So if someone is faced with that decision and chooses to live, are they taking the easy way? Live or die are really the only two choices, so unless they are both equally difficult decisions, one of them must be easier than the other. I do see what you're saying though in that it certainly wouldn't be an easy decision. I'm sure people spend years even decades pushing through and trying to convince themselves not to do it before finally succumbing.
LIVING is not a decision. You're already alive. You were never asked to live. That can't be called "a choice." You're alive right now and you must continue living. You did create some situations for yourself that you can solve by living through them and handling each one accordingly and calmly. Deal with the situations and issues you encounter, but not by removing life from yourself. Stop stressing yourself by adding more. Ask for help, but you must be responsible for your own actions.
Keeping yourself alive isn't really a choice... as its mainly an "option" driven by instinct... Suicide is a choice... whether it's facilitated by severe clinical depression, or inhibition liberating drugs... it's still something that's decided upon... There are many cases where people weren't able to follow through in the case of suicide... Often it's due to the survival instinct being too difficult to overcome...
Suicide is a blanket result to many different causes. I agree that the result of sudden suicide is generally similar, like leaving loved ones behind or having them grapple with what-ifs. Try not to think of the reason you think would cause suicide as the only reason. Much like how some people assume depression is a string of bad days that's hard to shrug off, when it could be as tangible as feeling pain all the time or not being able to feel anything at all. To think of it as a simple switch of whether to ignore or not really takes away how complex an individual one can be.
Exactly this. Why do people think there has to be an easy way to an impossibly difficult situation? Have people never faced a situation with only difficult options?
Have you ever even dealt with someone close to you who suffers from depression, or are you just speaking as if you are familiar with the subject? Please don't ever try and give advice to a depressed individual if the opportunity ever arises. The words you just posted would do far more harm than good.
I don't understand it either. But, I don't suffer from the illness that depression is. I don't think you could ever truly understand it unless you suffer from the illness.
No, it's not. ^ No, but it can be overcome. Yes, I have, and she's doing well now because we've helped her deal with it after she "suffered" from it. Yes. What makes you believe I will say the same words? You don't think I know to speak to that person differently? The person I quoted isn't "depressed." I'm not sure what you're exactly calling "simple-minded", but I'd rather be simple-minded and with logic and sense and owning my own responsibilities and answer for my own actions than glorifying things. The whole thread started with saying that depression is not "spiritual"... which is a bit incorrect, by the way... but it's not selfish at all.
They would probably also agree with a lot of other statements like "cancer is not spiritual" or "terrorism is bad" or "the sky is blue". Not sure the relevance of their views on any of these topics.
You do realize that Prozac and other SSRI's have been known to cause suicidal thoughts right? I am not being insensitive to those with depression because I think it is a real thing. However, I do feel that many doctors, without major experience, prescribe happy pills to many people and diagnose them as depressed without exploring other possibilities first. I am all for helping people in need, but to simplify the problem by saying "You are depressed. Here is a pill." The pharmaceutical industry, imo, not only tolerates but promotes such mal-practice. As result, you see more and more people being diagnosed with depression this, disorder that. In truth our knowledge of the human brain is so little, it is silly to automatically make a synthesized compound plan A, B, and C. True clinical depression- Which isn't even everyone who says that they are depressed- should be treated with drugs, but alternatives should also be tried. That way, perhaps some people can be spared the inconveniences of drug dependence and cost.
