort to anything stupid like suicide. Our being humans limited our status to captive victims of circumstances with so many restrictions.

Answer 5

Well, it's certainly not brave but it is desperate. I think of it more as selfish and a coward's way out. Those who commit suicide don't think that others really care about them, so they assume that nobody would care if they died.
Sometimes, suicide might make sense. If the person is going to die soon anyways and they know they're not going to live, it might not be such a bad idea. But overall, suicide is basically a coward's desperate escape in my opinion.

Answer 6

Any true environmentalist would commit suicide.
In some cultures, it is an honorable way to die. In a world that is already overstressed by humans who don't know what they want or how to create cultural communities anymore, suicide is at least a choice that someone makes. Most people go through life as sheep, following whatever the latest fad or quick thrill they can find between the drudgeries of jobs they hate and people they never really connect with. A person committing suicide has at least spent some time thinking about their goals, and making a choice that they actually think will make a difference, instead of waiting for someone else to 'provide' a service that will make them think their life is worthwile in some generic, guilt-laden religious sky-buddy way.

Answer 7

i don't think it's brave nor cowardly but i do think it's a desperate way out of their misery.i think some feel very alone(not just literally alone like they're lonely but also alone in a sense that nobody could relate to their feelings),so committing suicide isn't actually selfish because they feel as if nobody would care if they're gone anyway.i knew someone like this.i never knew that he felt alone and sad until i read his journal:( at first,we thought that he was selfish for leaving us but taking everything into perspective,everyone that knew him realized that it was us,who were selfish,not him.we took his presence for granted.it's true,you don't know what you've got til it's gone.i wouldn't describe suicide as a stupid or wise choice but it is an awakening reality check that impacts everyone that knew the person.rather than dismissing their feelings,which are just as valid as anyone else's,sometimes a lil kindness and compassion is all some people need.i can't say that it's the same for everyone since each situation is different.i'm only speaking from my personal experience.

Answer 8

Neither.

I don't think suicide is 'brave'. It's not exactly heroic. It may be a bit hard to go through with the 'final steps', but if you're that desperate to get out...it might not be so hard.

I also don't think that people who commit suicide are cowards.
Maybe they ARE a bit selfish sometimes. :/

I think that anyone who is interested in suicide should try all options for a more fulfilling life before killing themselves. There are people in this world, like me, who are willing to listen and help and love just about anyone. I think they should try to make peace with everything and everyone they've encountered to minimize anyone else's pain.

If after TRYING they still find no purpose in life and they are ready to go...then hats off to them. It's their life to end.

Answer 9

A cowards way out. Instead of owning up to all of life's problems and attempting to make things better. In today's western civilization, suicide is for the weak (with exceptions).

Answer 10

initially, suicide is a sad act but only for the ones left behind to deal with the loss. My sister in law killed herself a few years ago and she was dead on the floor in her apt. for about 4 days before she was found. Not only did the family have to deal with her loss but also with the harshness of having to identify the decomposing body.
She was a very sad person. there were alot of family incidents that had convinced her that she could not hold on any longer, so she took her life. After I got over the initial loss, i thought about how she must have felt and knowing who she was as a person, I understand why she chose death. I forgive her and hope each day that she has found the peace she so desperately longed for but could not achieve in life.