Is suicide really selfish and if so why???

Question

I think it all depends on the situation. If you have exhausted every other avenue for help with the problems that make you feel that way then go ahead. I know there is lots of help out there but it doesn't always work or help the person.

Suicide being selfish isn't that a bit of an Oxymoron - isn't it selfish to ask someone to do what you want to do, not what they want.

I have suffered from depression for many years now, my wife left me because she couldn't handle my depression, the last of my family disowned me because I suffer from depression and I had to take care of my schizophrenic father because they wouldn't.
I have sought help and been turned down , made a couple of suicide attempts that might have been cries for help but you figure they wouldn't send me home after I swallowed over 150 pills or stuck my feet out of the bushes so I could be found later because I put a plastic bag over my head and waited to suffocate ( I guess i used too big of a bag)so next time i get in a funk i will just do it and not cry for help.

Is it selfish of me for not wanting to take anymore taxpayers dollars because I am on a disability or for the medications supplied, or is that just caring about others.

Answer 1

I don't think you're seeing things clearly, because of your depression. Your view on suicide is your view, but it's not right.
You talk like you have no value - like you are worried about taking taxpayers dollars, like we all feel like we'd rather have you gone and save the money than to help you. That's not true. People want to help you, you are not a 'waste' of money, you are not a problem for others. If you are down, it is what it is, but people want to help you, you are not a burden!
I'm sorry to hear that you have struggled so much with depression. I have been depressed (my big problem is anxiety) and I know what it's like to feel so hopeless. But taking your life is not the way to go. You are here, you are here for a good reason, you have this burden of depression to deal with but don't assume it will always be this bad, or as bad as it's been. Your best days may be ahead of you, and if you take your life you'll lose out on those days. You never know what's coming next.
You only go around once, and then that's it. I mean, I guess it depends on what you believe, but what if this life is it, and then nothingness for all eternity? Don't throw away your opportunity here to LIVE. The world is a big place, if your family are being dinks to you, there are others that can understand and won't abandon you. There are things out there you have yet to discover that might change your life for the better - places, experiences, cultures, people, activities, work. Don't give up. Keep trying.

Answer 2

Get your depression treated, don't be ashamed of it. It's very treatable. We're all screwed up, and it's not easy to work through your problems, but if you stop trying you will fail, that's obvious.

You have the power and ability within you to deal with your issues and make the best of your life. You have some depression, deal with it, face it and don't run from it.

You are generally healthy otherwise? I've only ever thought suicide *might* be okay if one was very ill or didn't want to be a vegetable, but that's another issue.

I think suicide is stupid and possibly selfish. If you aren't enjoying your life, change your life. Make an attempt. Don't count on others to do the work for you, or even medication, though that can help. Your problems are in you, and so are your solutions.

Life can be really sucky, but it's all we got. Ending your life is a mistake. This is your challenge, this is your story. You write it. Don't let others control your story. Find joy in anything you can. Change things about your life until you feel life might mostly suck, but it's still worth living. It ain't all cake and ice cream, but one moment of happiness now and then may be all you find, but they can make a life seem worthwhile.

Get your medication and stop looking to others to fix all your problems for you. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. We all have problems and have to overcome them on a daily basis. Life is tough, it builds character.

Suicide is an empty promise. If there is a life after death, then your disturbed soul will not be cured by killing your body. If there is no life after death, then you HAVE to make the most of THIS life!

Killing yourself is a long-term solution to a short-term problem. You will die soon enough of natural causes or an accident. Try to appreciate your life, even if you feel miserable.

You are free to live and make choices in a wonderful country. Appreciate that and work to change the negative things in your life. If you fail, at least you tried and people will respect that. If you don't try, you and no one else will respect you and it will solve nothing.

Respect the life you've been given and make the most of it.

Hope this helps.

I also found this site which looks at this issue, thought it might be interesting if you can step outside of yourself and all the issues in your life and look at suicide objectively. Not easy to do, but it might help someone else possibly.

http://www.coping.org/control/suicide.htm

Answer 3

If you really want to know the truth, I suggest you and everybody else interested watch the documentary "The Bridge" which is the most brutally honest film ever made about the subject of suicide. John Donne's Biothanatos, which supports the right to suicide, is hard to come by, but worth studying.

Suicide is selfish, and even if you by suicide do in reality escape your suffering and bring YOUR troubles to an end, you cause at the same time considerable suffering for other people. In the long run, its a lose-lose situation. If you fail, you suffer even more than you did before, if you succeed in your death wish, you cause misery for those that love you, and it is a rare person indeed who can say "Nobody on this planet loves me!"

In some circumstances, like incurable debilitating diseases, suicide might be a logical, albeit selfish option, but in most cases it is a cop-out, a selfish, immature and very very stupid act.

I am a suicide attempt survivor. Despair and depression stems from anger. Anger towards self, towards God, towards society, towards school, friends, loved ones, or parents when there's no way to fight back, often becomes turned inward where it turns to despair then depression and litterally will rot your soul, your mind from the inside out.
That is why pills prescribed by shrinks will seldom cure the problem by itself. In fact the condition is like diabetes, it really never gets cured, but becomes a chronic treatable condition which can be survived if one exercizes discipline and will. Despair really saps ones will. The practice of developing the Adamantine Will which I learned from the martial arts and Buddhism I found a better course of treatment than drug therapy.

Answer 4

I'm so sorry for what you've been through, and I deal with depression too and have often thought about suicide as a last resort if nothing positive ever happens in my life in a certain frame of time. I think suicide is very selfish, you're not thinking about how other people are going to feel afterwards.

But sometimes i think, they aren't the ones suffering, so it's almost like they are being the selfish ones for wanting to keep me alive just for them, when i should be living for ME.

I truly hope you don't do it. You just have to hang on and things will get better, you'll probably be glad to still be alive. Remember, suicide is a permenant solution to a temporary problem.

Answer 5

Keira D has put it so splendidly that all I can add is that you should try other avenues to obtain help. All cannot have been exhausted. There are always options! In everything!

Whether you are a praying person or not, I will pray for your healing and that you will get the right person(s) to assist you where you require help.

My father used to have a ceramic shield on which was written "Never give up!" Don't!

Answer 6

I am disabled my self. Afew years ago, because my family abandoned me, I thought of killing myself. Someone I know did it, and through his death, I started questioning my own life and death. I'm not saying the past 2 years since I decided to live were easy( I have 2 "new" medical problems, and may be facing surgery) but, for the first time in my life, I am getting my own apartment(I have been living in a group home the past year, and the past 3 years before that, the street). I believe that things will eventually work out as they should, you just have to keep trying, and don't let anyone try to make you kill yourself

Answer 7

If you're suffering from a TERMINAL illness and are moribund then taking your life isn't selfish. Quite to the contrary. However, if you're suffering from a treatable illness such as depression, taking one's life only hurts the people you love most and therefore is very selfish.

Answer 8

im like an advocator of free-will so it's really ur own decision. if u dont feel like living, well it's ur own choice. i dont think u shld continue living jus cos of others, u shld continue living BECAUSE YOU WANT. there's really much more to life than it seems at the moment. YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN TO SOCIETY as you feel you are.

see, look around you. there are so many people who care enough to answer your question and give a proper one at that. you are not alone, you are not unwanted, there are people who care about you just that you push them away.

GOOD LUCK and stand strong again. =)

Answer 9

Hi. I am not qualified to help you, but from a survivors stand point (loss of a relative, loss of a friend) I can say that the pain is not felt by the dead but by the living.

Answer 10

I geuss it CAN be. Depends on why you want to do it.