Why do people automatically react so negatively to suicide?

Question

I don't quite understand why people are so bothered by suicide. I personally remember a few cases where the people who killed themselves had lives that were screwed up beyond hope. It was almost as if every day that they lived took them further down and actually reduced the "net value" of their existance. In these cases I actually saw a few people react with relief that the people's miserable existence and turmoil was done with. However, at the same time the majority acted as if a major brain surgeon or Mother Teresa died or something? What is going on here??? Why do most people respond with such revulsion to the concept of suicide? Is this just a North American cultural attitude???

Answer 1

I believe it is do to our evolutionary programing for survival. A suicide of a person, not harming us goes against our survival instinct we have as a humankind.

Answer 2

Most people don't relate to someone who is suicidal. The idea that someone is so far over the edge that they can't pick themselves up is impossible to imagine to the everyday happy go lucky person who will probably only feel a small amount of depression for a fews days at a time at most. Most don't understand the tortured soul of someone who is truly depressed. Feeling depressed for months or years at a time. Seeing their lives get worst and worst as the days go on in total isolation from the world because no one can truly understand their pain. They feel more like it is a selfish decision made because they were too lazy to try. I think in the end though the people that truly know the person will be sad but relieved because they know that person is finally at peace but will still miss them. It is a sad reality for most and so they try to make others think negatively about it hoping it will deter them from trying but none the less its reality and there are many things that are worst so lets not damn people to hell for choosing to make that decision because they're already living in their own little hell and are just looking for a moments peace finally.

Answer 3

We usually think that sb who does not appreciate his life, who doesn't try to solve the problem but just avoids it, leaving alone his relatives, family, etc - is a coward. Well, if we look at it from the world's point of wiev - it is a behaviour of a coward. You just run away... But from eternal point of wiev - it is.. no, no the act of being brave. It is a desperate act. Because those people just go to a place which can be much worse than the world they escape from. But their unhappiness gets them blind, they are really devastated and don't think of what can be after. And I understand it. Feel sometimes like that. And feel also so careless, with thoughts such as "who would cry if I did it? Nobody, obviously!"; well... I'm sure sb would. And I can't do that to them. And to myself. Although probably I can make a small mistake, die suddenly, and have an eternal life not really different fro the life of a self-killer...
Life is so strange....

Answer 4

people have been taught that it's selfish and wrong...they don't look at it from the side of the person who is suicidal. they don't look at it from the perspective of living everyday in a deep dark black depression and nothing you do or nothing anybody says or does can bring you out of it and like you said everyday you get further and further "down" and more miserable. People don't undersand depression and think you should "choose to be happy"..I am so sick of hearing that. People have become so judgemental.. I have to tell you that I just came home from being in the hospital from being suicidal..the staff there treated me like I was inhuman and a nobody..that made me even more suicidal than before I went in..if staff who works with mentally ill people don't understand then I don't expect anyone to understand

Answer 5

People react negatively to suicide for a few reasons. It does depend on the circumstances, but most of the time, suicide victims don't leave reasons for their deaths.
Murder, illness or accidents all have clear cut reasons for the death of the person involved.
Suicide leaves the survivors with an open ended question of why.

Answer 6

Last year I got the news that an old classmate of mine had killed himself. We had lost contact several years ago, but still, it hurt. And what hurt the most, is that he felt that the only way out was to kill himself, and I felt sad for him that he felt that way. And that his friends and family couldn't help him.
It is horrible because of the fact that someone actually has been driven to that point that suicide is the only way to get some peace.

But what upsets me more, is the people who says: "what a coward, taking the easy way out!"
I've been so low myself at times, and I've been there, and it takes a lot of guts, killing yourself. But I can understand why somepeople feels that way, because they feel for the people who are left behind.

Answer 7

Because the act itself torments the ones they leave behind. They will always wonder if there was something more or different they could have done to help them.

Answer 8

Because someone else swallowed all their happy pills!

Answer 9

suicide is murder....of oneself, but still murder.