Suicide and Demographics

[puglover]

Eran also has a good pint. Women do it to get attention, guys do it to kill themselves. Pure and simple.

I wouldn't generalize like that. It isn't "pure and simple," and if you try to divide people into two gender behaviors, problems arise.

After living like a vegetable for many years (6 if you are curious), the bitter taste of having no goal, no friends, playing with death itself, gaining 40kg (roughly 80lb). I can tell you, life is worth it. Its just a friggin game, every game has to end. Wether you wan't to stay on the bench or play the game 'till the end is up to you. I also learned that you are not alone, there are people out there who you can trust. Few of them, i can give you that, but they do exist.

Life is always better than the alternative. I'll remember what you've posted.

I decided that because of my religious beliefs I couldn't do it. Not that I considered suicide a sin, but as I believed in an afterlife I decided that merely killing myself would not be enouigh to make my problems go away.

There's the thought of afterlife, yes. But there's also the realization that there are ways you can serve people here on Earth, and grow through your problems instead of fleeing from them.

 

[malclave]

Why are you afraid of death?

A few hundred years ago, a member of the Danish royalty was quoted as saying

To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

 

[Narz]

I plan to have good dreams personally. I usually do.

By the way malclave (re : closed thread), I don't hate Christianity but you have to admit Joseph must've been a bit daft to believe the whole immaculate conception story. The OP was particularly bitter and I was just giving an example of an equivalent (though less PC) tasteless joke.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Socrates said that dying meant either going on to a better place, or going to sleep and never waking up. And who is ever glad to wake up?

 

[Arcadian83]

I was surprised to read recently in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder
that:

Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder are at very high risk of death by suicide. Excluding other co-morbid factors (i.e. such factors that add to the risk) patients with BPD have a risk of about 5-10% of death by suicide (about 500 to 1000 times more than the general population). The disorder is often poorly understood by psychiatrists and some psychiatrists simply refuse to accept BPD patients due to their instability (missed appointments, difficulty dealing with them). If a patient with BPD has co-morbid factors of substance abuse (alcohol or other drugs), the risk factor reaches an astounding 58% dying from suicide within five years.

That's a number high enough to make me skeptical, but nonetheless hits close to home, having had some experience with things-Borderline.

Substance abuse is strongly linked with suicide. What kind of link is unclear however. I feel that at the very least it is an enabler, allowing one to carry out an action they would lack the motivation to do otherwise. Prescription drugs have been blamed for having a similar enabling effect, though I believe their benefits still outweigh such risks.